The official "ZDoom on Mac OS X" thread.

[_mental_]

There is still a problem, however, which is, there is still a subjective sensation of jerkiness, in the sense that it will appear "choppy" all of a sudden, off and on. Not sure how to go about diagnosing. I figured out how to profile it, but don't know how to interpret the results.

I know about this issue. The actual reason for this is not yet known. It's related to particular combination of hardware, resolution and VSync option. The OpenGL renderer is affected only.
For example, I saw 20 FPS with VSync on and 150 FPS with VSync off at exactly the same location. Definitely I need to take a closer look at this strangeness.

Instruments screenshot you provided won't help. You need to setup custom captures with the smallest possible interval and to investigate each sample (and, potentially, idle time!) between two game frames.
Profiling is not so easy task as someone might think of. A few inherent limitations of Apple's tools must be taken into account. On OS X at least, nave no idea about iOS.

[cacouser]

The actual reason for this is not yet known. It's related to particular combination of hardware, resolution and VSync option. The OpenGL renderer is affected only.
For example, I saw 20 FPS with VSync on and 150 FPS with VSync off at exactly the same location. Definitely I need to take a closer look at this strangeness.

Interesting. The problem is present with or without VSync enabled, and also with all sizes of viewport. Software renderer is indeed unaffected on my machine.

[_mental_]

Interesting. The problem is present with or without VSync enabled, and also with all sizes of viewport. Software renderer is indeed unaffected on my machine.

It's possible that we are talking about different issues.
Could you do a simple test? Load vanilla E1M1 without any PWADs and tell me min/max FPS numbers with and without VSync at starting point.

[Ral22]

Though this is for the GZDoom counterpart, I still think it's worth noting on here. In previous versions of GZDoom for Mac, I was able to play Samsara (The latest version for ZDoom, as a .pk7) with no issue whatsoever. However, the latest version crashes when it tries to load. Should I try to upload the error report, or something of the like? I actually believe it has something to do with the .pk7 format, as Reelism (Which also uses that file format) crashes as well.

[cacouser]

Interesting. The problem is present with or without VSync enabled, and also with all sizes of viewport. Software renderer is indeed unaffected on my machine.

It's possible that we are talking about different issues.
Could you do a simple test? Load vanilla E1M1 without any PWADs and tell me min/max FPS numbers with and without VSync at starting point.

vsync off: min 23 fps, max 47, majority of time it undulates with values around 40-something

vsync on --- 35-45, with it being in the low 40's most of the time (maybe 8-9 fps less on average).


This is just from eyeballing it, so very prone to error. I'm figuring out how to get more detailed info ATM, so more details to come if needed.

[_mental_]

vsync off: min 23 fps, max 47, majority of time it undulates with values around 40-something
vsync on --- 35-45, with it being in the low 40's most of the time (maybe 8-9 fps less on average).

I was talking about the different problem. In your case some "choppiness" in gameplay is caused by low FPS. Certainly, graphics card is the bottleneck.

Though this is for the GZDoom counterpart, I still think it's worth noting on here. In previous versions of GZDoom for Mac, I was able to play Samsara (The latest version for ZDoom, as a .pk7) with no issue whatsoever. However, the latest version crashes when it tries to load. Should I try to upload the error report, or something of the like? I actually believe it has something to do with the .pk7 format, as Reelism (Which also uses that file format) crashes as well.

I'll take a look as soon as possible. What GZDoom version did you try?

[Ral22]

@_mental_: I was using v0.2.8, the latest release I believe.

[_mental_]

I uploaded the latest binary version. The issue with .pk7 was fixed.

[cacouser]

I uploaded the latest binary version. The issue with .pk7 was fixed.

Very nice stuff.

Note that when you try to run after compiling for 64-bit targets, you run into an exception for some fmod stuff right after the iwad dialog

[_mental_]

Note that when you try to run after compiling for 64-bit targets, you run into an exception for some fmod stuff right after the iwad dialog

It's a known issue with FMOD. It happens when application bundle path is quite long, around 140 characters or more.
32-bit version doesn't have this issue because it uses older version of the library.

Honestly, code related to this crash has little to no use on OS X. I guess, I will just disable it.

[cambertian]

I just thought of something the other day, related to the new El Capitan update. They have a new rendering API(?) called Metal that renders faster on their machines than OpenGL. You probably know where this is headed already.

I'm considering making a source port to take advantage of it, but I'm inexperienced with Doom engine modifications. Plus I'm in college right now and don't have all the time in the world at the moment. I'll leave the idea here, though, in case someone wants to take it up.

[SanyaWaffles]

Just relaying a bug here, I am gonna post an official report in the GZDoom for OS X Github.

My girlfriend tried using GZDoom for OS X - the latest buid (version 0.5.3 as of this writing) and it seems that FXAA (gl_postprocess) is bugged for some reason on her iMac.

Disabling it makes the build run smoothly, but enabling it somehow just causes the game to stop rendering.

I even helped her build one from source and it doesn't fix it.

One clue was however she can use an older version of GZDoom OS X - 0.3.3, which is over a year old. When she went to use a newer version, which my mod requires, it'd not rendering the game proper - the game still reacts to input though, as she can still make enemies notice her and stuff in-game... she just can't see the game's ... viewport if you will... update.

It doesnt' seem to crash or indicate any errors in the logs, it just simply refuses to update the game's rendering - except when she's in menus. Upon exiting the menu, it just shows whatever the last menu was.

She's using a Late 2012 iMac using a GTX680MX 2GB Graphics Card and a 3.4Ghz Intel Core i7 CPU... and 16GB of RAM. El Captain, latest update (11.4)

Reason I'm mentioning it here is I don't own a Mac and I can't replicate it... does someone else know if this is an issue for them too?

[_mental_]

Certainly it's a bug, thanks for reporting. As it's about my fork only, let's continue on GitHub.

[Wivicer]

Hey, I've found something strange in the latest version of gzdoom for osx: Brightmaps and dynamic lights don't seem to play well together.

---

When a dynamic light is present but no brightmapped textures are rendered on the screen, everything's fine:


However, in the presence of a rendered brightmap, it goes wonky:

[_mental_]

Hey, I've found something strange in the latest version of gzdoom for osx: Brightmaps and dynamic lights don't seem to play well together.

How can I reproduce the problem, what are you loading?