Eevee - no volume density textures when using Vega 64 external gpu on macOS Mojave #65873

System Information
Operating system: Darwin-18.6.0-x86_64-i386-64bit 64 Bits
Graphics card: AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 OpenGL Engine ATI Technologies Inc. 4.1 ATI-2.9.26

Blender Version
Broken: version: 2.80 (sub 74), branch: blender2.7, commit date: 2019-06-16 23:08, hash: 12da679fa0
Worked: Was working briefly with some builds in March 2019.

Short description of error
MacOS Mojave external GPU fails to render volumetric on Eevee if there is a density texture. Internal GPU works fine.

Exact steps for others to reproduce the error
Using external Vega 64:
On default cube, add principled volume shader to volume material output: volume looks correct.
Plug noise texture node into density input of principled volume shader: volume disappears.
Using internal Radeon 560x:
Exact same steps gives properly textured volume.

[Based on the default startup or an attached .blend file (as simple as possible)]

Added subscriber: @winnertakesteve-1

#87176 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#88329 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#91722 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#83061 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#82505 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#76662 was marked as duplicate of this issue

#66508 was marked as duplicate of this issue

Added subscriber: @fclem

Changed status from 'Confirmed' to: 'Resolved'

Is this still happening? I remember fixing similar issues. Closing for now. Please comment if it is still happening with latest beta version.

the issue has persisted for me this entire time.

on the latest macos, works with internal amd 560x, and fails fails with vega64 egpu (but works with vega64 under windows). attached is a screen recording of me replicating issue with recent 2.82 build, and i have the identical result with a 2.83 build as well.
vega64_volumetrics.mov

also, i don't know if this will be helpful in tracking down the bug, but smoke sims plugged into the volume density do work on the vega 64, so i don't know if there are any obvious differences in how texture data is handled via the volume info node vs other textures.

Changed status from 'Resolved' to: 'Confirmed'

@winnertakesteve-1 Ok so it's only a problem of procedural textures. Can you try with a plugged texture coordinate in the noise texture?

Oh hey! I gave that a try, and while none of the Texture Coordinate node outputs (Generated/Object/UV/etc) worked, on a lark I tried using the Geometry Node outputs, and those DO work!

@winnertakesteve-1 can you test if just plugging the texture coordinates outputs to the color input of the principle volume node works?

In #65873#866240, @fclem wrote:
@winnertakesteve-1 can you test if just plugging the texture coordinates outputs to the color input of the principle volume node works?

all texture coordinate node outputs into the colour input of the volume node causes the volume to disappear. doing the same with geometry node outputs (except tangent, which also makes volume disappear) produces a coloured volume result.

also don't know if its helpful, but i tried adding a math node that added value to the problematic outputs to see if they were coming in as '0', but it made no difference, so i'm assuming those outputs are reporting Null or throwing errors?

Added subscribers: @Xraller, @mano-wii, @EAW, @JacquesLucke, @billwurtz, @StephenSwaney, @C60, @robbott, @The_Crespo, @brecht

@winnertakesteve-1 Do you get the same behavior if you plug the texture coord/geometry node straight to the material output's volume socket?

In #65873#866935, @fclem wrote:
@winnertakesteve-1 Do you get the same behavior if you plug the texture coord/geometry node straight to the material output's volume socket?

yeah i get similar behaviour, geometry node outputs give a result, texture coordinate outputs make volume disappear.

Added subscriber: @RobN

I can confirm this behavior with OSX 10.14.6
2018 Macbook Pro
Radeon Pro Vega 20 4 GB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB

Blender Version 2.83 (2.83 2020-03-09)

Attached is a very simple blend that shows the problem

Rob{F8403637}

I'm still getting this too with OSX 10.15.3
2019 Macbook Pro
Radeon Pro Vega 20 4Gb

Blender Version 2.83 (2.83 2020-03-20)

Geometry Nodes work and Texture Nodes don't with EEVEE. Cycles works fine.

Is there any other information that might be handy for a developer?
Would be nice to get this fixed in the next release since I think it effects most high-end mac's going forward?
If someone was going to start looking through the code where would they start?
source->blender->draw->engines->eevee-> or source->blender->gpu-> or is there a good functional chart.

Has anyone found a workaround?

Added subscriber: @MDS

Added subscriber: @scottmckay

I'm running Blender on a 2018 Macbook Pro with a Radeon Pro 560X internal GPU & Radeon VII eGPU with this problem.

Volumetrics behave more or less as expected in eevee with the internal 560X, but are almost entirely crippled to nothing on the Radeon VII. Cycles works fine, except that I'm limited to CPU-only on my machine.

On the Radeon VII, volumetrics won't show up at all when using the Texture Coordinate node, and things get very strange when trying to procedurally manipulate volumes using noise or gradient textures with the Object Info or Geometry node to drive vector. This reduces everything to a primitive state where I can't seem to reliably shape the volume density very far past anything other than a cube without things falling apart.

Any progress on this over the last few weeks? Anyone have any suggestions?

EDIT: I just tested these in 2.80, 2.81, 2.81a, 2.82, 2.82a, 2.83, & 2.90 and all of these versions exhibit the issue.

Added subscriber: @mvipe

I have sumbled across the same issue on MacOS with Vega external eGPU in EEVEE. No volumetrics is rendered when plugging in a procedual Texture Node into the density of the volumetric principled shader. But using the geometry as th input works fine like that :

geometry node (position --> vector) noise texture (factor ---> density) principled volume (volume ---> volume) material output.

But unfortunately i cant get it to work the same way when using a "Gradient Texture" Node instead of the "Noise Texture" Node. Any Ideas how to solve this, or will this be fixed with a newer version soon?
i really need to fade the volumetrics with a gradient node. Or is there any other way to fade the volumetrics when using the geometry node?

I found a solution to workaround for fading volumetrics in eevee on macOS with Vega. you can easily work this further and combine this with the texture node by smooth minimum combining it. hope this helps someone, since it drove me nuts:

Thanks for the workaround @mvipe.

Adding another failing test case to the list of AMD GPUs which can't show the volumetrics properly: the brand new Radeon Pro 5600M.

Been doing some tests and comparisons with macOS and Windows via boot camp on the same machine, and it appears that the gradient-modified volume works in eevee on windows but not on Mac. At least with this card. For what that's worth.

Added subscriber: @pentagramwookie

Added subscriber: @isbm

This is still broken on 2.91 Alpha and latest-greatest Catalina. However! I've managed to find a workaround where it still works and you can animate the coordinates. As simple as that (this is part of the shading, so few nodes you won't really need):

Essentially, the geometry is screwed and on MacOS the texture is sort of outside of the object (it is still visible on the surface, but in the inside). So do as always, except replace the first Geometry node.

Have fun!

Added subscriber: @nocturnal3d

Added subscribers: @JEMGEM, @rjg

Added subscriber: @fiftysquid

Added subscriber: @gwecken

Added subscriber: @blurr

Added subscriber: @MarCuseus

I'm very new to the blender scene, having a similar situation.

5K iMac 2020, 3.6 GHz 10-core intel core i9, 128 GB DDR4, AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB.

GPU rendering doesn't seem to work either.

Added subscriber: @PanagiotisPagonis

The problem is still present on 2.93.4 and the experimental 3.0

I am on an iMac with an AMD Radeon Pro 5700 XT 16 GB and indeed in EEVEE when adding any king of procedural texture on the volume's scatter input the volume disappears.

It would be nice to have a fix for that.

Added subscriber: @dennyboiq

The problem exist between both iMac and Macbook as I am on a Macbook with an AMD Radeon Pro 5300M 4 GB and also working in EEVEE. Any texture node added, even with a ColorRamp and Mix Shader involved, still has the volume disappear. When the texture is disconnected, the volume reappears.

Added subscribers: @LuckyChris, @RoyTheKoi

Removed subscriber: @scottmckay

Added subscribers: @DanSG, @PratikPB2123

Added subscribers: @Piipperi, @ankitm

Just checked with version 3.1 beta on Imac 2019 (intel) with Catalina. The Problem persists, the only "solution" as mentioned in the previous comments is to put a Geometry node set to Position into the texture vector.

I still get this problem with a MacBook Pro onboard Vega 20 4gb GPU. So not exclusive to eGPU's but Vega cards.

Looks like it's working now with newest blender and amd cards on the newest osx monterey.

YEAH!!!

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Eevee - no volume density textures when using Vega 64 external gpu on macOS Mojave #65873