Poor Mac performance

#1 I don't mean to be condescending, but have you tried adjusting your GPU performance and turning on vsync? I was having the same problems on a Pentium III, 750 MHz, 256 MB computer containing a Geforce4 MX 4000 GPU as well as on a Celeron D 1.2 GHz laptop containing Intel integrated graphics. I haven't used a Macintosh in ages so I would'nt know exactly how your machines' configuration works, but hopefully this recommendation will suffice. It was actually Josh who gave me this info just yesterday.The shooter demo now works almost perfectly!:)

You might also find it useful to run the demo in 16 bit mode and make certain that your graphics drivers are completely updated. Most games or even demos are prepared and preconfigured to handle these issues, but as Melv pointed out, these settings were left out in order to demonstrate the speed at which such a demo or any demo written in T2D for that matter can be constructed. T2D is capable, even in its current state, to create stable, high performance applications, but including those additional performance properties to work with older computers would ultimately involve more time and effort-not a whole lot though-thus defeating the very purpose of demostrating the speed at which a typical demo can be created, Quite fascinating to say the least!:)

Hope things work out!:)

#2 >adjusting your GPU performance and turning on vsync

Ah macs don't really work that way.

Anyhow Im a full time mac coder with 5 published mac games a new 3D engine and Td2 like tools in the works.

That being said none of my 3D engines in anything from Basic to C++
exhibit a stuttering issue with so few polies on screen.

Yes I did try changing bit depth and screen sizes.
Seemed to have no effect.

Thanks for the help :)

#3 Sorry for the misinformation Chris; stay tuned however and someone, perhaps Melv or Josh will be able to help you out with this one!:)

Impressive gaming portfolio you have there, nevertheless!:) Such experience could really come in handy on these forums!:)

#4 I should be out at WWDC and plan on meeting up with the torque guys who will be presenting etc.

#5 Super!:)

#6 Chris, I'm not sure if anyone else has ported anything to the Mac, but my game Cloudburst has been ported and works just fine on my Mac Mini (1.2 Ghz version, with 256M). You could test it out as an example of a T2D app.

Melv mentioned that there were some settings in the shooter demo which caused it to have very poor performance. Plus, there is a slight bug in the physics integration that was causing it to act strangely on slower machines. My game is basically of the same type (side-scroller) and I've fixed those two issues in it. (Melv might have done the same for the demo on the website... I'm sure he will eventually speak up and clarify this. Until you, you could try DLing the actual demo and seeing if that runs okay, too, instead of using the one that comes with the SDK.)

#7 Dav...
Thanks much.

It ran perfect here sound and all.

Nice job on the game also.
As a big fan of shooters myself...

Some my work...
going back to old 68K CPUs

http://www.plaidworld.com

>Melv mentioned that there were some setting

Any idea where?
Or do you have it in email and can pass it on so I can fix it myself.

#8 Thanks Chris! Here is a thread where I was discussing the various settings you can set in the code to affect T2D performance.

And, that bug I was mentioning: Integration fix for faster machines. This is addressed in T2D, but the update hasn't come out yet.

Cool, another shooter fan, I will definitely check out your games!

UPDATE: Whoops, linked to wrong thread...

#9 Hi Chris,

There are a few performance probs on OS X right now. Some of these are core to T2D, which we are well aware of, know how to fix, and will as soon as we can.

However, most of the probs you're seeing are probably just due to silly little things we did in the demos (that's what happens when you make the goal getting a working demo coded in 16 hours or less ;). We will be updating the demos soon, so check 'em out again then.

We want T2D to rock on OS X, and Apple is really happy w/ T2D as-is. We want to keep making it better, and end up with not only the best 2D game engine on OS X, but eventually the best game making application. Lots of work until we get there, but we have a good plan for it.

In the mean time, if you are concerned about performance issues with a game you might do... knock out a prototype and please feel free to post here if you hit performance problems. Melv, myself, and the rest of the community here will be happy to try to help. :)

#10 Lol after participating in my first GID (and using T2D in it) I definately can relate with a game done in 16 hours or less having performance issues... I notice so many things now that can be tweaked to make it run smoother...

@Chris: like Josh said feel free to post it here or any performance questions or code performance questions, I am (and I'm sure the rest of the community) definately up to finding out the best way to perform certain processes, considering in code/script there is always many ways to do one thing

#11 David I tried sending you emails about your game and how you made the buttons animate.
But I have yet to see a reply.... so Im posting here...