Tip: Fix for Redshift not using GPU

[MarcelP102]

As discussed yesterday at the virtual open house I wasn't able to get Redshift using the RTX3070 GPU of our new notebooks. I managed to fix it by:

 

1. Installing the 'STUDIO DRIVER' instead of the 'GAME READY DRIVER' 

 

2. Enabling GPU acceleration with windows 10:

 

3. Add vectorworks.exe and cineware.exe in nvidia configurationpanel to use the nvidia GPU

 

Succes

 

Hope it helps others

[Anthony Neary]

Going to give this a try, thanks for info on the Studio Drivers.

[Giacomo Devoto]

In my case what solved the issue was creating a new renderworks style resource from scratch instead of using the default one.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Giacomo Devoto

[Anthony Neary]

This might be reviving a bit of an old thread at this point, when running a Redshift render with Denoise as on is it expected that the denoise phase should run on the CPU?  Right now that phase runs on the CPU for me, not the GPU.  I am not seeing the Cinema 4d process in my process list, but in the Nvidia settings VW lists as Maxon Cinema 4d, so I suspect everything is configured correctly there.

[Anthony Neary]

I am going to put this here in case others are looking in the future.  On my Windows 11 machine, it looks like Windows has taken over assigning programs to the graphics card, so I had to go in to System > Display Settings > Graphics, and in there list Vectorworks to only use the GPU via the windows dialogue box.  Things seem to be behaving better now.

 

Making those selections/decisions inside the Nvidia control panel were having no effect.

Edited July 26, 2023 by Anthony Neary

[Martin Pautzenberger]

Hello!

 

 

Having the same problem here...even with Redshift Styles, VW ist not using the GPU (NVIDIA RTX 4070 Ti Super). Also tried the two hints above: 1 setting up VW in Windows Graphic settings; 2 setting up VW in the Nvidia system control app...

Unfortunately nothing works!

 

Any help available?!

[Robbie McC]

Hello, 

 

I am also having this issue. I have recently updated to 50 series card and I have found that redshift renderworks styles are not using my GPU. I have followed half of the steps above but couldn’t find Cineware.exe anywhere on my windows download of VWX 2025.

 

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

Cheers! 

[gtwose]

Hello,

After days of building a new computer for Training and Inference and other many purposes, I decided to move VW 2025 Spotlight development also to this new machine, as Renderworks task on 7 a years old PC is a waste of effective time.

The new build holds a Trhreadripper 9960x (24 Cores & 48 Threads) over an ASUS WS TRX50 motherboard with 128GB quad channel ECC RAM, RTX5090 32GB as GPU and 2 Samsung 9100 SSD (System container + Projects container)

After several tests over diferent drawings, Renderwork times takes slightly less time than before (60/62 minuts to 53-55 minuts).

By the other hand, I've been trying to do some Redshift render (I was unable to do so before due to old AMD GPU).

After reviewing the setting (not to much to do on VW over Redshift setup), windows assignment for GPU, acceleration and other CUDA settings (Studio drivers, CUDA install, shared memory...) I've been unable to do any single Redshift render, as CPU takes always the job.

I've been trying to render on design window and also on viewport from camera. I try with pre-defined Redshift configuration and with full custom Renderworks style,  but in all cases failed to start a single Redshift render.

Can anyone give me some hints on how to Redshift should be configured in order to do renders?

Many thanks in advance for the support.
 

[VIRTUALENVIRONS]

The documentation on Redshift (RS) in Vectorworks is somewhat cursory.   Being a CINEMA 4D user it made things easier to figure out.  I used my Corvette model as a reference, as I rendered it in C4D RS.  The results were better in C4D, but there are factors.

 

One factor is C4D has more options for everything.  Also, it appears RS in C4D prefers "Redshift Textures".  That alone will be a significant factor in the two programs.

 

Having said that, the result below was quite satisfactory for a CAD program, but to get certain effects with RS, some thinking out of the box is required.  For example, the grill is a glass texture.

 

The Model - As the Corvette was modelled in Vectorworks, I think that will also produce better results.

 

Style settings - I started with Redshift Interior, then modified the settings to use two different HDRI images to get this rendering.

 

Below this image is the C4D image for comparison.

 

 

 

 

 

[BartH]

@VIRTUALENVIRONS not what the latest post was asking.

 

First, I would always render Redshift in a Sheet Layer Viewport. 

I have a 4K monitor, so Design Layer Viewports will try to render at the full screen resolution of your working window.

With my puny RTX 3070 I often get a black screen with very tiny red letters that say "out of Memory..." when I render to a Design Layer Viewport.

 

Keep your sheet layer DPI to something like 72 until you have some good preliminary renderings, then crank it up to 200.

 

Can you post a simple test file? 

 

One thing I would check is that "use emitter" is unchecked on your lights? Redshift doesn't support that function. IES lights are supported.

I am not a Spotlight User, but I wonder if that could be the hiccup?

 

Bart
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[gtwose]

Hi BartH,

 

Many thanks for your answer (and your time).

 

I almost always use GDTF or IES, but my problem comes much earlier than drawing or rendering. As soon as I try to create a new Renderworks Style using Redshift as the render engine, Vectorworks displays a message informing me that my PC does not support Redshift and will use Realistic render style instead. Anyway, I accepted the render mode and obviously it fails on Viewport render and it uses Realistic on CPU.

 

 

I've heavily invested in a new machine because my 7-year-old machine, for the most part, was unable to cover Redshift requirements and I need to deliver about 4-6 high-quality show renders every day.

 

It took me 2 months to decide every single piece of hardware for this new machine. I've been carefully reviewing every component to be fully compatible between all hardware pieces and also very focused on meeting all the latest Vectorworks requirements that are published on their website (also other higher requirements for other tasks not time-coincident with Vectorworks). I've been installing a multi-boot OS system to fully isolate my Vectorworks installation on a new, fresh and (supposed) issue-free machine.

 

As you can imagine, these results, when investing so much money and time, make me feel really stupid so, three months ago I decided to contact my local Vectorworks provider asking for help.

 

I've sent them all kinds of logs, example files, screen captures, hwinfo export files, and extended documentation with my hardware specs, drivers list (nvidia included), Windows configuration status and every single piece of information that they were asking for. They told me that this information would be sent directly to VW Engineering team and they would study my case.

 

After almost 2 months waiting for an answer (they had to study all the provided information, and trust me, it was a lot) my local provider sent me the answer → Engineers said: "Please, check Studio Driver is installed instead of Game Ready Driver. Also check GPU acceleration is active on Windows Settings. Restart your computer."

 

If they had read the info, they should have seen my config with Studio Driver and HW acceleration on the first page. You don't know how frustrating it is to get this answer from VW after 2 months of "case study".

 

And here I am. In the same spot as two months ago. Finding my own comment on Google when looking for some bit of extra information from a good samaritan.

Thanks.

[BartH]

Hey gtwose,

 

Sorry to hear of your ongoing troubles.

From your system specs (Win 11?, AMD Threadripper 9960x, and an RTX 5090 GPU), everything should be automatic to get Redshift running in VW. 

Sorry if this sounds redundant but here is what I would try:

-double check the Windows settings to make sure "hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling " is on.

-under Settings>Display>Graphics>Custom Setting for applications, make sure you are not defaulting to the integrated graphics on you r CPU

 

-in VW Preferences>Display: make sure Use GDI+ imaging and Accelerate Graphics is ticked

 

If all of that looks good, purge your Preferences folder (let us know if you need instructions) and restart VW

Last resort: remove and reinstall VW.

 

I don't know enough about dual-boot systems to know if that could be causing a conflict, but it seems unlikely.

My best guess, without closely examining your system, is that the VW installation of Redshift isn't registering the correct GPU and is looking for a GPU integrated into the CPU, but that Threadripper 9960x does not have an integrated GPU. (My system doesn't have an integrated GPU either, so it shouldn't matter) For some reason, Redshift isn't seeing your RTX 5090.

 

try the above steps (again, if you have already tried them a dozen times) and let us know if you have any progress. 

 

Bart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Donley]

Hello @gtwose you might try running Cinebench to make sure Cineware thinks this system is OK.  Maybe it will show an alert with more info.
 

https://www.maxon.net/en/cinebench?srsltid=AfmBOopaC0p6BLNAff3YCqf7WQrhKpn10QIBBMP3LYr5m8NWwF2iyxfO

 

[gtwose]

Hi Dave and BartH,
 

Thanks for your comments.

I've been trying Dave's solution with Cinebench on the machine, but unfortunately the latest Cinebench version is not yet compatible with the RTX 5090, so I wasn't able to test it.

Regarding BartH's solutions, I've already double-checked the Windows settings to ensure "hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling" is on, and under Settings > Display > Graphics > Custom Settings for applications, I've set it to the RTX GPU.
I've purged the preference folder and completed two different clean installations of VW (until the license message pops up indicating no more activations can be done) on a clean and updated Windows 11 Pro (just in case dual boot was causing any issues) with all the updated NVIDIA software and drivers.
None of these actions have made Redshift work—it continues showing the persistent message "Redshift is not supported on this machine."

I hope the new VW 2026 version will make me laugh about the huge amount of time invested for nothing over the last four months.

 

[BartH]

I wonder if this is current: 

https://support.maxon.net/hc/en-us/articles/18782780285852-Redshift-Doesn-t-Recognize-my-5000-series-GPU-Experimental-Support-for-NVIDIA-Blackwell-GPUs

 

@Dave DonleyWhat version of Redshift is in VW 2025 and VW 2026??