No, but they will be more than happy to parade Unity around on stage and I’m sure Unity would love that as well. LOL.
Besides UE5 is not ready at the moment for native AS support. Games cooked on the engine run fine though. It’s the editor thats the issue.
Now a Mac vs PC debate can actually mean something again.
In late 20010 Apple presented Modo for showing their speed improvements
of Mac Pro upgrades. Later Cinema (?) and a bit Maya (?) until they avoided
3D in general. Mostly Final Cut and 2D only.
Now they may come with Blender as a 3D App example again.
For me that means a lot.
(Although I still have still not seen any suitable 3D or real multi purpose
“Pro” Hardware from Apple, since 2012 - and may not see until later next
year. But at least there are confirmations since Big Sur that fit my direction)
Hope there will be one day a serious 5-6 k Pro Hardware that will last again
8+ years. And not only because of lack of noticeable faster upgrade options …
I don’t think that is possible and desirable.
We are going in a fast hardware change from memory and how it is managed, to CPU with a diversity of cores and many more cores being added in future accumulating even more work with GPU , SSD evolution, internal and external interfaces, +1000 nits and HDR monitors with corresponding GPU capability. And more we don’t know.
The bottleneck continues to be increasingly the sad state of software development.
I think we’re moving away from workstations in general, and I think the pandemic has actually accelerated that idea. It really doesn’t make much sense anyway. We all build massively powerful machines that sit idle most of the time.
Dumb terminals and cloud computing make much more sense cost wise and for the environment. I knew it when Larry Ellison talked about it almost 30 years ago, and my only surprise is that we are still not there yet.
For my professional/artistic needs I’ll take local computing power over a dumb terminal any day.
Monday is nearing guys. 
My Apple Event anticipation hasn’t been this high in years.
I prefer to have my Files on my local drives.
M1 was more capable than we all expected but it is a low end machine.
My projects do not fit in its shared Memory.
This worked with the Trash Can OK, but that was no more like my MP 2.1
cheese grater, which was the fastest available workstation for over half
a year, at reasonable prices, comparable to PC world or even cheaper.
The iMac Pro was also an expensive mediocre workaround and finally the
newest Mac Pro a mediocre powered, maybe first “Pro” device again, but
for ridiculous prices and questionable component selection.
If I will finally get the performance and capability that I need in a Mac Mini-Midi,
iMac, Mac Pro or even 32" iPad - I don’t care.
I don’t even moan about the need to have half of my Workstation stuff outside
of the case now, which was just included inside my cheese grater before.
But I hope for fair and compareable prices again.
I always enjoyed that idling power also when just surfing the web or emailing.
If it saves the energy when idling, it is OK for me.
If the rumors are true and the MBPs come with up to 64 GB and
32 GPU cores, I could easily work on these - for now.
But first I basically prefer desktops over mobiles and second I
would like to be able to fit my projects in 3 years also.
So I would rather wait another 6 months to get something with
some more reserves for the future.
From my point of view you are completely wrong. For me the fast machine is essential for my work, to make it sense. I can’t imagine to work in the cloud, to decide if it is worth to fire up Cycles or send some preview jobs for rendering. It is absurd. The fast local machine helps me also to hide lack of my skills and my laziness.
In a way I am working daily using dumb terminal (MacBook Air) connected to ‘cloud’ remote Cycles machine (multi-GPU PC junk) and although it is possible to work on it I still miss having just one Mac to do everything on.
Strictly speaking I’ve used two or three Macs remotely before, but work was definitely smoother these days. What has also changed since then, for example, is that I no longer have to transfer Apple Motion projects to another computer for rendering. These now renders in the background when I work on another project (Gods bless you Apple for Motion Metal version!).
Another thing is that I sometimes envy people who only need a MacBook or iPad to be happy. Workstation is definitely complicated and expensive thing.
Cloud with GPUs is also ridiculously expensive compared to one time purchase machines. It’s not a big deal if infrastructure is a tiny blip of your budget but your business has to be of a certain scale before it makes any sense.
I think the problem is that you’re looking at it in terms of “today” and not what it will be in a few years when it’s actually fully realized. You (all) are assuming that by then, you will be able to distinguish the experience of working locally vs. the cloud, but the entire point is that you won’t be able to. The experience will be indistinguishable.
We are almost already there. I have friends who are editing remotely who tell me that they can’t tell the difference between working in Premiere on their local computer, or remotely on some machine in a server room somewhere.
I think the biggest problem most people have with cloud/subscription based services is that there’s no sense of ownership. You’re leasing all your tools and equipment on a temporary basis. It’s primarily a psychological concern.
…of which I’m somewhat guilty of. I’d feel a lot more comfortable with it if I had the option to choose between either/or. I don’t want to have no other choice but to buy a dummy internet terminal to access someone else’s computer. I’d rather have it so that I can buy a nice $2000 computer that can handle almost all of my tasks on site, and if I ever find myself needing $20,000+ worth of computing power, I can rent it through the cloud.
Yeah, I get it. But I think those concerns will fade as adoption increases. For all the complaining about Adobe going subscription-only (and now Substance), it appears to have been a huge success for them. I have often maintained that the primary complaint isn’t the issue of ownership, but rather cost.
In two days Apple will release new machines that will be arguably very impressive and compellingly capable (hopefully), but which will also cost several thousand dollars. I am not thinking for a second that the new Mac Book Pro, or the rumors Mac Mini Pro won’t start at at least $2k and go up from there…and by the time we build it up to spec (at least 32Gb of RAM, at least 512Gb storage, more powerful GPU option) that cost will be closer to $3k, if not well over it.
That’s a lot of money for the privilege of that ownership.
Now imagine that you could have access to 1000X more computing power, while your user-experience would be effectively identical to working on a local machine, all the while paying about $15/month. I tend to think that we could all adjust ourselves to that!
The resilence exists by distributed power not by being dependent.
Wait when something serious occurs and submarine cables are cut.
Primary problem is ownership. But what is a problem is not necessarely coincident with complaints. Most people complain at tactical level not at strategic level if i can use military concepts.
It should be noted there are many applications that can read PSD files and learning Photoshop is not as difficult/particular as learning a 3D app so you can move much easier to an option.
That really depends. During the pandemic a lot of companies who work in content creation needed to finish their projects. They were/are using tools like Parsec connected to their office workstations. I agree with @Midphase that the pandemic has accelerated the time table for remote work considerably. I expect that we will see more and more houses move to remote work and server farms as opposed to individual workstations. The call for content has only increased, not being able to work on that content because you don’t have access to your uber powerful rig at work is no longer an option.
I was going to write up a response to this, but then I started thinking of the exceptions to my points, the ways subscriptions are most cost effective than licenses, especially considering the ever evolving nature of computers and software.
In the end, I think it comes down to one simple thing: personal preference. I don’t have some deep seated loathing for software as a service. I’ve subscribed to plenty of pieces of software over the last few years. I just simply like buying my software more. It feels more permanent. Gives me more of the warm fuzzies.
The most important thing is that we insist upon having the choice between the two models. This is especially true of hardware as a service, which not only requires you to have a constant internet connection to access, but also requires the person on the other end providing the hardware to maintain their service to keep allowing you to do your daily computing tasks.
Ownership when it comes to software is an illusion. We are all just licensing code, and are all at the mercy of the developer whether we want to admit it or not. I bought C4D R15, and Adobe Production Suite CS5…who cares now? Neither of these work on the OS that I need to run for all my other apps, and they are certainly never going to be optimized for ARM. I bought Redshift back in the day, as well as two maintenance upgrades ($1000 if you’re doing the math) – totally useless now as it no longer works with the Houdini version that I need to use. I own the Substance Suite, and although it still works fine on my Intel Hackintosh, with each new update it becomes more and more obsolete. It’s just a matter of time before I give in and need to sign up for their subscription.
Trust me, if the entire Adobe Creative Cloud was $9.99/month…nobody would have complained!