2021.1.22 + 2020.3.19 huge performance issues affecting mac

Great thread to be found! I´m very much a beginner with Unity and have major issues with 2020.3.20f1. Which version should I at the moment download for M1 for it to work properly?

 

@Miun_Y if you're using an M1 you probably want to read this thread

 

@spacepluk ah, so much information! Thanks!

 

I upgraded to 2020.3.21f1 and it appears to have resolved the frame rate issue in Play mode on macOS, but now I see the editor flickering that other posters have mentioned. My project doesn't use URP and the colorspace is already set to Gamma. I don't know what else to try, but it's near unusable with this flickering. I suppose I will once again have to downgrade to 2020.3.18f1.

While I'm not a long-time experienced Unity developer, I find it quite unsettling to see bugs like this cropping up in what is supposed to be the long-term support branch. My understanding is the LTS branch is supposed to be pretty stable!

(Edit: I mis-read the earlier post about the colorspace - switching *to* Linear colorspace is supposed to fix the flickering. I just tried changing it from Gamma to Linear with my project and it appears to have worked, actually - the flicker went away. This is not something I know anything about so I have no idea what the ramifications of this change are.)

 

https://docs.unity3d.com/Manual/LinearRendering-LinearOrGammaWorkflow.html

TL;DR: Linear is the future, gamma is the past.

 

Ok after having switched to Linear colorspace I can see that the colors and contrast all over the game are visually messed up now in ways that kind of break it. So just switching the colorspace isn't a viable workaround since it's literally changing how it appears from the way it was all designed.

Guess it's back to 2020.3.18f1 for me.

 

I'm building on an Intel Mac for M1 (build for silicon) -> so far I only get a smooth build without input lag(!) on version 2020.3.18f1

Testing 2021.1.21 now ...
Edit: 2021.1.21f1 gives me similar (good) performance.
Again: I'm building on an Intel Mac, Build for Silicon (BuildSettings), run on M1 Mini (16gb).
Project is using HDRP

Edit2: Didnt test 2021.1.26 (didn't see the previous posts about a fix there)

 

This fixes the issue!

 

This Mac editor performance issue keeps on trucking... 2021.2.0 was released today with a known input bug renaming assets related to the recent metal updates/fixes:
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...s-causing-all-keyboard-inputs-to-become-mixed.

@Tautvydas-Zilys do you have any idea if this will affect the next 2020.3 LTS releases as well?

 

Hi Unity team,

Identified bug: The Project window is not responsive even in a near empty project
Further bug description: Renaming files directly in the project window, moving between files using the arrow keys or selecting new files takes a while
Expected behaviour: same as Intel build i.e. no delay in renaming or browsing files in the Project window
Unity Version: 2021.2.0f1 (Apple Silicon build)
Hardware: MacBook Pro 2021 with M1 Max chip

 

This is a serious issue for me as well. Changing to Linear is also not an option for me, as I still have users using OpenGL ES 2.0 on Android devices.

Unity Team, this is clearly a regression. This is very frustrating, as 2020.3.21 includes other import Mac fixes, so right now there is no good version to use.

Is there already an existing bug report for the gray flickering in the Unity Editor in 2020.3.21 in Gamma color space? I don't want to waste time filing one if you already have a report, which is what happened to me a week ago, when a team member let me know the bug was already filed and my detailed report would be ignored.

Thank you

 

Thank you for your reply.

With all due respect, that looks like a different issue from what I and others on this thread are reporting. What we are experiencing is a gray flashing game view - the entire game view flashes gray every 5 - 30 seconds.

I am currently using Unity 2020.3.21 LTS, which is an Intel only build, on an M1 MacBook Pro.

This is different from what that issue describes, which is using the 2021 Silicon Editor. You can see the issue you linked to specifically says "Could not test with: 2019.4.31f1, 2020.3.21f1"

 

Great. Thank you very much for the clarification. Appreciate the quick response!

 

Any word on a fix for this for the 2020.3 branch? We've just upgraded our development machines and are still seeing this issue as-of 2020.3.22f1

 

Omg... I was about to throw my mac out the window! The windows version worked fine while the mac version can't be used at all in play mode.... 2020.3.20 fixed the super choppy play mode but has flickering issues.

-Macbook m1 max

 

@jeannette_yu Can you confirm that this be in the next LTS update? 2020.3.23?
@jeannette_yu

 

https://blog.unity.com/games/what-you-need-to-know-about-developing-for-the-mac

It's good news that Unity now works natively on arm64 / Apple Silicon from 2021.2, but reading this the penny dropped, I'm guessing the changes made to support arm64 are the reason why the editor has gone so wrong for everyone else. It seems like there's a disconnect between the marketing team writing the blog posts and reality, which is quite ironic given the article is written as a way to dispel myths. I'm sure the editor will be back and happening soon and does all that the blog post talks up in terms of performance, we just can't use it yet due to showstopping mac related issues.

 

Nah, the editor experience is a mess for people with Apple Silicon as well.

 

The fine version for me is 2020.3.22f1 if i update to latest it suck, the lightning turn to crap and the build time became unmeasurable. Glad I didn't uninstall 2020.3.22.f1 this the finest for me so far.

 

Unity 2020.3.23f1 has been working great for our team (mobile 2D game) on M1 Max running Monterey 12.0.1. The horrible scene/game view flickering problems from 2020.3.22 are gone. Can't speak to GI lighting, but have you tried 2020.3.24 that was just released?

 

in 2020.3.24 the lighting problem still persist, in 2020.3.25 the lighting is kind of okay not until I baked, because what happen is after I baked in 2020.3.25 the lighting is not it should be so I clear the baked to hopefully restore/resolve the lighting problem but it didn't, it became kind of dark around in my vegetation so I revert to 2020.3.22 my current and it restore again, the reason why I try to update is if for bug fixes but if it is the lightning I'd rather to revert just to fix. Right now I'm waiting for 2020.3.26 to hopefully fix it.


Also as you said you're doing it in 2D so I supposed you're not dealing with lightning from the skybox that much or so, if that's the case then in 2020.3.25 is kind of okay to used i supposed

 

I've been plagued with many issues with every 2020.3.x build on my 2018 macbook pro.

One thing i've just come across - and am desperate to see if anybody else can repro - is my atrocious framerate issues in play mode disappear if I close the scene tab, (or tick 'maximise on play').

25 fps in an empty scene in brand new project, 300 fps+ when I close the scene tab/window in editor.

Still - pretty impossble to dev on mac on any 2020.3 LTS is really causing me headaches.
Just wondering if anybody else can repro/corroborate my issue to try and get this fixed soon.

 

On the 16" M1 Max I get a similar cap at 25 FPS regardless of Scene View open or not. This is running a relatively simple 2D game. The editor is on a second monitor that's 4K resolution. When I move the editor to the main laptop screen, the FPS goes up to 60, which is what Application.targetFrameRate is set to for the game. I'll have to compare this FPS to native Apple silicon Unity 2021.2 which I had running in December but I had to fall back to 2020 LTS because of other Unity bugs (not M1 or performance related).

In general though I don't find this performance an issue for my development since the Editor is always significantly slower than the standalone player for many reasons. For now the workflow performance is still quite a bit better than my old Intel Macbook Pro, even though it's not up to where it could or should be.

 

I have a probably related, even more strange, similar issue.

Unity 2021.1.28f1.3303 (cannot upgrade yet because of other serious URP bug in higher versions)
macOS 11.6.2 (20G314)
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)
Graphics Cards
Intel Iris Pro / NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M

For me, the Standalone Player builds perform significantly better on the low power Intel GPU than the discrete NVIDIA if i run the app with the -force-low-power-device from the command line

 

I can confirm this for you! I had this exact issue on my 2017 15" MBP w/ Radeon 560M. I had thought it was MacOS or other issues and it was so terrible I almost quit my hobby development until I could upgrade my computer because the performance was terrible.

Late last year I decided to jump to the latest and get off LTS to see if that changes anything and I found those issues went away. Somewhere along the line I found the issue tracker items for it and it was supposed to be fixed, but I still had the issue, so I had figured it may be regression since it was patched? I have since upgraded to an M1 Mac Mini and now found other issues with performance but am using the latest Apple Silicon Native Editor.

Edit: I think this was the Issue Tracker I found that seemed to describe my issue when I was looking into it. I mention regression as one user replied it was fixed in one version and came back in the next release. I believe I was on latest LTS when I was having my issues. https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...-when-changing-gameobject-transforms-position

 

I know this is not the versions mentioned in this thread, but it seems the issue I mentioned in my previous reply may be a long running MacOS issue that spans architecture and Unity versions? I just started seeing this while playing around in a new and practically empty scene in 2021.2.8f1 on M1. If the game and scene view are tabs in the same window and game view is selected I get 200+ FPS. As soon as game view tab is undocked or set as a side by side view with Scene view, my FPS drops to 30.

 

If you have a project that reproduces the problem, we'd all appreciate it if you could submit a bug report with the project to Unity.

 

I will submit a bug report. However I want to share here as well. Anyone with MacOS can test this out as I don't even need any assets to reproduce, just a base blank project using the default editor layout where game and scene views are tabs in the same window section.

System Info: MacOS 12.1, M1 Mac mini, 16GB RAM
Unity: 2021.2.8f1 (Apple Silicon)
Hub: 3.0.0

Create new Unity 3D Core project. Once created, hit play. I get 200+ FPS, pull game view tab to be side by side with Scene view and FPS drops immediately down to 30FPS.

3D Core URP. Once new project is created, hit play. I get about 90FPS. pull game view tab to be side by side with scene view and FPS drops immediately to around 30FPS.

I am very confused as to why a base URP gets less than half the frame rate in an empty project than the default renderer. Would love to know if anyone else has seen this.

 

I got a response back for my bug report and despite noting that it’s seen in an empty project with zero game objects and that frame rate jumps up while resizing the game window while both windows are visible, it was noted this is expected behavior as it’s two windows that need to be rendered. I will try to submit this issue again with a basic project and include specific frame rate details in hopes that they try to reproduce it.

 

Update: I know it has been a while but I have only just now gotten around to submitting the second bug report. This time with an example project as well as screenshots of the performance hit. Issue was still visible to me in latest version 2021.2.14f1 (Apple Silicon)

 

I have just heard back regarding my bug report. An existing issue exists for it here:
https://issuetracker.unity3d.com/is...moved-outside-the-editor-during-the-play-mode

 

Also entering play mode without maximizing (or without removing the Scene window) is slow. It's cutting the fps in half

 

I also have this with ShaderGraph, when I undock it from the editor, performance tanks and it becomes almost unresponsiveness. Thanks for making the issue.