Blender: Difference between revisions

The Blendfarm Network Renderer for Blender is provided by [https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/nixos/modules/services/misc/blenderfarm.nix services.blendfarm]. A very simple example configuration is shown below.

Launching [https://store.steampowered.com/app/365670/Blender/ Blender through Steam] will run Linux native Blender in the Steam Runtime environment, and will receive automatic updates. If you force Steam to run the Windows version (through Proton) by selecting "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool" under Properties > Compatibility, the APIs will fail as they will not have the relevant Windows drivers.

Whether a compatible package is built with CUDA support is managed by the <code>cudaSupport</code> flag enabled. This can either be done with a global flag

 

Or by overriding specifically the Blender package.

# (pkgsRocm.blender.override {config.cudaSupport=true;}) # to compile blender with both HIP and CUDA/OptiX support

It's important to note that any package installed with the <code>cudaSupport</code> flag enabled that is CUDA-compatible will be compiled from source, as Hydra does not build (and therefore cache.nixos.org does not cache) with CUDA support enabled. With larger programs like Blender this can be very resource-intensive, so it is recommended to limit the number of cores or jobs that the process will take with the <code>--max-jobs</code> / <code>-j</code> and <code>--cores</code> flags when calling for example <code>nix-shell</code> or <code>nixos-rebuild</code>. This is also why it is recommended to only enable <code>cudaSupport</code> for the programs you need it for.

In addition to the [[#The blender-bin Flake|#blender-bin flake]], there is also [https://github.com/adithyagenie/blender-cuda-nixos blender-cuda-nixos], which compiles Blender with <code>cudaSupport</code> enabled and caches it on cachix so you don't need to build it yourself. For instructions on adding it to your configuration, see its [https://github.com/adithyagenie/blender-cuda-nixos/blob/master/README.md README].

With the deprecation of the <code>blender-hip</code> package,<ref name="deprecate-hip"> {{pull|463064}}</ref> the easiest way to add Blender with HIP support is now with the <code>pkgsRocm.blender</code> package. Other methods are to use the <code>rocmSupport</code> flag the same way as [[#The cudaSupport Flag|#The cudaSupport Flag]], or to use a [[#Binary Packages|#Binary Package]].

Unlike <code>cudaSupport</code>, most if not all packages with <code>rocmSuppport</code> are built by Hydra and cached into cache.nixos.org. That said, it is still recommended to enable <code>rocmSupport</code> only as much as you will need it, to avoid the chance of pointless recompilation on your machine.

To activate the flag globally, run the following.

<syntaxhighlight lang="nix"> nixpkgs.config.rocmSupport = true; </syntaxhighlight>

Or, override specifically Blender with HIP support.

# (blender.override {config.rocmSupport=true;}) # (equivalent to `pkgsRocm.blender`)

# (pkgsRocm.blender.override {config.cudaSupport=true;}) # to compile blender with both HIP and CUDA/OptiX support

Currently, Nixpkgs has extremely limited oneAPI support, (see: {{issue|367722|oneAPI Tracking}}), which is explicitly blocking oneAPI integration into the Blender package (see: {{issue|447245|Blender oneAPI Support}}). As such, the current only way to have oneAPI support on NixOS is through one of the [[#Binary Packages|#Binary Packages]]

This is a cross-distro issue on current KDE Plasma (Wayland Session, KDE Version 6.6.3) and NVIDIA drivers (Versions 595.XX). A workaround option that doesn't require downgrading is to force XWayland by running Blender with the following command. See more information at the related {{issue|link=https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/155467||issue}} on Blender's repo.