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Request for QA Mac testers

Discussion in 'Release 49 QA Feedback Forum' started by Undone, Dec 5, 2017.

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  1. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Hi everyone! If you happen to be testing QA on a mac I have made it a lot easier to test the metal graphics API through the launcher. This should immediately resolve the flashy white screen on startup and potentially deliver better performance. We would love to hear about any issues you may encounter while using metal as well as we have not fully tested it.

    To enable metal from the launcher simply click on the options cog and enter "-force-metal" (single dashes) in the Launch Arguments box before pressing play:
    [​IMG]
     
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  2. Barugon

    Barugon Avatar

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    It's it possible to also test Vulkan this way in Linux?
     
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  3. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    I believe Vulkan was removed due to poor performance and bloating of the client. We can attempt to summon @oneandonly for verification.
     
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  4. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    The summons resulted in verification that vulkan IS present for the linux build (it was removed for the windows build). So yes, you can pass "-force-vulkan" via the linux launcher and see how things go.
     
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  5. Warrior B'Patrick

    Warrior B'Patrick Avatar

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    I added the Force Metal command and did not get the flashing white screen. Also it seem to get to the splash screen much faster. Login did not seem faster but overall looks seem better but that could just be me. Video settings are faster with screen of 1920 by 1080.

    MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012), 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
     
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  6. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    metal should be faster in general (similar to how direct x is faster than opengl on windows). However, we haven't tested all aspects of the game with it so you may run into some weird graphical anomalies in your journeys - which we can fix if you let us know where you find them! =)
     
  7. oplek

    oplek Avatar

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    Oh boy.. I mean, I have a mac mini... I think I'll see if it's even capable of running the game.
     
  8. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    If it was made after 2012, probably not. The first thing you need is that 8GB of RAM. The later ones had soldered RAM, and many people went for the cheapest model with 4GB. (The one of those that I got used, I use as a MythTV client.) On the other hand, if it was older than that (with optical drive), it probably has a weak GPU instead of moderately crappy integrated graphics.

    But mostly, if you don't have the RAM, it won't work at all.
     
  9. oplek

    oplek Avatar

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    Yeah, that experiment didn't go so well. After 45 minutes of watching it bounce back and forth between 97% loaded and 94% loaded, I started the process of trying to quit, which ended up with my force powering it off.
     
  10. Jens_T

    Jens_T Avatar

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    I tried the force-metal and FPS are worse then without (tried on Dysborg Ruins). Metal also made the loading screens sometimes switch color to green or white tinted for a second or so.

    Got the late 2014 retina iMac with the AMD Radeon R9 M295X 4096 MB
    OS: Mac OS X 10.11.6
    CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790K CPU @ 4.00GHz (8) System RAM: 16384
    GPU: AMD Metal GPU RAM: 4096
     
  11. Elwyn

    Elwyn Avatar

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    Is there a minimum OS level for this? When I try it under 10.9 with "-force-metal", the game icon bumps once in the dock and it doesn't start up. When I change it to "--force-metal", it starts up, but with the flickering display, so likely being ignored in that case.
     
  12. Jens_T

    Jens_T Avatar

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    AFAIK Metal is only available from 10.11 onwards.
     
  13. Widsith [MGT]

    Widsith [MGT] Avatar

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    @Undone Testing with QA build 602, confirmed that epilepsy light show and ignoring pre-set video res are still present, this is without launcher arguments. Will retry with metal after fooling around a bit.

    ETA: No it's FAR WORSE - now there are no other options available in the video res drop down. I'm stuck in an unplayable resolution with no option to get out of it. Getting about 4fps at 2560x1440, lowest res available, which is no improvement on R48, contra @Chris ' comments about improved Mac performance with new builds.
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2017
  14. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Flashy light syndrome is out of our hands as it is a Unity bug with OpenGL on mac. I have yet to reproduce the video res issues you are describing with multiple monitor setups and multiple machines here at the office and at home. In regards to metal it's interesting that your performance is worse - most (myself included) have found performance to be better.

    What OS and hardware are you on again?
     
  15. Widsith [MGT]

    Widsith [MGT] Avatar

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    @Undone Retrying with -force-metal: As others noted, epilepsy display is gone, so is flicker of initial screens. There are still no options other than the current 'native' video resolution on the menu. At 2560x1440, with the same view as above, I am getting 2-4x improvement in frame rate. Unlike non-metal, the fps is bouncing around rather dramatically within that range. HOWEVER, that performance seems to be bought - at least in part - by being a 'bad OS X citizen' hogging resources, e.g., typing this is nearly impossible without errors, as SotA is hogging so much processor that it's defeating typing at a regular pace.
     
  16. Widsith [MGT]

    Widsith [MGT] Avatar

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    The first report was non-metal, see just above for metal, which does behave differently.

    I'm on a late-2015 iMac, 16GB, 21.5" Retina 4K, OS X 10.12.6, Intel Iris Pro Graphics 6200 1536 MB, Retina res set to 2560x1440 ('big text') - running SotA in full screen.

    Hmmm... I just switched the Retina to Default res - 4096x2304 - while SotA was running. Now I'm getting both that and 2560x1440 in the video menu (and SotA seems to have correctly adjusted to the res switch).
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2017
  17. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Does your performance increase in windowed mode where you can select lower resolutions? 1440p with an intel card sounds rather strenuous; I'm curious how much of a difference 1920x1080 would yield.
     
  18. Widsith [MGT]

    Widsith [MGT] Avatar

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    Let me try windowed mode, I've been doing full screen because windowed was unstable for me in R48.

    @Undone Switched to window mode in lowest Retina res (2560x1440). That causes SotA to go to 2560x1252 - the available space. Menu offers 2560x1440 as well, but picking it does nothing. No other resolutions are offered on the menu. (Yr right that 1080 is more reasonable with this rig, that's what I was running on R48. Just isn't being offered on the QA build menu.)
     
    Last edited: Dec 11, 2017
  19. Undone

    Undone Trap Master Moderator SOTA Developer

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    Can you send a screenshot of your resolution options? Something is off if you literally have zero resolution options.
     
  20. Widsith [MGT]

    Widsith [MGT] Avatar

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    @Undone can do, give me a few mins. I can change 'resolution' only by manually resizing the window, which of course results in the the same dpi, rather than scaling.

    @Undone Here ya go:

    [​IMG]
     
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