I normally only play with the Factorio website client, but with 2.0 coming out I decided to get all the achievements on Steam. So I loaded up the Steam version and noticed that the Apple Game Mode turned on, something I've never seen running the native client. After testing back and forth and on a friend's Mac, I realize that Game Mode only seems to turn on when I'm running Factorio through Steam, but not with the website client.
I don't know if this is intended or if there is a way to get Game Mode to work with the website client, but I prefer to run the non-Steam version so I'm not having to run the Steam client at the same time. Is it possible to look into this, or is there something I can do to launch Factorio in Game Mode w/out the Steam client?
Thanks!
[1.1.109] [M1 Mac] Mac Game Mode only works on Steam
Re: [1.1.109] [M1 Mac] Mac Game Mode only works on Steam
https://support.apple.com/en-us/105118 Maybe? We don’t do anything different between the steam version and standalone version except include the steam integration logic.
If you want to get ahold of me I'm almost always on Discord.
Re: [1.1.109] [M1 Mac] Mac Game Mode only works on Steam
Hmm. Well that only tells me how to turn it off if it's on. I did some more testing: Deleted the standalone version and duplicated the one Steam has in their hidden folder to my Applications. When launching, it forces Steam to start, but also enables Game Mode- so there has to be something different about the Steam version.
I then downloaded a clean standalone version and launched that with everything else closed, and it doesn't enable Game Mode. I know Game Mode works outside of Steam on my Mac, because RimWorld and a few other games works with it, just Factorio doesn't seem to.
I then went down a rabbit hole to see if I could turn it on myself, and here is everything I found. Maybe this will be useful for you to find where to enable this?:
I found a pretty good writeup of how Game Mode works from a system level here: https://eclecticlight.co/2023/10/17/wha ... e-mode-do/
As far as I can tell it has to be categorized by the developer properly otherwise it won't enable. Steam must be doing something else in the background (maybe because it's itself categorized as a Game, and does the actual launching of Factorio?) They also break down exactly how the system prioritizes the CPU/GPU when in Game Mode https://eclecticlight.co/2023/10/18/how ... u-and-gpu/
I also tried to see if I can manually enable it, which some people have managed to do with some games:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comm ... e_support/
Says to add LSApplicationCategoryType public.app-category.games to the Info.plist in the App Bundle. I tried adding this both via terminal and manually editing the plist (I’m not a developer, so I’m not sure if there is an order to the instructions) but that didn’t work. I also checked the Steam Version to see if maybe it had that in the .plist but it didn't. I also hypothesized that the Steam.app itself enabled Game Mode but alas, it also didn't have the line to enable it.
https://developer.apple.com/documentati ... guage=objc lists all the versions of the game properties an app could be categorized.
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/739387 has additional discussion on how it's enabled.
I also found a post on how to get Minecraft to work in Game Mode via a different launcher but this required changing the Bundle ID to a baked-in list of applications Apple hard-coded to be classified as games, then you have to re-sign your bundle using a sudo command: https://github.com/PrismLauncher/PrismL ... ssues/1644 I did not try this.
I also found a couple forum posts saying that Full Screen Mode has to follow Apple's "Full Screen Mode" guidelines instead of just Maximizing the app. As far as I can tell Factorio follows all their guidelines but figured I'd throw this in as a 'maybe this is it?' https://developer.apple.com/design/huma ... ull-screen
Finally, I did some comparisons of Rimworld vs Factorio, and I noticed that Factorio lists "Full Screen" mode as Globe Icon + F, while RimWorld lists it as Command + F. I checked some other apps and games and Factorio is the only one I have that lists it as Globe + F. All other apps use the more standard CMD+F
The other thing I noticed is that when RimWorld is Full Screen, I can't engage the Menu Bar by putting the mouse to the top of the screen, but I do get the menu bar in Factorio, so maybe Full Screen Mode isn't setup correctly for Factorio? To be honest I've dealt with that for years but it would be awesome to not have my Menu Bar pop down every time I move my mouse to the top of the screen.
I'm happy to try anything to get this to work.
I then downloaded a clean standalone version and launched that with everything else closed, and it doesn't enable Game Mode. I know Game Mode works outside of Steam on my Mac, because RimWorld and a few other games works with it, just Factorio doesn't seem to.
I then went down a rabbit hole to see if I could turn it on myself, and here is everything I found. Maybe this will be useful for you to find where to enable this?:
I found a pretty good writeup of how Game Mode works from a system level here: https://eclecticlight.co/2023/10/17/wha ... e-mode-do/
As far as I can tell it has to be categorized by the developer properly otherwise it won't enable. Steam must be doing something else in the background (maybe because it's itself categorized as a Game, and does the actual launching of Factorio?) They also break down exactly how the system prioritizes the CPU/GPU when in Game Mode https://eclecticlight.co/2023/10/18/how ... u-and-gpu/
I also tried to see if I can manually enable it, which some people have managed to do with some games:
https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comm ... e_support/
Says to add LSApplicationCategoryType public.app-category.games to the Info.plist in the App Bundle. I tried adding this both via terminal and manually editing the plist (I’m not a developer, so I’m not sure if there is an order to the instructions) but that didn’t work. I also checked the Steam Version to see if maybe it had that in the .plist but it didn't. I also hypothesized that the Steam.app itself enabled Game Mode but alas, it also didn't have the line to enable it.
https://developer.apple.com/documentati ... guage=objc lists all the versions of the game properties an app could be categorized.
https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/739387 has additional discussion on how it's enabled.
I also found a post on how to get Minecraft to work in Game Mode via a different launcher but this required changing the Bundle ID to a baked-in list of applications Apple hard-coded to be classified as games, then you have to re-sign your bundle using a sudo command: https://github.com/PrismLauncher/PrismL ... ssues/1644 I did not try this.
I also found a couple forum posts saying that Full Screen Mode has to follow Apple's "Full Screen Mode" guidelines instead of just Maximizing the app. As far as I can tell Factorio follows all their guidelines but figured I'd throw this in as a 'maybe this is it?' https://developer.apple.com/design/huma ... ull-screen
Finally, I did some comparisons of Rimworld vs Factorio, and I noticed that Factorio lists "Full Screen" mode as Globe Icon + F, while RimWorld lists it as Command + F. I checked some other apps and games and Factorio is the only one I have that lists it as Globe + F. All other apps use the more standard CMD+F
The other thing I noticed is that when RimWorld is Full Screen, I can't engage the Menu Bar by putting the mouse to the top of the screen, but I do get the menu bar in Factorio, so maybe Full Screen Mode isn't setup correctly for Factorio? To be honest I've dealt with that for years but it would be awesome to not have my Menu Bar pop down every time I move my mouse to the top of the screen.
I'm happy to try anything to get this to work.
Re: [1.1.109] [M1 Mac] Mac Game Mode only works on Steam
The True full Screen suggestion came up before but I haven't found conformation for it.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=110085
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=110085
Re: [1.1.109] [M1 Mac] Mac Game Mode only works on Steam
In the thread mentioned, it is written that the implementation would require a lot of work. If Steam adds it on top of the code submitted by Wube, maybe there is a relatively simple way to do it. That would be awesome.Rseding91 wrote: ↑Wed Aug 07, 2024 1:53 am https://support.apple.com/en-us/105118 Maybe? We don’t do anything different between the steam version and standalone version except include the steam integration logic.