NS2 on Macbook Pro (Retina)
sirshorty
Join Date: 2012-10-31 Member: 165198Members
Join Date: 2012-10-31 Member: 165198Members
<div class="IPBDescription">How to do it! ?</div>Hey Guys,
NS1 Player here, purchased NS2 on the hope that I could get it running on my 15" Macbook Pro Retina somehow but I'm struggling!
First question is - Any ETA on the Mac version?!
I can run all kinds of games, at highest resolution and high settings without any issues. I play the new Counterstrike without any issues.. so I'm struggling to see how NS2 can perform so poorly (even in boot camp).
My specs are:
15" Macbook Pro Retina
Docked into a 27" Thunderbolt Display
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Ram
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Flash storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB Graphics
I've tried running within VMWare Fusion and also in Boot Camp.
Boot Camp seems to give me the best of the two, but I have to have all graphics options switched off and resolution at 800x600 to get a respectable FPS of 20-30ish.
I also have issues with laggy mouse which I've mostly resolved by adjusting the NVIDIA graphics properties.. but it's still there a little.
I'd love to be able to run at a good fps at higher resolution, (at least a widescreen res!)
Serious comments only please - Believe me I am tempted to go out and buy a crappy windows PC just to run NS2 if it boils down to it!!
NS1 Player here, purchased NS2 on the hope that I could get it running on my 15" Macbook Pro Retina somehow but I'm struggling!
First question is - Any ETA on the Mac version?!
I can run all kinds of games, at highest resolution and high settings without any issues. I play the new Counterstrike without any issues.. so I'm struggling to see how NS2 can perform so poorly (even in boot camp).
My specs are:
15" Macbook Pro Retina
Docked into a 27" Thunderbolt Display
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Ram
2.6 GHz Intel Core i7
Flash storage
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB Graphics
I've tried running within VMWare Fusion and also in Boot Camp.
Boot Camp seems to give me the best of the two, but I have to have all graphics options switched off and resolution at 800x600 to get a respectable FPS of 20-30ish.
I also have issues with laggy mouse which I've mostly resolved by adjusting the NVIDIA graphics properties.. but it's still there a little.
I'd love to be able to run at a good fps at higher resolution, (at least a widescreen res!)
Serious comments only please - Believe me I am tempted to go out and buy a crappy windows PC just to run NS2 if it boils down to it!!
Comments
No native retina resolution about it since I'm not in OSX, and I'm playing on the non-retina thunderbolt display (laptop closed)
Would be great if you have any tips on improving?
Do you guys run it on any macs there?
P.S - from what I've seen of it so far - it looks to be an awesome game so congrats! Just getting my head into the gameplay again, it's been a while :)
Do you have the latest video drivers for your card? I've been running NS2 on two separate MBP's via boot camp fine since its first playable build... can you run other games fine?
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=122691&view=findpost&p=2003295" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=2003295</a>
nVidia's drivers does not detect that ns2 requires the nVidia GPU so it keeps it running on your chipset graphics.
Doing the above will force your system to use nVidia GPU for ns2
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=122691&view=findpost&p=2003295" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...t&p=2003295</a>
nVidia's drivers does not detect that ns2 requires the nVidia GPU so it keeps it running on your chipset graphics.
Doing the above will force your system to use nVidia GPU for ns2<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks - I don't actually have this option on my MBP. Perhaps it's different for the retina? In NVidia Control Panel it only sees the 650M Card and doesn't even give me the option to switch between the two?
Slime - how well done NS2 run on your MBP?
A reset of the video card settings has worked for some as well.
Yes I got it to work; thanks, but it runs very slowly (20 fps on 800x600 and lowest settings). I have a late 2008 macbook.
What mac do you think is required to get 60 fps with 1280x800 resolution? I have access to a 2009 macbookpro. Specs as follows:
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce 320M
From what I've read it's the clock speed of the processor that's the issue. If you had a 7GHz processor then the game would fly! (So I believe)
Unless anyone else has any other experience?
You can find out whether your framerate is limited by your CPU or graphics card by typing "r_stats 1" in the console. If "waiting for GPU" is greater than 0ms, the game is bottlenecked by your GPU with your current settings, so you can try lowering resolution and other graphics options to see a performance improvement.
I run the game at 30-80 fps (usually ~50.) Here are my current settings (resolution plays a huge factor in performance, which is why it's set so low):
<img src="http://i.imgur.com/z9VSa.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Shadows are actually a pretty big performance hit, but I didn't feel the need to disable them considering how much they add to the atmosphere of the game. Texture streaming lets you use higher texture quality settings without using too much VRAM. Be sure your graphics drivers are up to date and they aren't forcing things like anti-aliasing.
I'm loading up my 2011 iMac with Windows as we speak so will see if that performs any better.
Also - I'll try the r_stats 1 you mentioned to see what mine says... will report back info shortly!
Fired the game up with 115 fps on default settings (top right when configuring graphics settings) vs 30 on the Macbook Pro.
Mac specs are:
ATI Radeon HD 6970M
16GB Ram
Intel Core i5 3.1GHz
Although loading times are now horribly slow (flash vs sata) - at least I can play on this vs the painful Macbook Pro experience.
Immense - Just loaded up a training level to play.
I can get a steady 40-50FPS with following settings:
1920x1080 Resolution
Texture Quality: Medium
Infestation: Rich
Anti-Aliasing: On
Bloom: On
Atmospherics: On
Anisotropic Filtering: On
Ambient Occlusion Off
Shadows: on
Texture streaming: off
Multicore rendering: on
I can compare with the Macbook Pro a little later, but I can't help feeling as though it's the Nvidia vs ATI that's the issue here?
First time when I run it it was about 20fps and it was impossible to play. I tried after some time (it was still beta) and I had about 70fps (about 100fps in main menu) and it was great! I played for about 3 hours without any problems. I though that game was optimized or sth but when I tried to play next time I had again only 20fps! Without changing anything (and there wasn't any update for NS2 at that time). It was really strange for me.
After last update, when I read in changelog that developers changed sth connected with nVidia driver to force to use high performance GPU i tried again and... I had 70fps again! I played again for about 3 hours without any problems and two days ago I wanted to play again and I had again 20fps.
I have no idea what is the problem but probably it's connected somehow with nVidia driver choosing graphics card mode / performance. My settings are everything low/off in game. I also played a bit with nVidia control panel and forcing to turn everything off and work in as high performance as possible - it doesn't helped.
I have really no idea... I know for sure that this machine is able to run NS2 at 70FPS but it is pretty random when it will be ~70fps and when ~20fps...
I have not used any tools / additional software. Just clean Windows installation (bootcamp) with Apple drivers. I plan to play for a while tomorrow, I hope there will be 70fps again. :P
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=117259" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=117259</a>
First thing in the list - give that a try.
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/index.php?showtopic=117259" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/forums/in...howtopic=117259</a>
First thing in the list - give that a try.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Thanks but...
<!--quoteo(post=2032932:date=Nov 23 2012, 09:24 AM:name=dptd)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dptd @ Nov 23 2012, 09:24 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=2032932"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I also played a bit with nVidia control panel and forcing to turn everything off and work in as high performance as possible - it doesn't helped.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Late reply but I had the same issue and this might help.
For whatever reason when the Macbook Pro Retina's get too hot the hardware fan/heat management system (SMC) overrides your CPU/GPU settings and throttles them down to about 40% of their maximum performance, which sent my framerates plummeting from around 60 to 15.
In order to reset them you have to turn off your computer, hold Left Shift + Left Control + Left Option at the same time, then press and hold the power button along with those 3 keys for around 4 seconds, then release them all simultaneously.
You'll find with regular play you'll have to do this approx. once every two weeks, but as soon as you do your framerates should shoot back up again.
Also ensure that if you're running parallels/vmware as well as bootcamp, that your power settings are changed back to High Performance. VMs will set them to a modified version every time you boot using them.
When in bootcamp Macbook Pro's exclusively run the nVidia chip and never onboard GFX, so giving NS2 GFX priority will have zero effect.
Hope this helps!