Carkey posted at 1:15 AM Fri, 14 March 2025 - #4494251

Apple first **introduced Metal** at **WWDC 2014** as a high-performance graphics API for iOS 8. It was later expanded to **macOS** in **2017** with the release of **macOS High Sierra (10.13)**.

Apple then **deprecated OpenGL and OpenCL** at **WWDC 2018** with the release of **macOS Mojave (10.14)**, officially encouraging developers to transition to **Metal**. While OpenGL is still available on macOS, it no longer receives updates or optimizations.

Although I've just discovered that Poser is an extremely useful addition to my new 3DCoat/Unity workflow and a less expensive alternative with a shorter learning curve than MotionBuilder, Cascadeur, Daz Studio Premier or anything else with a unique focus for animation on macOS (excluding popular 3D modeling software's that offer an A-Z experience like Blender, Cheetah3D, Cinema4D or Houdini just to name a few of course) it kinda saddens me that Poser macOS Metal development was interrupted plausibly by new ownership transitions during over the years OpenGL was fazed out by Apple.  

I assumed that much about Poser Mac because over that same transition timeframe Cheetah3D's solo developer just recently accomplished his ground-up translation build from OpenGL to Metal on Intel(AMD) & Apple Silicon Macs but he had to make the tough decision to drop Intel(Nvidia) Mac support as of version 8, so is "Apple moving away from supporting graphic applications?" I highly doubt it given the fact that they've spent years in development of Metal that's actively used across literally every device they're currently shipping in the market.  It simply appears that some 3D app developers were able to catch the wave during Apple's transition from Intel to Apple Silicon while others could not dedicate development resources even though there's plenty of knowledge and translation layers available to port their software.  We're also witnessing this affect in the Game Dev market currently whereas developers are committing their entire teams towards the larger than Mac, Windows gaming platform although there is a very visible and growing market for Macs due to its even larger iOS market share that relies upon Apple Metal.  Only now are developers of iOS (a.k.a. iPhoneOS, iPadOS, VisionOS) games and 3D apps are catching on to the fact that there's a sleeping beast on the market of users on macOS that's easier to port to from their iOS development than Windows and the secret sauce to that is developers are starting to take notice that the software they've fully optimized to run on Apple Silicon Macs actually out perform their Direct3D Windows counterparts in most cases and they're just getting started.  I don't blame Poser developers at all for not overcoming their challenges in transitioning from OpenGL to Apple Metal but it does give me pause that leadership clearly lost their vision and understanding of the future macOS market.  I just feel their decision to dismiss further Poser macOS development is leaving money on the table IMHO.  That said I started with Poser2 - Poser?? for Graphics Design (can't recall the previous version but it was a couple of years after my Beige G3 PowerMac was discontinued) then rediscovered it again recently to fill an animation niche between 3DCoat and Unity workflow pipeline.  I don't regret my purchase of Poser 13 given the fact that Bondware leadership got me with their bait and switch future roadmap support marketing tactics.

Keeping standards is the best way to avoid potential dead-ends, even for Apple.
I mean:
- IBM tried to trick their customers with their PS/2 series: dead,
- They also tried before that to evade from Microsoft with OS/2 (very far better than Microsoft's solution): dead
- Intel tried to trick their customers with a specific series of processor: dead.

Those two are huge companies, with a huge stack of money and numerous resources, no-go.
Apple already lost many customers when they took their own way, by rejecting everything nvidia-related (they had a speciific video card at the time).
I've read last year that many designers are even turning towards Windows.

Whatever the reasons of such decisions, the pitfall and the loss is always for the customer, because a computer without interesting programs is a no-go, and program editors don't always have the time, money, resource and patience to follow whatever "teenage crisis" of computer manufacturers, even if they label it "welcome to our future".

The very best example is: Linux. By far a more stable OS, compared to any other, even better than any Apple's OSes simply because it remains opened.
Why is it not more developped? no real standard (how many distibutions, with how many incompatible desks?)
That keeps which keep many program editors away, thus keeping customer away.
Blender is not a real example in that it has another financing model (<- not sure of the term but you get the idea)

Give me a natively running Poser able to efficiently chit-chat with my 4070 and I definitely throw way Win11, Win12, Win13...Win99, Microsoft and their brain-damaged world. And a good start could be a Debian-based solution, one of the very best, most stable solutions for desktops. (No affilations, just some experience in command-line chit-chat with Ubuntu and Python-based Odoo).

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👿 Win11 on i9-13900K@5GHz, 64GB, RoG Strix B760F Gaming, Asus Tuf Gaming RTX 4070 OC Edition, 1+2 TB SSD's, 6+4TB HD
👿 Mac Mini M2, Tahoe 26.5, 16GB, 500GB SSD
👿 Nas 10TB
👿 Poser 13 and 14 ❤️

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