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Poor framerate FG 2020.x on macOS 10.14 Mojave

Installing FlightGear, scenery, aircraft etc. on Mac.

Poor framerate FG 2020.x on macOS 10.14 Mojave

Postby CirclingSkies » Sat Aug 01, 2020 3:47 am

Hello

I am having a problem with very poor framerate, but only when using any version of FG 2020.x. FG 2019.x works with no problem, but release version or nightly 2020.x (tried up to 2020.2.1 nightly) has this issue.

System is running Mac OS 10.14.6. Quad core i7, intel integrated HD Graphics 4000, 16GB RAM. I do know not to expect miracles from Intel graphics, but the same config is playable on FG 2019. Running full screen 1920x1080.

Issue shows as very low framerate on screen (around 1-5 fps), but the framerate indicator on bottom right of screen will read much higher (20-25 fps), and framespacing of about 65-70ms.

I have gone through the troubleshooting viewtopic.php?f=37&t=18951 and it seems to be independent of aircraft or airport but gets much worse when there is urban texture visible.

I have tried using each renderer (no change) and reducing the complexity of displayed items in the view->rendering menu (no change).

I have tried each version of FG, deleting the FG folder after each clean instal to make sure no preferences are re-used. The only settings I have changed from default when doing this is changing from default window size to full screen (makes it worse), turning on framerate and framespacing display, and adding FG default hanger for downloadable aircraft.

No additional command line settings.

The Mac console shows the following errors under 2020.x but not 2019.x (where everything runs fine)
Code: Select all
fgfs   LSExceptions shared instance invalidated for timeout.
WindowServer   Surface testing disallowed updates for 10 sequential attempts...
WindowServer   Surface test allowed updates after 19 attempts (76 ms)


I wonder if this is something specific to the Mac version of Flightgear, but have posted it in graphics until that is ruled out.

Thankyou for any help.
Last edited by Johan G on Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:37 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Added to topic title that the issue is found on macOS 10.14 Mojave (full OS name from macOS Wikipedia article).
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby Hooray » Sat Aug 01, 2020 8:50 am

Could you please post the info shown in the help/about dialog (if in doubt copy everything to clipboard and/or take a screen shot): http://wiki.flightgear.org/About_dialog
Have you tried the minimal startup profile: http://wiki.flightgear.org/Minimal_Startup_Profile ?

Is this in a Qt enabled binary or not (built-in launcher) ?
Also, is this with or without the new compositor framework being enabled ?

http://wiki.flightgear.org/Integrated_Qt5_Launcher
http://wiki.flightgear.org/Compositor
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Thanks & all the best,
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby CirclingSkies » Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:11 pm

Thank you for your response.

1) Help Dialogs for 2019 (working) and 2020 (not working)
Code: Select all
FlightGear Version: 2019.1.2
SimGear Version: 2019.12
OpenSceneGraph Version: 3.4.2
Build Id: 597
Build Number: 597
Revision: d8dd14824509afe4a65a2c8f485bba7f182b0781

Graphics/OpenGL Information
OpenGL Vendor: Intel Inc.
OpenGL Renderer: Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL Engine
OpenGL Version: 2.1 INTEL - 12.10.22
GLSL Version: 1.20
Max Texture Size: 16384
Dpeth Buffer Bits: 24


Code: Select all
FlightGear Version: 2020.1.3
SimGear Version: 2020.1.3
OpenSceneGraph Version: 3.4.2
Build Id: 616
Build Number: 616
Revision: 34a29b91069eaf5e2985a3728c5deabea38d1409

Graphics/OpenGL Information
OpenGL Vendor: Intel Inc.
OpenGL Renderer: Intel HD Graphics 4000 OpenGL Engine
OpenGL Version: 2.1 INTEL - 12.10.22
GLSL Version: 1.20
Max Texture Size: 16384
Dpeth Buffer Bits: 24


2) Tried minimal startup profile by copying the following to additional settings command line in launcher. All I then see is a clear blue sky, no aircraft to fly for both 2019.x and 2020.x Perhaps I am not doing this right?
Code: Select all
# --ignore-autosave # uncomment this for FlightGear versions >= 2.99
--disable-terrasync
--disable-splash-screen
--airport=ksfo
--offset-distance=4000
--offset-azimuth=90
--altitude=500
--heading=0
--model-hz=60
--disable-random-objects
--prop:/sim/rendering/texture-compression=off
--prop:/sim/rendering/quality-level=0
--prop:/sim/rendering/shaders/quality-level=0
--disable-ai-traffic
--prop:/sim/ai/enabled=0
--aircraft=ufo
--disable-sound
--prop:/sim/rendering/random-vegetation=0
--prop:/sim/rendering/random-buildings=0
--disable-specular-highlight
--disable-ai-models
--disable-clouds
--disable-clouds3d
# --disable-textures
--fog-fastest
--visibility=5000
--disable-distance-attenuation
--disable-real-weather-fetch
--prop:/sim/rendering/particles=0
--prop:/sim/rendering/multi-sample-buffers=1
--prop:/sim/rendering/multi-samples=2
--prop:/sim/rendering/draw-mask/clouds=false
--prop:/sim/rendering/draw-mask/aircraft=false
--prop:/sim/rendering/draw-mask/models=false
--prop:/sim/rendering/draw-mask/terrain=false

--disable-random-vegetation
--disable-random-buildings
--disable-rembrandt
--disable-horizon-effect


3) Qt enabled binary. Downloaded the *.dmg file from from http://download.flightgear.org/builds/2020.1/ or http://download.flightgear.org/builds/nightly/

4) Sorry, I am still learning, so may not have this bit correct. I assume compositor is enabled for 2020.x and disabled for 2019.x as it looks to be something that can only be enabled when compiling (I am downloading the already compiled binary). Is there a setting or indication I can check to see if this is enabled?

Thank you very much for your help.
Last edited by CirclingSkies on Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby Hooray » Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:36 pm

yeah, the point of the "minimal startup profile" is indeed to show basically ... NOTHING - in other words, if both fgfs versions show similar performance (frame rate/spacing), it's likely to be something specific to a particular feature/change. If one binary exhibits worse performance than the other, it's more likely that there is an actual issue. Otherwise, one could try to incrementally re-add/re-enable features one by one to see if the culprit can be identified (or other candidates excluded from the equation).

Unfortunately, it seems that your issue might indeed be mac specific, i.e. the error messages you mentioned cannot be troubleshooted by people on a Linux/Windows system.
When googling your errors, it seems clear that these are GPU/driver issues that show up in some applications.

The good news is that the leading core developer is indeed Mac-based, so you could file a proper bug report and see if this can be reproduced or not; as a matter of fact, just recently, another mac specific issue has been reported/identified: https://sourceforge.net/p/flightgear/codetickets/2321/

Looking at the tracker, a couple of Apple/Mac specific issues seem to have shown up recently - so on the one hand, that's not too good obviously, but on the other hand, the Mac stuff is getting quite a bit of attention, because many new features/changes are indeed tested on Mac OSX/Apple first.
Please don't send support requests by PM, instead post your questions on the forum so that all users can contribute and benefit
Thanks & all the best,
Hooray
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby CirclingSkies » Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:45 pm

Thanks. I was thinking it might be a mac specific issue. Maybe I should get this topic moved to the mac section before raising an actual bug report?
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby CirclingSkies » Sat Aug 01, 2020 11:38 pm

Hooray wrote in Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:36 pm:yeah, the point of the "minimal startup profile" is indeed to show basically ... NOTHING - in other words, if both fgfs versions show similar performance (frame rate/spacing), it's likely to be something specific to a particular feature/change. If one binary exhibits worse performance than the other, it's more likely that there is an actual issue.


I missed this bit. Have just gone back and re-checked. With minimal startup, both 2020 and 2019 show 60 fps and spacing of 16-18ms. With nothing other than sky displayed, it's hard to tell if the actual framerate is lower than the framerate number displayed though.
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby CirclingSkies » Sun Aug 02, 2020 3:07 am

The only setting I can find that seems to let the actual framerate match the framerate displayed in the bottom right corner is to set View->Rendering Options->Shader Effects to performance (0), however 2019.x works OK with Intel graphics set to (1).
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x

Postby Johan G » Mon Aug 03, 2020 10:38 am

CirclingSkies wrote in Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:45 pm:Maybe I should get this topic moved to the mac section [...]

Done. :)
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x on macOS 10.14 Mojave

Postby CirclingSkies » Mon Aug 03, 2020 7:33 pm

Thanks :D
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Re: Poor framerate FG 2020.x on macOS 10.14 Mojave

Postby Johan G » Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:11 pm

You are welcome. :D
Low-level flying — It's all fun and games till someone looses an engine. (Paraphrased from a YouTube video)
Improving the Dassault Mirage F1 (Wiki, Forum, GitLab. Work in slow progress)
Some YouTube videos
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Posts: 6629
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Location: Sweden
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