Rayscaper for Mac – Beta testers wanted

pixelcruncher

Hi all,

Rayscaper finally runs on the Mac! Photorealistic renders, live in SketchUp, on Apple Silicon GPUs. Before the release, I'm looking for Mac users to try the beta and help me find what still doesn't work.

Rayscaper for Mac beta

Download and install instructions: https://www.rayscaper.com/mac-beta/

What you need

A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or newer). Intel Macs aren't supported.
macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
SketchUp 2025 or 2026.

Install it with the Extension Manager
In SketchUp, choose Extensions > Extension Manager, click Install Extension and select the downloaded .rbz. Please don't unzip it and copy it into the Plugins folder yourself: the beta isn't notarized by Apple yet, and macOS blocks it when installed that way. The release will be notarized.

The first render takes a few minutes longer, while Rayscaper prepares the GPU of your Mac ("Preparing the GPU" in the status bar). That only happens once.

Feedback
Post anything that doesn't work, looks wrong or could be better in this thread, or email help@rayscaper.com. For a problem, please attach the logs (Extensions > Rayscaper > Export Logs for Support) and mention your Mac model, macOS version and SketchUp version.

Thanks for testing!
Thomas

pixelcruncher

A new Mac beta is up: Rayscaper 0.9.102. Same link as before: https://www.rayscaper.com/mac-beta/

What's new since the first beta:

Support for SketchUp 2027, next to 2025 and 2026.
Fixed a crash when quitting SketchUp 2027.
Fixed an error when stopping the render.
Fixed Start Render and saving right after installing Rayscaper from the Extension Manager: before, the model didn't save its Rayscaper settings until you restarted SketchUp.

If you installed an earlier beta: install this one over it from the Extension Manager, then restart SketchUp.

Still looking for Mac users to try it, any feedback is welcome!

Cheers, Thomas

pixelcruncher

Hey folks,

A new Mac beta is up: Rayscaper 0.9.104. Get it here: Rayscaper for Mac

It brings the Mac up to date with the latest Windows release. What's new since 0.9.103:

Light presets with real brightness: bulbs, downlights, an LED panel, a window, the sun and more. You set a light's intensity in lumen, cd/m² or lux, and a new light starts as a real one, like a 60 W bulb.
Lights are easier to place and aim: while a light is selected, SketchUp shows the cone of a spotlight, the radius of a point light and the spread of an area light. The new Aim Light tool turns a light towards the point you click, and right-clicking a light gives a Rayscaper submenu: Edit in Rayscaper, Turn Off/On, Aim and Change Type.
More light controls: change the size of an area light in Rayscaper's light editor, and copies of a light in SketchUp keep its settings.
Material ID and Object ID render methods, and render passes (Material ID, Albedo, AO, ...) in File > Render Scenes...
Translucency in the Standard material, for curtains, lampshades and leaves lit from behind. Thin glass modelled as a single face now reflects too.
Fixes: hidden nested tag folders stay hidden when their parent folder is made visible, plus fixes for crashes when removing lights, groups and components while rendering, and a notification instead of a crash when the GPU runs out of memory on a very large render.

If you installed an earlier beta: install this one over it, then restart SketchUp.

Thanks to everyone testing, keep the feedback coming!

Cheers,
Thomas