System Requirements

Windows

• *** IMPORTANT *** SynthEyes requires that your processor implements the AVX instruction set. (SynthEyes may notify you about this at startup.) Or check Microsoft's cpuinfo64 tool for a plethora of information. The AVX instructions were introduced over a decade ago, so this is not unreasonable. SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs.
• 64-bit Intel version of Windows 10 or later. Windows 10 version 1903 or later is required for full globalization support.
• Intel or AMD “x64” processor with AVX (“Sandy Bridge” or later or comparable AMD, no Atom-based processors.) See above.
• 2 GB RAM minimum. 4+ GB strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users.
• 1280x768 or larger display with OpenGL support. High-DPI displays supported (100% or 200% scaling), Windows 10 required for full functionality. Large multi-head configurations require graphics cards with sufficient memory. RED GPU decode assist requires 2+ GB video RAM.
• 3-button mouse/trackball with middle scroll wheel/button. Adjust “Reverse Mouse Wheel” preference to taste (normally to achieve push-in/pull-back behavior). Use the “No middle-mouse button” preferences for tablets. While trackpads operate with SynthEyes, they are not efficient or ergonomically suitable for production tracking work.
• Full keyboard with arrows and side number pad suggested for maximum efficiency.
• Approximately 230 MB for a default install; 1.7 GB disk space with Tensorflow GPU overlay. Tutorials and other learning materials are online.
• Warning: the “Nahimic” audio system (NahimicOSD.dll) has a parasitic video overlay that is problematic to a number of apps including SynthEyes, and may cause a hang or crash when entering the graph editor or perspective view. If so, disable or uninstall it. Quick directions that might work: Click the Windows icon, type “services”, right-click the Services app, click Run as Administrator. Scroll down to Nahimic, right-click and select Properties. Change the Startup type to Disabled. Click Apply, OK, etc. Your system may differ.

macOSX

• *** IMPORTANT *** Cheese-grater Mac Pros from 2012 and earlier won't work! SynthEyes requires that your processor implements the AVX instruction set. The installer should warn you about this at installation. Or look for AVX in the output of the terminal command “sysctl machdep.cpu.features”. If SynthEyes crashes at startup and you have an older processor, that is the problem. The AVX instructions were introduced over a decade ago, so this is not unreasonable. SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs.
• macOS Sonoma(14), Ventura (13), Monterey (12), Big Sur (11), Catalina (10.15). Big Sur required for Blackmagic RAW.
• Universal build for Apple Silicon (M1/M2/etc) or Intel Mac with AVX support (“Sandy Bridge” or later), see above. The Universal build does not automatically permit additional installations: conditions on simultaneous installation apply.
• 2 GB minimum RAM. 4+ GB strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users. We highly recommend the 16GB or more for Apple Silicon due to the unified memory architecture.
• 1280x768 or larger display with OpenGL support. “Retina” high-DPI displays supported (1:1 or 2:1 scaling). Large multi-head configurations require graphics cards with sufficient memory. RED GPU decode assist requires 2+ GB video RAM. Run SynthEyes on the same monitor as the menubar (movable in Display settings).
• 3 button mouse/trackball with scroll wheel. Adjust “Reverse Mouse Wheel” preference to taste (normally to achieve push-in/pull-back behavior). Use the “No middle-mouse button” preferences for tablets. While trackpads and the “Magic Trackpad” operate with SynthEyes, they are not efficient or ergonomically suitable for production tracking work.
• Full keyboard with arrows and side number pad suggested for maximum efficiency.
• Approximately 200 MB disk space to install. Tutorials and other learning materials are online.

Linux

• *** IMPORTANT *** SynthEyes requires that your processor implements the AVX instruction set. You can check this by looking for AVX in the flags line of the output of the command “cat /proc/cpuinfo”. If SynthEyes crashes at startup and you have an older processor, that is the problem. The AVX instructions were introduced over a decade ago, so this is not unreasonable. SynthEyes uses AVX for performance not possible with old CPUs. SynthEyes 1905 can be run on older CPUs.
• Redhat/CentOS 7. Other Linux versions are likely to work but are not officially supported.
• 64-bit Intel x64 architecture processor with AVX instruction set (“Sandy Bridge” or later or comparable AMD)
• 2 GB minimum RAM. 4+ GB strongly recommended. 8-32 GB or more typical for pro, 360VR, and film users.
• 1280x768 or larger display with OpenGL support. SynthEyes supports high-DPI monitors under manual control, though OS-drawn dialogs are unlikely to match. RED GPU decode assist requires 2+ GB video RAM.
• Note: 32-bit 8bpc RGBA format is required. 30-bit color (10bpc) is not currently supported.
• 3 button mouse/trackball with scroll wheel. Adjust “Reverse Mouse Wheel” preference to taste (normally to achieve push-in/pull-back behavior). Use the “No middle-mouse button” preferences for tablets. While trackpads operate with SynthEyes, they are not efficient or ergonomically suitable for production tracking work.
• Full keyboard with arrows and side number pad suggested for maximum efficiency.
• Approximately 415 MB for a default install; 1.3 GB disk space with Tensorflow GPU overlay. Tutorials and other learning materials are online.

General

• Keep the operating system up to date within its overall release. While SynthEyes should work with older builds, sometimes OS vendors make changes that cause problems when SynthEyes is newer than an older operating system file.
• A user familiar with general 3-D animation techniques such as keyframing.
• A supported 3-D animation or compositing package to export paths and points to. Can be on a different machine or operating system.
• In addition to image sequences, Linux supports only ARRI, Blackmagic BRAW, ProRes, and RED R3D movies, not avi, mov, mp4, wmf, etc movies.