Renderer: Karma XPU
Hardware: Windows 11, RTX 4090
Every time I hit render in Karma, I need to wait ~15–20 seconds of black screen
before seeing the first pixel. Even a simple asset like a single SpeedTree tree
takes "forever" to initialize. Pre-compiling kernels helps a bit, but the startup
is still painfully slow compared to other renderers.
In Octane or Redshift, the same SpeedTree renders almost instantly — first pixel
shows up in a second or two. Karma, on the other hand, makes me feel like I'm back
in 2000 waiting for renders to boot up.
I understand Karma is built on USD/Hydra, and that's great for pipeline use.
But Pixar's own pace with RenderMan and Hydra is extremely slow (some might say
"too zen" 🧘). Please, SideFX, don’t follow that example — artists need a snappy,
modern rendering experience for lookdev and daily work.
Please optimize Karma's startup speed, especially the Hydra → Karma sync stage
and texture/material initialization. Solaris is powerful, but without faster
interactive feedback, it's hard to use Karma over Octane/RS for real projects.
Right now Karma feels like a great renderer trapped behind a very slow door.
Please make that door open faster!