Mac Beta Client Update

[Morgana]

Hello Wastelanders!

We are pleased to announce a Fallen Earth Mac Beta Client Update.


Fixes/Improvements included in this update are:

1. ATI cards can now run in FBO off-screen drawing mode. The updated client is preset to this mode, nothing is required from the end-user. This will give ATI players a nice performance boost especially with post-fx turned on.

2. Improved the parallelism of the cpu and the gpu, this will grant all users another performance gain in all areas.


To install the Update, please follow the directions below:

Use this link (http://l3cdn.fallenearth.com/FallenEarth/Mac/FallenEarthMacBetaUpdate1.zip) to grab the new FallenEarth.app, download the zip file, extract it and copy the application over your existing client in your Applications folder. Do not delete or move the FallenEarth data folder.


Also we've identified a possible crash condition and the fix:

Fallen Earth may crash with an error about quartz-wm or libXplugin.

This error occurs on Snow Leopard if you choose not to install X11 while installing the operating system. You can install this component by inserting your 10.6 CD and opening the optional installs folder. Launch the optional installs package and proceed until you get to the screen to choose components. Open the applications category and enable X11, continue the installation.

Credit to crossover games for the solution to this crash:
http://www.codeweavers.com/support/wiki/CXOfficeMissingX11

[cybrylla]

Much much better here.
I used to have 20-30 fps (IMAC 24', ATI 4850). Now, I've got consistent 60 fps with medium detail settings, and distance set to 40% for most options.
Great work !

[Kinshi Desu]

great news, cant wait to try this when I get home tonight ;)

[Barnabus]

Better, but still not good enough to really play. Crafting and whatnot works fine but after a few minutes or a busy area it freezes and never comes back. Before the update the program would just close. Now it freezes. Fps were about the same. Seemed to run a little longer before it crashed.

[Portisque]

Here's my experience this afternoon. Hope it's not typical. Running on a MacBook
2Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA GForce 9400M. Nothing running in bg, all graphics as low as they can go.

Crash 01 - ran for 5 minutes, crashed when changing graphics settings in-game. Turned post effects off, got a brief jump in fps then crashed.

Crash 02 - adjusted graphics settings from launcher. Crashed upon save.

Crash 03 - ran for 15 minutes (new record!). Crashed upon character death. Transition to lifepod??

Crash 04 - didn't even make it out the door. FPS was jumping all over the place.

Crash 05 - maybe about 5 minutes, walking towards a horse. No real reason it seems. Oh well.


PS > For the record, there's no need to remind me that getting this to run on the 9400M is probably a shot in the dark in the best of all possible worlds. But until the developers tell us to stop bothering, I'll keep trying.

[WestOfCA]

Running on a Mac Pro
2 x 2.66Ghz Dual-Core
10 gigs RAM (667 MHz)
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

First, initial, impressions:

When set to medium, with other settings @ 40%, the frame rate seems be about 50-60 percent greater, hovering in the 25-35 range, sometimes higher, sometimes lower.

When set to high, with other settings @ 60%, frame rate seems to be roughly the same as before the latest Update, usually in the low-mid 20s, sometimes a little higher, sometimes lower.

[zPurr]

Well, this is tiresome. Like Portisque,I have been crashing every few minutes since I started playing.

1st time, I was trying to ride my horse over the railroad tracks outside Depot 66. The game froze entirely.

2nd time, I' had been riding a little further into town and the game crashed and closed itself. (this time I got a crash submission form, but it failed to submit)

3rd time I crashed going through some doors. Crash and close.

4th time I crashed walking from the cooking area to the armor area. Crash and close

(edit)5th time, still trying to go to the armor area. Crash, close, crash-submission failed to submit

So I'm guessing it might have something to do with changing area?


Macbook like Portisque, with OSX 10.5.8

[Kinshi Desu]

I have found that the more mobile objects (like players, NPCs, mounts, vehicles) that are crowded into the your visible area, and if you are having really low framr rates, and you are mounted and try to simply run stright through the clutter, the odds of a crash are really high.

I find its better to dismount and walk when those scenarios occur, or pause and let the frame rate climb back up a little bit before trying to advance.

[Lewis]

I wish I could do as much as you. Before this last patch I ran for nearly 3 hours with no problem. Since it, I can only log in about 1 in 3 attempts (the character selection screen loads, I click play and then... nothing). When I do get in, I recently managed to spend some money, move 2 steps and crash. Last time it got to loading the area, there was a flicker of world rezzing and boom...

This has got insane. Any chance of a stable patch soon? I've played WAR using the Mac client and hardly ever crashed there so wineskin processes can be stable.

[MrMarkie1337]

I have found that the more mobile objects (like players, NPCs, mounts, vehicles) that are crowded into the your visible area, and if you are having really low framr rates, and you are mounted and try to simply run stright through the clutter, the odds of a crash are really high.

I find its better to dismount and walk when those scenarios occur, or pause and let the frame rate climb back up a little bit before trying to advance.

Got exactly the same issues wether I'm running Os X or Ubuntu. Got slightly worse framerates in osx but that's feels somewhat unavoidable. (No I'm not trying to start a flamewar, I'm just fairly familiar with Unices).

I also noticed a somewhat choppy mouse input under osx, anyone else got that?

[zPurr]

I also noticed a somewhat choppy mouse input under osx, anyone else got that?

Yes, me too. And I have the character selection play-button malfunction too. Since the patch the crashing just got crazy. Completely random, like when attacked unprepared (that crashed me twice), looking through inventory and going out the doors from the lifepod area. And when I couldn't even log in every time I gave up. I dunno, I've crashed at LEAST 20 times on the few hours I played. I don't think I had more than half an hour-maybe 45 minutes of real gaming time (where much of it was spent finding my way back to where I crashed because I was killed after crashing)

So basically I reeeally want to play this game, otherwise I wouldn't have put up with a game crashing on me 10 times an hour. Or 10 times at all.

Furthermore, My framerates have dropped a lot. Just before the patch I played at an epic 40 fps, and when I logged back in it was hovering around and below 7. Later it went down around 2 fps for like half a minute several times, and once it peaked at 26 fps.

I really hope this will work soon.

[Lewis]

I have a choppy mouse too and between a mouse, trackpad and trackball, various bits don't work properly although all work just fine in every other application.

I suspect there's a translation problem in the wineskin because I obviously don't have the proper drivers for the windows versions of the mouses.

It makes using ranged weapons a challenge. Target shooting is OK because I can take my time, but shooting live targets is basically impossible. But that's OK, big swords work just fine.

[Portisque]

I took a hint from one of the other testers and tried changing the Wineskin settings to run full-screen>virtual desktop. However, while it did load faster, it didn't save me from the same area transition crashes. When going from the lifepod center outdoors, it got hung up for about 10 sec but recovered. Going back in, it got hung-up for about 30 sec and then crashed. Doesn't seem to be much to do on our end but wait for another patch. Hope my account doesn't run out before then, since I'm certainly not going to pay to be a beta tester. Can you say, "trial account extension"? I new you could. :p

I haven't found the mouse problems, although I've been using a logitech trackball, so I don't know if that should make a difference. On the plus side framerates have now gone from 0-12 fps to 0-30 fps. So somebody's doing something right! :D Now if they can just get the darn thing stable.

[Barnabus]

Tried it after the patch, and it won't even go to the game anymore, it freezes pretty much immediately after I enter my password.

[WestOfCA]

Though the fps has increased, especially when playing at medium settings (as noted in earlier post, in this thread), one problem that has worsened is the number of times the game suddenly quits (crashes). Also the game freezes, sometimes for 2-3 minutes, without me being able to do anything at all, including exiting the game.

Before, I sometimes could play for easily more than an hour (once, maybe 2 hours) without a crash, but now the crashes seem to happen noticeably more often. Too, before I only experienced occasional freeze-ups. Of course, these crashes & freezes may be due to the fact that I actually can play the game on high settings (though not very well), versus before playing only on medium settings.

So, I may not experience as many crashes and freezes if & when I re-set the settings back to medium. Haven't yet had a chance to play the game for an extended period of time, since the latest patch, but of course that's what I'll do, return to medium setting, if I keep crashing & freezing-up so often (about once per 10-15 minutes, I would guess); I hope that will solve, or at least lessen, the crash/freeze problems.

PS: No noticeable problems with choppy mouse input. Using the standard Mac mouse which, unknown to some people apparently, actually does have the capacity to do right-click & left-click, though not having two buttons. :-)

[Lewis]

Not sure how else to report this -

I'm crashing regularly. Each time I crash I can't log back in the first time, but manage it the second time (well usually). This has the effect of killing my avatar and damaging my armour - even if I'm standing in town when this happens.

It then puts me into the LifePod facility. Trying to leave the facility, usually about 2 steps before the doors, I crash again. Again I can't log in first time, fortunately the second time I seem not to be back in the pod so I can get back in.

I'm really enjoying FE - I must be to keep coming back with all this! - but it would be nice to have some fixes en route. Please?

----

It turns out if I try to load, wait for it to time out, exit and relaunch I get back in without going back to the LifePod.

It also turns out you cheat to keep your bosses alive: I've tried to kill Arbiter someone (A House Divided boss) 4 times. Each time I start the fight your game crashes. Unsurprisingly this kills me. Even if I log out about 100m away from the Arbiter and relog so it's not a time thing. Livid... I'm absolutely spitting mad.

[Kinshi Desu]

I have fairly frequent crashes as well. The latest update seems 'crashier' than the initial release of the beta client.

[MrMarkie1337]

Could one of you Mac gurus enlighten me as to how I start the Mac client from the terminal so I can access the error outputs. Or even better how I can redirect stderr to a file. I'm not that familiar with osx yet.

We also need somewhere to submit our bug reports so the devs can make use of them.

[Lewis]

Speaking of Mac gurus, it appears that things get worse the more you (try) to cram in before you crash and the more often you've crashed since defragging the file system.

It makes me wonder if you've got a badly structured memory cache operating which is starting to overflow and causing the process to crash as the cache hits the limits on the memory provided and tries to overwrite something more useful.

Of course I could be completely wrong but if you do use a cache system it might be worth a look.

[Maason]

Hello Wastelanders!

We are pleased to announce a Fallen Earth Mac Beta Client Update.

...

To install the Update, please follow the directions below:

Use this link (http://l3cdn.fallenearth.com/FallenEarth/Mac/FallenEarthMacBetaUpdate1.zip) to grab the new FallenEarth.app, download the zip file, extract it and copy the application over your existing client in your Applications folder. Do not delete or move the FallenEarth data folder.

....



SO I just noticed that this beta is available and the FIRST thing I notice is, copy it over existing client. What existing client? I have Bootcamp set to go to Windows so I could play this, but would rather play in native Mac OS. I don't have the game loaded in Native Mac.

I downloaded the ZIP file, extracted it and the only I can load is Wine. Why do I need to load something that creates an interface similar to Parallels? Either write a Mac app or don't. :censored:

[MrMarkie1337]

SO I just noticed that this beta is available and the FIRST thing I notice is, copy it over existing client. What existing client? I have Bootcamp set to go to Windows so I could play this, but would rather play in native Mac OS. I don't have the game loaded in Native Mac.

I downloaded the ZIP file, extracted it and the only I can load is Wine. Why do I need to load something that creates an interface similar to Parallels? Either write a Mac app or don't. :censored:

The wineskin version of the client is availible under your account management. Download the dmg, drag both folders into your apps folder and then download the new zip, extract it and drag the folder to your apps folder.

Wine is not similar to Parallels and does actually reinterpret the system calls to native mac system calls (or such). It's not as good as native client but it's a good step towards native gaming on osx. It's (when it's out of beta and stops crashing) a vast improvement over running bootcamp since:
1. You don't have to pay for 2 operating systems
2. You will keep your blood pressure down since you won't have to use products from Redmond
3. You will not have to reboot all the time depending on what you want to do
4. Do I really need to go on?
5. It's totally optional to use it, nobody forcing anyone so feel free to keep bootcamping.

my 54 dollars 12 cents

[dualie]

I'm having serious unplayability issues with my 21" iMac (4GB, ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro).

When i first loaded the game I was getting 4 fps, after the updates. So I trashed everything, reinstalled, restarted the Mac, and was getting 20 fps until I crashed to desktop (from the gear window). Since that time nothing I do will return the game to beyond 4 fps.

I'm afraid I simply can't play this game as this point in time. I will try again at a later date, though I'm hoping my beta period gets extended because I certainly can't justify upgrading as it stands now.

[Barnabus]

Still get freezes occasionally at character select, but I've actually managed to get it playing. Too slow to kill, but riding across the desert and crafting works well. After 5 to 10 minutes it will crash

[Vosne Romanee]

On 1.37b, my main problems have been:

a. random crashes to desktop;
b. "play" button won't load game and the need to relog;
c. a sudden loss of tradeskills and all knowledge after a random crash - fixed by re-log; and
d. missions won't update in mission manager after accepting - fixed by re-log.

Some nice improvements to FPS (mid to high 20s now) on 8600GT card.

[warfr0st]

getting about 45fps now, with peaks of 50 to 60 sometimes, average improvement of roughly 10fps. performance at doors is hugely improved.
as reported by some others. the PLAY button sometimes does nothing. Just the gunshot sound and nothing, usually fixed with a restart.
still having random crashes of the very sudden seemingly random type. just drop to desktop, no crash reporter invoked or anything. Simply POOF! desktop.

Does anyone else have the menu bar and the dock hidden? How did you get it?

[flannelbored]

On 1.37b, my main problems have been:

a. random crashes to desktop;
b. "play" button won't load game and the need to relog;
c. a sudden loss of tradeskills and all knowledge after a random crash - fixed by re-log; and
d. missions won't update in mission manager after accepting - fixed by re-log.

Some nice improvements to FPS (mid to high 20s now) on 8600GT card.

I get all of these. B occurs on the windows client too.

[flannelbored]

Not sure it helps (perhaps it's just the window server log message with each CTD) but this is a common entry about the same time as the crashes:

Mar 21 22:32:36 [168] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetWindowListTags: Operation on a window 0x6 not owned by caller FallenEarth
Mar 21 23:05:36 [168] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetWindowListTags: Operation on a window 0x6 not owned by caller FallenEarth
Mar 22 06:25:12 [168] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetWindowListTags: Operation on a window 0x6 not owned by caller FallenEarth
Mar 22 06:27:32 [168] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetWindowListTags: Operation on a window 0x6 not owned by caller FallenEarth
Mar 22 06:41:55 [168] kCGErrorIllegalArgument: CGXSetWindowListTags: Operation on a window 0x6 not owned by caller FallenEarth

[princehal]

The Mac Client is unplayable for me, unfortunately. The camera is completely uncontrollable. I have a Bamboo mouse/pen tablet and a 3Ghz iMac running Snow Leopard with 4 gigs of RAM. I recently uninstalled Windows, and lost Fallen Earth in the process. After hearing of this Beta, I was happy for a span of a few hours as I downloaded the Mac Client. If you guys can get this working you will steal me from EVE Online.

Warhammer is similarly unplayable for me on my Mac.

I have only a little experience in game development, but the behavior of mouse look under the Mac OS Client looks strikingly familiar to behavior in certain amateurish mouse look Python scripts for the Blender Game Engine. I found that those scripts could be fixed by adding a coefficient (.01-.02) to the camera rotation, instead of just trying to translate cursor movement into a 3D rotation vector/matrix/quaternion/whatever. Even if this is not the problem, mouse look behavior usually comes down to one line of code wherein a 2D mouse movement event is converted to a 3D rotation.

That is, fixing this involves changing one line of code.

[Kinshi Desu]

The only problem I encounter with mouse targeting is when I shoot at a NPC or mob for the first time during a given play session. What I witness is a spike in netwrok latency, causing the mob to warp, and the cross-hairs to get very jumpy. However, once that intital latency spike is past, subsequent shots fire as expected.

This leads me to belive its not a problem with the mouse handling, that the jumpy targeting is being caused by latency (likely induced by the FE's packet handler I/O being passed through WINE). FE's FPS-style targeting is perhaps the most sensitive to latency, given how many factors have to be considered from a code-basis to draw a bead on a target. (stuff like changing movement speed of the target, its stats, line of sight constantly changing, and skills and stance affecting the stability of the targeting reticle.

[princehal]

Interesting. I'm not experiencing any latency. The game runs fine until I try to change the camera view.

Thanks to this, I can't ride my horse. When I mount him the camera zooms in on his ass, so that said ass fills the screen. Then, anywhere I click causes me to dismount.

Please fix this.

[Angered]

Is there an alternative download site for this?

l3cdn.fallenearth.com's phat pipe is pushing at an amazing 4kb/sec.