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Farsight Studios
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
Platform Specific
Macintosh
Slow downs on rMBP and El Capitan
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<blockquote data-quote="MagnumXL" data-source="post: 224268" data-attributes="member: 2512"><p>I don't know about the Mac version slowdowns for sure, but I do know that only happens on the PC version when your hardware is not capable of running the table at the given resolution or settings (e.g. ball reflection option needs more GPU power as well). Macs generally have weak GPUs and given how many "<em>Retina</em>" models there are now that might be particularly the case if the game was being run at Retina resolutions. In other words, what happens if you run at lower resolutions, for example? It could also be a driver issue for some GPUs only.</p><p></p><p>I had the slowdowns occur on my Mac Mini when Pinball Arcade first came out, but I haven't seen it for some time. Admittedly, I've mostly used VMWare to load up Windows version to play it instead since the lighting is so much better looking even in the DX9 version (let alone the DX11 version if one uses Boot Camp and Windows7 or newer and have a supported DX11 GPU), but I just tried several tables out under the Steam Mac version (Junkyard, Circus Voltaire, Firepower) under El Capitan and it never once slowed down here at 1680x1050 on my 2012 Mac Mini Quad i7 with 8GB ram and Intel HD4000 (Post processing and Anti-alias are OFF). But if I try to use ball reflections in VMWare or on my old Windows machine that has an NVidia 7900GT, it goes into that super slow motion mode during multiball or on newer tables or at certain resolutions. If I run the Windows version on my 2008 Macbook Pro with an NVidia 8600M GT, though from Boot Camp (with XP), it will run just fine with ball reflections turned on at its native resolution (still less than 1080p). So the slow motion thing is 100% video card, resolution and graphic feature affected in Windows. </p><p></p><p>There are no real video options (i.e. like ball reflections) on the Mac version (just that seemingly worthless post-processing features that seems to make tables look even brighter; that feature also seemed to be the cause of the slowdown in early versions here) and anti-aliasing which will bring the game to a half frame-wise if your GPU isn't up to it (i.e. leave it off if you're having problems). I leave both off those off at 1680x1050 and so far it's running 100% smooth under El Capitan. On the plus side, the basic ball looks far better on the Mac version than the basic (non reflected ball) on the PC version. But for the most part, the lighting looks better on the Windows version and as far as I can tell, this is pure laziness on the Mac version. The DX9 version usually doesn't have any special lighting effects (there are a few exceptions like High Speed's GI Lighting and TAF's GI lighting, but not all tables have GI lighting in DX9), but it's more like the gamma settings are WAY too bright on the Mac version (e.g. if I turn my monitor's gamma setting way down, which doesn't look right with the regular Mac GUI), and turn contrast/brightness up, the tables look far better in terms of a "darker" effect. At normal settings, they all look like it's broad daylight in the room whereas the Windows DX9 versions typically look like a semi-dark room and the DX11 version looks like a fairly dark room. More to the point, with El Capitan now having the new METAL API (akin to DX12), they could easily bring Pinball Arcade into DX11 parity, but I doubt they will bother.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="MagnumXL, post: 224268, member: 2512"] I don't know about the Mac version slowdowns for sure, but I do know that only happens on the PC version when your hardware is not capable of running the table at the given resolution or settings (e.g. ball reflection option needs more GPU power as well). Macs generally have weak GPUs and given how many "[I]Retina[/I]" models there are now that might be particularly the case if the game was being run at Retina resolutions. In other words, what happens if you run at lower resolutions, for example? It could also be a driver issue for some GPUs only. I had the slowdowns occur on my Mac Mini when Pinball Arcade first came out, but I haven't seen it for some time. Admittedly, I've mostly used VMWare to load up Windows version to play it instead since the lighting is so much better looking even in the DX9 version (let alone the DX11 version if one uses Boot Camp and Windows7 or newer and have a supported DX11 GPU), but I just tried several tables out under the Steam Mac version (Junkyard, Circus Voltaire, Firepower) under El Capitan and it never once slowed down here at 1680x1050 on my 2012 Mac Mini Quad i7 with 8GB ram and Intel HD4000 (Post processing and Anti-alias are OFF). But if I try to use ball reflections in VMWare or on my old Windows machine that has an NVidia 7900GT, it goes into that super slow motion mode during multiball or on newer tables or at certain resolutions. If I run the Windows version on my 2008 Macbook Pro with an NVidia 8600M GT, though from Boot Camp (with XP), it will run just fine with ball reflections turned on at its native resolution (still less than 1080p). So the slow motion thing is 100% video card, resolution and graphic feature affected in Windows. There are no real video options (i.e. like ball reflections) on the Mac version (just that seemingly worthless post-processing features that seems to make tables look even brighter; that feature also seemed to be the cause of the slowdown in early versions here) and anti-aliasing which will bring the game to a half frame-wise if your GPU isn't up to it (i.e. leave it off if you're having problems). I leave both off those off at 1680x1050 and so far it's running 100% smooth under El Capitan. On the plus side, the basic ball looks far better on the Mac version than the basic (non reflected ball) on the PC version. But for the most part, the lighting looks better on the Windows version and as far as I can tell, this is pure laziness on the Mac version. The DX9 version usually doesn't have any special lighting effects (there are a few exceptions like High Speed's GI Lighting and TAF's GI lighting, but not all tables have GI lighting in DX9), but it's more like the gamma settings are WAY too bright on the Mac version (e.g. if I turn my monitor's gamma setting way down, which doesn't look right with the regular Mac GUI), and turn contrast/brightness up, the tables look far better in terms of a "darker" effect. At normal settings, they all look like it's broad daylight in the room whereas the Windows DX9 versions typically look like a semi-dark room and the DX11 version looks like a fairly dark room. More to the point, with El Capitan now having the new METAL API (akin to DX12), they could easily bring Pinball Arcade into DX11 parity, but I doubt they will bother. [/QUOTE]
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The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
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Slow downs on rMBP and El Capitan
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