problem downloading mac luxrender

[B.Y.O.B.]

The source code is here: https://bitbucket.org/luxrender/
The src.luxrender.net link is long outdated (bitbucket switched off the custom domain service I think).

[RedClaw]

The source code is here: https://bitbucket.org/luxrender/
The src.luxrender.net link is long outdated (bitbucket switched off the custom domain service I think).

The links located on http://www.luxrender.net/en_GB/standalone#osx should be updated then.
"The following downloads include the LuxRender engine but not all available exporter plugins. To export scenes to LuxRender you might need to download and install the plugin for your application separately.
You can also access source code and download weekly testing builds in the forum."

[junebug12851]

Yea this is a nightmare

I've never used Lux before but have been wanting to break out of Cycles and get to know some other engines and I've heard a lot of great things about Lux and seen some amazing renders. I'm on the latest Mac OSX.

Can't download the installer from the site, looked all over for CDN networks, mirror sites, or even torrents that might provide an alternative download location but found nothing. From what I can gather the developers build a single copy manually on one of their computers, upload it to one location, then delete the builds off their computer. No usage of CI like Jenkins, no CDN networks, no torrents, no mirrors, nothing and it seems a good while back the 1 and only copy got deleted and has since never been replaced.

So then I try to just go to source and build from scratch, it's a complex maze of like 25 or so repositories on bitbucket so I looked for and found instructions for Mac from about 2013 but a lot of it is outdated and some vague abstract link to a file I'm suppose to copy somewhere to XCode is broken so I never got very far in those instructions. I also read somewhere else that XCode uses C++11 and that I have to make adjustments for that but I have no idea on Earth what those adjustments would be and feel like I'm getting too deep into this for just trying to install it for a test run.

So then I checkout homebrew hoping that some person is having the same issues I'm having and built some miracle script that would download the source and know how to build everything and produce the end result but alas there is none.

So then I decided to give in and try looking for alternate builds like older builds or release candidates but to no avail, either no links or links broken.

I then decided to look into the Weekly builds, not my favorite place for a test run since I'm looking for stability and possible integration into my workflow but found no mac builds there or perhaps I was looking into the wrong places.

I honestly mean no offense because the renders I see are really great and I really want to use LuxRender - preferably the latest stable release but I'm getting 2 vibes here. When listening to the Lux Community I hear that Lux is a large thriving Community that has an engine far more optimized and stable than Cycles and just great for professional work and that the community is only growing and engine only evolving further to be even better. But when I visit the site I get a vibe that it's old, abandoned, broken and no longer maintained using development standards decades old with poor release cycle, poorly updated site, poorly updated announcements and all activity of any kind just appears to be years and years old - just total opposite from what I'm hearing from the community.

I think the community is still very much there, I just think the online platform and site needs a complete overhaul such as a modern HTML5 site, Build System like Jenkins if possible, Mirrors even if it's on the repo like BitBucket Downloads or one of many free mirrors, Official Torrents would tremendously benefit, Hash sums to verify files.

But can anyone at least attach the Mac DMG Installer to a reply on this thread.

Thanks and sorry for long post.

[B.Y.O.B.]

Please take a look at the reboot: viewtopic.php?f=12&t=13485
The main problem is that we are like 3 developers + some people who help from time to time.
The luxrender.net site, forum, wiki etc. are indeed outdated and abandoned.
We have moved to a new website, forum, wiki and the code is now on github.
So far this was done mostly undercover to be able to follow the bug reports and feature requests, but we plan to go more and more public in the coming weeks.

We know that the current state with broken links, missing downloads etc. is bad, but we are a very small team, to some services on here we don't even have access anymore etc. so please bear with it a bit longer.
About macOS, there were some efforts in the reboot process but so far we don't have regular builds on macOS. It needs people who are dedicated to it.

Thanks for your interest and kind words.

[junebug12851]

I understand and it's good to see such a fast response. I feel a reboot is really the best path just based on what I've seen from an outside perspective so it's really good to see the developers also agree and have been making progress on this. I also feel that if you bring in a new polished look and front that it may attract new developers who can work more full-time on it or at least more contributors in general.

I would help where I can but I'm totally new to the project and I'm afraid I'll be another one of the people that stop by to help from time to time because I have so little time. Depending on how complex and error prone compiling on mac is, if its something a bit streamlined like clone this repository and run this script then I can setup an automated task to do this in the background when my computer is on and have it auto-upload the build somewhere for everyone to use when new changes are pushed, like it could hand it off automatically to github or a cloud CI. But if it requires significant code changes and stuff I honestly wouldn't even know where to begin and may not have time to get caught up to speed on all that.

I am interested in contributing though or helping out where I can when I have some free time if it helps any, I do own a mac and totally get how closed off and expensive these things are so I may be able to help some. Just let me know and good luck ~_^