Hi,
Has anybody tried running VAPOR on one of the new M1 Mac computers? If so, how does it do compared to prior Intel-based Macs? Also, what should I expect if I get an M1 Pro vs. M1 Max chip? Would I notice much of a difference? And, can VAPOR use the GPUs on the M1 machines?
It’s time to replace a dying Mac and I’m trying to decide some configuration options. 3-D visualization with VAPOR and similar tools is one of my more taxing workflows.
Thanks,
Bill
Good question.
Our team had plans to purchase an M1 computer for testing but I don’t know if we’ve acquired it yet.
@clyne or @stasj - Do you guys know if we have access to an M1 OSX machine?
Yes, we now have an M1 system, but we’ve not yet attempted to port VAPOR to it. Something for 2022!
Thanks. I look forward to hearing how it goes, and hopefully, that it works really well. 
Hi, I try the new MacBook pro with an M1 pro chip.
Currently, the v3.5 VAPOR (intel) works fine on it.
But if you want better performance, it may need to be compiled for the native architecture.
@gustafson and @kazami2003 - I believe I have a fix. If you have a moment, could you try this installer on your M1 machines?
Scratch that - still working on a fix 
@gustafson and @kasami2003, we seem to have a working installer here. Please let us know if it’s still giving you problems.
Hi, thanks for trying to get this working for the M1s.
I just tried the new installer package on a MacbookPro with an M1 Max chip running macOS Monterey 12.6. Vapor installed and sort of works. Tinkering with an 865x750x149 grid cell WRF domain, I was able to make a “slice” cross section. And, I could sometimes get an isosurface for the 10 m/s wind speed to show for a little bit. However, vapor crashed either while plotting that isosurface or shortly thereafter when rotating the view every time I tried the isosurface. This does not appear to be for lack of memory–the computer has 64 GB.
Also, should this build use the native M1 mode? Activity Monitor indicates that vapor is running through the Intel interpreter.
-Bill
@gustafson - That’s interesting that Vapor is crashing. I cannot reproduce this with WRF on our test machine, but our test file’s grid is a bit smaller, and I don’t have access to large files because NCAR’s systems are currently down for maintenance. Would you be able to share a sample file that I can test, via email to pearse@ucar.edu? Also, does Vapor provide diagnostics that you can share when it does crash?
Also, should this build use the native M1 mode? Activity Monitor indicates that vapor is running through the Intel interpreter.
Yes - Vapor is currently built on intel hardware and requires the interpreter/Rosetta.
@pearse - I just sent you my WRF file via my lab’s file transfer service. You should get an email with a download link. Let me know if you have issues due to the file size. You should also get a separate email with two example crash reports. Thanks!
in case it helps: I have now downloaded the VAPOR3-3.7.0-Darwin-M1.dmg file and installed it both on a Mac Studio desktop (with M1 ultra chip) and a MacBook laptop with chip M1 Max. Both machines are now running on the latest Monterey (12.6). The installation seems to be working in both! I have tried a few things (isosurfaces, slices, flows) and they work all right. I have not yet tried the python API.
@Fernando_M_Insertis - Thank you for confirming that we have somewhat of a fix. There’s still an issue it seems with isosurfaces on M1. If you encounter a crash, could you please add it to this ticket thread?
Hello,
I am afraid it is no longer working for my Mac M1 machine. I have upgraded to the latest Monterey OS — and now it crashes again upon start. It shows the visualizer and the control buttons+panels on the left, but it disappears straightaway with an error message.
Hmm could you share what the error message is?
@Fernando_M_Insertis Hi Fernando, is there any chance you could copy/paste, or take a screenshot of the error you’re seeing?