[2.0.7] Frequent FPS slowdowns during gameplay (Apple Silicon)

[Var18]

You use external ultrawide display. What resolution does it have? I wouldn't expect problems on 2560x1080 (unless you configured macOS to render in higher resolution and downscale) but on 3440x1440 and higher, I would expect framerate issues.

Thanks for the reply @posila, I'm glad to see we're on the same page now. Great to see you sharing all your plans and updates with some rough timelines.

To reiterate, I'm on macOS Sonoma 14.5 on an M1 Pro (stock), hooked up in clamshell mode to a single external LG monitor ultrawide rendering at 3840 x 1620 (using "BetterDisplay").

In my case, I have actually been able to play the game with minimal issues with Native Resolution disabled (I never had it enabled) and importantly Wait for VSync turned off. When I switch that on the game instantly drops from a pretty stable 60FSP to ~30FPS at the point I am in the game (50 hours, Gleba). This stutter is similar to the one I recalled on Navuis a few hours in. I toggled Vsync off at some point in the run and that's probably what fixed things for me. So maybe that's an interesting lead. Let me know if you want me to toggle some more things or play with rendering options to get more info.

If you ask the community for more detailed things to test or logs to provide, I bet we'd be happy to give that. People in this thread seem to be under the impression they've given more than enough data for a repro when it sounds like that isn't the case. Some specific requests would be great.

[posila]

If you ask the community for more detailed things to test or logs to provide, I bet we'd be happy to give that. People in this thread seem to be under the impression they've given more than enough data for a repro when it sounds like that isn't the case. Some specific requests would be great.

Could you post your log? I am still not sure how you have your display configured and therefore if the game renders in 3840x1620 regardless of "Render native resolution" or if it renders in half that resolution when you have it disabled.

I feel like you (or people in general here) are disatisfied with my "2.0 rendering is more demanding - will add options to make it less so" and "planets are heavy on effects - therefore much more demanding on GPU than Nauvis - will add options to make it less so" and I don't understand quite why. Is it because of inconsistency of the slowness (irregularity of the stutter)? I am not saying there aren't issues other than "more demanding rendering", but I have trouble seeing them as clearly separate issues, when they very well could be different symptoms of the same issue.

"Wait for V-sync" is kind of a wild card, on Windows disabling it should never cause screen tearing ... and I think that's the case also on macOS. On Windows we used to default it to disabled for some time, but changed it for some reason (I don't remember why). I always disable it on my machines. The point is - there doesn't seem to be "right configuration" for everyone. That's why graphics options are a thing - if the game doesn't perform well, player can change things so it does. But it's a good tip, I'll remember to have in mind, when giving technical support and we might try have it disabled by default on macOS.

[posila]

The game slows down significantly after about fifteen minutes, even on up-to-date machines running the latest software.

That's what you experience? Up until now I was under the impression 2.0 runs fine for you on both your 2016 MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro M2.

Akyri above you describes something similar, but they also said disabling Render in native resolution fixed it (they just don't like using that option). I recall Oleg_7777776 giving similar description of the problem (as if there was a memory leak, or something like that).

That said, I believe you should not focus on isolated reports from users experiencing stuttering on multiple external monitors or vintage Macs. Instead, it would be more beneficial to concentrate on the core issue:

I am not sure what you mean by this. Do you feel like I focus on isolated reports now, or are you saying that as a response to "After that I am gonna start collecting data for the external display issue", or something else?

[brunzenstein]

The game slows down significantly after about fifteen minutes, even on up-to-date machines running the latest software.

That's what you experience? Up until now I was under the impression 2.0 runs fine for you on both your 2016 MacBook Pro and MacBook Pro M2.

Sorry for being unclear dear Posila
On my MacBook Air M2 you can see for yourself with a medium base the FPS drops between 30 and 40 - but remains very playable

[posila]

On my MacBook Air M2 you can see for yourself with a medium base the FPS drops around 40 - but remains very playable

Cool, thank you. The screenshot is 2946x2060 but the screen was even larger. That is consistent with my conclusions about "rendering performance issue in high resolution", core issue in this thread, and what I am working on to improve.

[fpe]

I have similar problems, but on Windows with a 2017 Dell XPS 15 9560 (GTX 1050M) and 4K display.

Maybe interesting here as a follow-up to my (slightly off-topic since not Apple Silicon) post from earlier this thread:

The not reaching 60 fps anymore was indeed due to the more demanding graphics in 2.x and the new planets. Even in the menu simulations especially Space and Gleba scenes ran really slow in native 4K resolution. With a lower resolution of 2048x1152 I can fully enjoy the game with constant 60 FPS, even though some things now look a bit blurry. So yes, an option to render the game at a lower resolution while still having a native resolution sharp UI would be very "nice to have".

As for "the game slows down after a few minutes and/or periodically now and then":
Turns out that was a pollution problem!
Seems like too much pollution causes Throttler enemies to spawn (on every planet and even in space )

pollution1.jpg (45.19 KiB) Viewed 667 times

pollution2.jpg (46.23 KiB) Viewed 667 times

After cleaning those fans and air vents my notebook does not overheat anymore (resulting in thermal throttling) and the framerate stays constant.

[brunzenstein]

After cleaning those fans and air vents my notebook does not overheat anymore (resulting in thermal throttling) and the framerate stays constant.

Occam’s razor in full swing
Factorio folks should indeed ask the user first to try to solve the stuttering with a "blow job"
Luckily the Apple Mac Book air don't have / need any fan...

[Var18]

Could you post your log? I am still not sure how you have your display configured and therefore if the game renders in 3840x1620 regardless of "Render native resolution" or if it renders in half that resolution when you have it disabled.

Sure, here's me on a very early save. This one seems kind of intermittent, it sometimes flickers up and down in FPS/UPS, might correlate with research being done (!?) or maybe even the zoom level (?!). Two screenshots are zoomed in / out with perf issues, and another two zoom in / out without perf issues (taken a minute later). Sometimes UPS also drops to ~30. I also noticed these problems when driving, but maybe just because that's when the stutter affects the gameplay the most, not sure if it's the cause.

These have Wait For Vsync on and Render in native screen resolution off.

For fun I added one more screenshot on Gleba. When I turn on wait for Vsync it immediately goes to ~36fps, unlike the former save which seems more intermittent.

[Var18]

One more piece of data, here's an example on Gleba with basically everything off / lowest settings I could find but with Wait for Vsync on. It still hangs around 40FPS in that case.

[hgschmie]

All my problems on a MacBook Pro with M2Max go away when I turn off "Wait for Vsync". Render in native resolution, everything turned to max. FPS/UPS at 60/60, no problem. I turn "wait for vsync" back on, drops immediately to 30-40 FPS.

[posila]

Hmm, I see, interesting. Thank you for the data.

Do you guys expericence any negative effects when Vsync is off - specifically, do you see screen tearing?

@hgschmie: what macOS version do you have?

[Oleg_7777776]

Hmm, I see, interesting. Thank you for the data.

Do you guys expericence any negative effects when Vsync is off - specifically, do you see screen tearing?

@hgschmie: what macOS version do you have?

good afternoon, no, there is Vsync to turn off - there will be no graphical artifacts, there is no difference in the graph. in the current situation, when V-sync is turned on, fps drops, and if it is turned off, it will simply slow down and slow down the game.

[Var18]

Do you guys expericence any negative effects when Vsync is off - specifically, do you see screen tearing?

There is either no screen tearing or it's not particularly noticeable, in my case.

[brunzenstein]

Hmm, I see, interesting. Thank you for the data.

Do you guys expericence any negative effects when Vsync is off - specifically, do you see screen tearing?

@hgschmie: what macOS version do you have?

Running with Vsync off let Factorio run smoother indeed on a MacBook Air M2 as well as on my 2016 MacBook Pro running Monterey

[hgschmie]

Hmm, I see, interesting. Thank you for the data.

Do you guys expericence any negative effects when Vsync is off - specifically, do you see screen tearing?

@hgschmie: what macOS version do you have?

Hi,

Sonoma (14.7). I don't see screen tearing but sometimes scrolling seems jerky but FPS/UPS stays stable.

[wormeyman]

M1 Air with 8GB of memory; I do have an M4 Pro binned cpu with 24GB of memory coming soon though .

2.0.21 has had a massive performance improvement if I turn "render in native resolution" back on. I get up to ~55FPS if I disable "Occlude light sprites" graphics option to switch back to 1.1 light rendering. This is on my 60+ hour save with the four basic planets. I have attached my settings:

Screenshot 2024-11-21 at 11.20.37.png (10.58 MiB) Viewed 347 times

[brunzenstein]

Same for me -
2.0.21 has had a massive performance improvement if I turn "render in native resolution" back on.
I don't know what you've done but the result on a MacBook Air M2 is stunning indeed.
Chapeau!
Also on my vintage 2016 MacBook Pro running Monterey Factorio is now
(not perfect as scrolling is jerky, but were not reaching for the moon - eg. Gleba)
indeed very playable.

[posila]

Awesome! I am relieved 2.0.21 update greatly improved rendering performace.

I did some tests with V-sync and I think GL_TIMESTAMP issue I mentioned in viewtopic.php?p=641892#p641892 had really bad synergy with V-sync. But it is strange it didn't show up in 1.1 ... (I still suspect the main reason for it all is more demanding rendering)

Anyway, the work doesn't end here, Rendering scale option, tweaking graphics setting defaults and exploring new optimizations awaits.

[omcnoe]

I feel like you (or people in general here) are disatisfied with my "2.0 rendering is more demanding - will add options to make it less so" and "planets are heavy on effects - therefore much more demanding on GPU than Nauvis - will add options to make it less so" and I don't understand quite why. Is it because of inconsistency of the slowness (irregularity of the stutter)? I am not saying there aren't issues other than "more demanding rendering", but I have trouble seeing them as clearly separate issues, when they very well could be different symptoms of the same issue.

I think reason that some people sound dissatisfied is that for some of us the issues it doesn't clearly feel obviously like a simple GPU power performance issue.

For instance, today I was running 2.0.20 on an external display in windowed mode. It started lagging really badly around a lot of Gleba enemies, I hit alt+enter to toggle into fullscreen, then alt+enter again to toggle back to windowed mode (so game is running at the exact same window resolution it was running at originally) and the lag instantly disappears. Exact same scene, exact same resolution, but toggling to fullscreen and back fixed the lag.

Other times I can resize the window up/down by a really tiny amount, only a few pixels, and it's the difference between unplayably laggy <20FPS and 60FPS.

It feels like there is some more complex performance bugs than just "graphics are more demanding now".

That said the issues I was experiencing seem to be significantly improved after disabling render in native res, and updating to the latest macOS release and Factorio version, so I'd suggest anyone experiencing perf issues try updating. Game performance is in much better state today than at Space Age release.

[hgschmie]

Let me chime in as well.

THANK YOU, @posila for all your hard work!

2.0.21 is a very noticeable improvement, at this point the game feels as fluent as 1.1.