T3D on Mac Mini
by Thomas Huehn · in Torque 3D Professional · 10/21/2009 (7:59 pm) · 17 replies
I know the Intel GMA950 is not supported by T3D for Mac. But I tried the 1.0 Version and it runs much better than Beta 5 on my Mac with about 8-12 fps in burg and desert. While the burg looks really good the shapes are rendered like a rainbow and terrain is black:
I read before, that the Intel card reports wrong abilities, but http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/17245 said "We have Torque 3D developers who optimize and test against hardware like netbook PCs and even Mac Minis." Which was by the way a reason to buy a license for T3D.
So any hints how to tweak a profile for the GMA 950 to get it look like it should ?
I read before, that the Intel card reports wrong abilities, but http://www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/17245 said "We have Torque 3D developers who optimize and test against hardware like netbook PCs and even Mac Minis." Which was by the way a reason to buy a license for T3D.
So any hints how to tweak a profile for the GMA 950 to get it look like it should ?
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#2
I found out setting emissive to true on a material helps. But this is not really a solution.
10/22/2009 (7:03 am)
deleting prefs.cs does not help. I played around with some cardprofiler settings but no luck so far. I found out setting emissive to true on a material helps. But this is not really a solution.
#3
I'm asking because one of the main issues likely might Intel + OSX
10/22/2009 (8:21 am)
Are you on OSX or windows?I'm asking because one of the main issues likely might Intel + OSX
#4
In blank room, the plane is colorfull.
In Burg, the visual is near OK (perhaps lightmaps influence), but the gun is colorfull. And some textures are missing (on the clock' giant sprockets).
And the framerate is of course awfull.
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
10/22/2009 (8:55 am)
Same sort of visual here, on a MacMini CoreDuo GM950 chipset, under Mac OSX 10.5.8, 2 GB of RAM.In blank room, the plane is colorfull.
In Burg, the visual is near OK (perhaps lightmaps influence), but the gun is colorfull. And some textures are missing (on the clock' giant sprockets).
And the framerate is of course awfull.
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
#5
They don't appear in any of the 2 levels, and sometime, I got an error in the log : "Can't creeate decals".
10/22/2009 (8:56 am)
And the projectile's decals aren't functional.They don't appear in any of the 2 levels, and sometime, I got an error in the log : "Can't creeate decals".
#6
Is there a patch or does we have to abandon the idea of running T3D (in Basic Lighting of course) on the Mac Mini (I use it in kiosk).
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
03/11/2010 (1:22 am)
Still the same issue on MacMini, with intel GMA950 64 MB shared memory, Core2Duo 2 Ghz, 2 GB of RAM, and Mac OSX 10.6.2 : all is black.Is there a patch or does we have to abandon the idea of running T3D (in Basic Lighting of course) on the Mac Mini (I use it in kiosk).
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
#7
I'd much prefer to use Mac hardware and OS X in my infrastructure, as I have vastly more experience on the platform. I plan to add one of the newest minis (with the 9400M) for purposes of testing soon, as I understand it can be done with the appropriate graphics card, but it's a pisser wasting money, so I'm going to test on the 9400M MacBook I have first (this time) when Mac T3D Beta 1.1 comes out.
*Not a total loss... they work just fine as data, logic and web servers, respectively--and if you configure them for wireless LAN use, they even simulate latency pretty well :)
03/11/2010 (10:29 pm)
I would that I had the answer to this as well--I haven't tried running Beta on an Intel mini yet, because Alpha could not even launch. I confess to being a wee bit disappointed as I picked up three minis over the holidays and found I couldn't use them to test server mission handoff on as I had planned.* I'd much prefer to use Mac hardware and OS X in my infrastructure, as I have vastly more experience on the platform. I plan to add one of the newest minis (with the 9400M) for purposes of testing soon, as I understand it can be done with the appropriate graphics card, but it's a pisser wasting money, so I'm going to test on the 9400M MacBook I have first (this time) when Mac T3D Beta 1.1 comes out.
*Not a total loss... they work just fine as data, logic and web servers, respectively--and if you configure them for wireless LAN use, they even simulate latency pretty well :)
#8
These "cards" are no better than a GeForce 2 or the GeForce 4 MX. While they do support pixel shaders, they are probably outpeformed in shader performance by the Geforce FX 5200 which was already terrible enough to be unusable.
03/12/2010 (6:18 am)
I believe the only way the GMA 950 can be supported is by making T3D's fixed function support work. These "cards" are no better than a GeForce 2 or the GeForce 4 MX. While they do support pixel shaders, they are probably outpeformed in shader performance by the Geforce FX 5200 which was already terrible enough to be unusable.
#9
www.torquepowered.com/community/blog/view/17245/4
And there about 10 references to fixed function rendering path in the source.
So that means that T3D fixed function part doesn't work in the actual state ?
03/12/2010 (9:08 am)
I thought T3D supported fixed functions !?www.torquepowered.com/community/blog/view/17245/4
And there about 10 references to fixed function rendering path in the source.
So that means that T3D fixed function part doesn't work in the actual state ?
#11
04/26/2010 (5:36 am)
I *think* the GMA950 does run T3D in Windows, but Intel's OSX drivers are known to be extremely buggy.
#12
04/26/2010 (6:24 am)
Yes, GMA950 runs T3D better on Windows than on Mac (on the same hardware : a Mac Mini), but with problems : poor performance (in BL) and problems with shadows (all objects have the same shadow).
#13
04/26/2010 (3:49 pm)
Wow, that is not acceptable(no Mac machine here). I can understand advance lighting not running well in Mac Mini but basic lightning perform poorly too? Maybe I should reevaluate TGE again, it might be a viable engine on Mac platform.
#14
To make this effect disappear and get back a more correct lighting, open the file "/shaders/common/gl/lighting.glsl" and replace
It will work better with only 1 light. It breaks again with 2 lights.
Tested on Mac Mini GMA950, mac OS 10.6.3.
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
04/27/2010 (8:35 am)
Found the source of the problem : it's a problem with the openGL lighting shader.To make this effect disappear and get back a more correct lighting, open the file "/shaders/common/gl/lighting.glsl" and replace
#define C4L_MAX_LIGHTS 4with
#define C4L_MAX_LIGHTS 1
It will work better with only 1 light. It breaks again with 2 lights.
Tested on Mac Mini GMA950, mac OS 10.6.3.
Nicolas Buquet
www.buquet-net.com/cv/
#15
#define C4L_MAX_LIGHTS 1 make it look much better :)
I also removed the detail from the terrain material, because it was only rendered black. 8-12 fps on the desert map does not really outperforms TGE like this advertise blog said but the mac mini is not really made for games.
06/12/2010 (7:16 am)
i finally got the time to try it out. #define C4L_MAX_LIGHTS 1 make it look much better :)
I also removed the detail from the terrain material, because it was only rendered black. 8-12 fps on the desert map does not really outperforms TGE like this advertise blog said but the mac mini is not really made for games.
#16
IMO it is impossible to design a game that scales down to the GMA950 all the way to a GeForce 8800 without either running like shit on the former or heavily under-utilizing the later.
If GMA950 users are a sizable portion of your target userbase (more than 15% of your potential customers) I strongly suggest using TGE (not even TGEA) and designing your art assets accordingly: models and textures from a 2001-2002 game (that's the type of hardware the GMA950 is).
06/13/2010 (6:19 am)
TGE uses OpenGL 1.1 (no shaders whatsoever), T3D uses OpenGL 2.0 (I think). T3D will never run as fast as TGE in ass-backward hardware like the GMA950 (which chokes and stutters on anything with shaders worse than a GeForce FX5200).IMO it is impossible to design a game that scales down to the GMA950 all the way to a GeForce 8800 without either running like shit on the former or heavily under-utilizing the later.
If GMA950 users are a sizable portion of your target userbase (more than 15% of your potential customers) I strongly suggest using TGE (not even TGEA) and designing your art assets accordingly: models and textures from a 2001-2002 game (that's the type of hardware the GMA950 is).
#17
The basic requirements for OpenGL 2.0 are 8 lights, but GMA950 doesn't have any hardware T&L. There's also a minimum shader level, while GMA950 is at, oh, about zero ;)
06/13/2010 (8:32 am)
I think the latest mobile GPUs beat the GMA950 both in features and speed (heck, even texture size limits for some!). If you have the embedded mindset, and like a lot of pain, you could do it :)The basic requirements for OpenGL 2.0 are 8 lights, but GMA950 doesn't have any hardware T&L. There's also a minimum shader level, while GMA950 is at, oh, about zero ;)
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