High CPU and settings?

[Terry Ingram]

Is it normal for TPA to be spiking the CPU at 100 and over? Ever since the Mavericks update TPA has been running crappy. Lagging performance on all tables. Anyone else notice a performance downgrade after Macvericks?

Abd btw, what are the optimum settings when using OSX? Level of detail, post processing, intermediate mode, ant-alias mode, lock to 30fps?

 

[Tony C]

My early 2011 MBP has no problem running TPA onto a Thunderbolt Display full screen with Anti-aliasing at 8X and post processing on for those tables that it doesn't over brighten. I have never seen a difference with immediate mode on or off so I leave it off. The fan comes on, but doesn't quite go into high speed and I keep the computer closed in a cradle. The only time there is a slowdown is if a notification comes on the screen from a program in the background. It is well documented that running in windowed mode will kill performance.

 

[Megahurtz]

I got a new 15" Macbook Pro for Christmas and am disappointed with how TPA is running. I expected better performance out of it. It has a i7, 16 gigs of ram and a nvidia 750m. It plays fine sometimes, then drags into slow-mo. Eventually it will speed back up to normal, but then it will slow down again. Sound doesn't seem to be affected though.

I tired turning post processing off, dropping the AA, switching detail modes. Nothing seems to remove the slow down. Has anybody found a solution?

Also related, but does anybody know what some of the options actually do? I have no idea what "intermediate mode" is. Labeling graphic detail as 1 and 2 is also beyond obtuse. I can't figure out which one is high and which one is low from the way it is labeled.

Will the mac version ever switch to a port of the windows version instead of the iOS one?

 

[superballs]

I got a new 15" Macbook Pro for Christmas and am disappointed with how TPA is running. I expected better performance out of it. It has a i7, 16 gigs of ram and a nvidia 750m. It plays fine sometimes, then drags into slow-mo. Eventually it will speed back up to normal, but then it will slow down again. Sound doesn't seem to be affected though.

I tired turning post processing off, dropping the AA, switching detail modes. Nothing seems to remove the slow down. Has anybody found a solution?

Also related, but does anybody know what some of the options actually do? I have no idea what "intermediate mode" is. Labeling graphic detail as 1 and 2 is also beyond obtuse. I can't figure out which one is high and which one is low from the way it is labeled.

Will the mac version ever switch to a port of the windows version instead of the iOS one?

If you want the full pc version I'm pretty sure you will need the steam version. The mac mobile version will not magically change to the full pc version

 

[hootowls]

I got a new 15" Macbook Pro for Christmas and am disappointed with how TPA is running. I expected better performance out of it. It has a i7, 16 gigs of ram and a nvidia 750m. It plays fine sometimes, then drags into slow-mo. Eventually it will speed back up to normal, but then it will slow down again. Sound doesn't seem to be affected though.

I tired turning post processing off, dropping the AA, switching detail modes. Nothing seems to remove the slow down. Has anybody found a solution?

Also related, but does anybody know what some of the options actually do? I have no idea what "intermediate mode" is. Labeling graphic detail as 1 and 2 is also beyond obtuse. I can't figure out which one is high and which one is low from the way it is labeled.

Will the mac version ever switch to a port of the windows version instead of the iOS one?

Part of this thread tried to understand the video setting options; more speculation than hard facts.

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/5431-Anti-Aliasing-works!

If you can, demo the Mac Steam version for a performance comparison.

 

[Megahurtz]

Part of this thread tried to understand the video setting options; more speculation than hard facts.

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/5431-Anti-Aliasing-works!

If you can, demo the Mac Steam version for a performance comparison.

Thanks for the link. I am using the steamplay mac version. However, it does look identical to what I had running on my mac desktop from the app store.

 

[Megahurtz]

Still having the same sort of slowdown in the newest version on Steam.

 

[Armin Ruoff]

Still having the same sort of slowdown in the newest version on Steam.

I have the same configuration as you and have the same problem. TPA (Steam version) runs like in slow motion.
If I run the Windows version with Boot Camp on the same machine it runs with all bells and whistles, perfect.

I know that Windows offers better APIs for gaming but I think there's something wrong in the Mac version. There is no setup utility in the Mac version like there is in the Windows version. Maybe it uses the wrong graphic card or something else.

 

[k88dad]

... I think there's something wrong in the Mac version. …

It is a pitiful iOS port. That would be what is wrong.

 

[Megahurtz]

New version. Still slowdown. Has anybody from Farsight even acknowledged this?

 

[Megahurtz]

Installed OSX 10.9.2 which included new nvidia drivers. Still seeing slowdown.

 

[Shoot Again]

I'm also still having problems with slowdown. I've given up on playing the game because of it. I posted about this to the Mavericks Update thread back in November. I guess it has something to do with the Nvidia graphics drivers as it works fine on older Macs I've tried it on (also running Mavericks). I have a MacBook Pro (late 2013) with Nvidia GeForce GT 750 M.

I'd also be interested in an official acknowledgement.

 

[Megahurtz]

Stewart mentioned last week that the engine developer will eventually investigate it:
http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...ion-3-2-0-Bugs?p=137908&viewfull=1#post137908

I've had the problem since Mavericks was released back in October though. I think I read there are updated graphics drivers included in the 10.9.3 update that Apple is seeding to developers now. Every time a new OS update comes out, I hope that the slowdown will be fixed.

 

[Stuart Webster]

Alright, anyone feel like testing something for me? We believe the performance issues are coming from the Anti-Aliasing setting.

There is a bug in the code that modifies and saves your MSAA setting. Basically, setting it to Off would actually keep it at 8x. I've fixed it in the in-house build, but it'll be a while before it makes it into the live build. Currently, the only way to return it to the true setting of Off is to delete the keychain entry for it:
1. Make sure the Pinball Arcade is not running. Start the "Keychain Access" app.
2. Navigate to the "login" Keychain and the "Passwords" Category. These are on the left side of the window.
3. Now navigate through the "com.farsightstudios.osx.pinballarcade" keychain entries and find the one where the "Account" (at the top) is "com.farsightstudios.osx.pinballarcade.useridAntiAliasLevel" and delete the key.
4. Start the Pinball Arcade. See if this fixes your framerate in full-screen. There will still be issues in a maximized window, but fullscreen should be fine.

 

[MadAxeMan]

This worked for me.

While previously Off drastically slowed it down, setting 2x the slow down was minimal and workable
Deleting the key, turned it Off and tables that gave little grief at 2x previously works fine now.

Thanks

 

[Megahurtz]

Thanks for the tip, Stuart. I haven't tried that yet, but can we correctly reset the AA after deleting that key? Or are we stuck with turning it off to prevent slowdowns?

 

[Stuart Webster]

I was told that anything >2x AA might cause performance issues.

 

[MadAxeMan]

I found by default it was Off, but once you change it you couldn't turn it back Off.
Off was now like 8x and performance was really poor, so the next best setting was setting it to 2x as it ran a lot better than Off
Deleting the AntiAlias Level Keychain Access (as instructed above) defaulted it back to Off and it was actually Off now

I'm using an older 17" MBP

 

[Stuart Webster]

Awesome. Glad to hear it is working.

 

[Shoot Again]

Thanks for looking into this issue!

I'm sorry to report I still have the problem. In fact I had never touched this anti-alias setting at all and as MadAxeMan says it's off when you install it. Anyway, I also tried turning it on and then deleting the settings file in Keychain Access (as there is no such settings file before you once have turned it on). Then I even reinstalled the complete game from the App Store. Again trying it out with the default settings, then turning on anti alias before I again went to Keychain Access to delete it. Didn't matter.

The thing is, even at the lowest settings: detail level low, anti alias off and post processing off, the game still have disturbing intermittent slow-downs. The game is ridiculously fast, almost too fast at the lowest settings, but it will still go into slow-motion from time to time. Just for clarity: It's also no problem using the high detail level and post processing on, or anti-alias at a decent level – the game will run just fine **until** the **intermittent** slow-downs occur.

Stuart, I've some questions for you in order to get to the core problem:

1) Have you tried playing the game on a MacBook Pro Retina (late 2013) with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M? I have not experienced the intermittent slow-downs on older computers (2008 and 2011 models) – the 2008 MacBook Pro (with OS X Mavericks) is running just fine with post processing turned off and the 2011 MacBook Pro (with OS X Lion) is running all good no matter what setting. I think this problem with intermittent slow-downs is related to the graphics in MacBook Pro Retina. Perhaps all retina models or just the latest from late 2013.

2) Have you played the game for some time? It will be obvious during a game you play for some minutes but if you only play it for say a minute or so the intermittent slow down will perhaps not have showed up yet.

3) Have you tried the game with the beta version of OS X 10.9.3? It's said it will include new graphics drivers. Perhaps this will solve it.

I'd appreciate any answers. Also, it would be interesting to hear if users Megahurtz and Armin Ruoff in this thread experience any improvements regarding the intermittent slow-downs as they also have the latest MacBook Pro Retina. Sadly I doubt it. :-( Armin also reported that it works just fine in Windows running on the very same computer.