Performance issues using Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and Unity 4.2.2

I notice people indicating that using play mode maximized was preventing the lock ups while play testing. So I tried and after nearly 40 minutes of play testing I did not have one lock up while running the game window maximized. This would seem to indicate the problem lies with the Unity GUI itself. That got me thinking about what it might be. For the unity folks reading the thread, Mavericks added timer coalescing and I am wandering if the unity interface is using high speed timers to keep the live areas (heirachy, inspector and profiler for example) updated? How many timer request could be getting slammed together with the coalescing feature of mavericks and thus hammering the windowserver process?

This is just speculation but after that long run with no issues when I used the game window maximized and then having a lock up within minutes of returning to editing and scene creation/modification really makes me think it is the unity interface itself that is at issue.

 

Did you get lock-ups when not using play mode? That is, even just in scene view or global lockups on your machine. Also, when you say maximize, do you mean full screen?

 

If Time Coalescing is the issue, here's a snippet from apple support. Might be worth to try with a quick patch form Unity:

Here's the full page: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/technotes/tn2133/_index.html

Perhaps something like this is available in Mavericks that could work.

 

Yes as the last paragraph stated within a minute of returning to editing a scene the machine locked up.
On the game window there is the "maximize on play" option. That is the options I was using to play test.

 

I can confirm that I'm getting this on Mavericks on an old Macbook Pro. It seems to be the worst while editing a Particle System.
And I'm certain it isn't a Unity problem, it's an OS problem, it happens everywhere.
Mavericks is just a P.O.S. It you haven't upgraded yet, don't. Wait for 10.9.1, and then install it on a partition.
(I have extra partitions now after Mavericks crashed and made my startup volume unbootable because I turned off WiFi).

 

The problems discussed here are definitely Unity only. The hang-ups don't happen if Unity isn't running.

 

I spoke too soon, I was still running 4.2.2 (I've had Unity running since before the update was released). After updating to 4.3, this seems to be fixed.
I turned App Nap off anyway on Unity and MonoDevelop.

 

Great to hear that Unity are able to reproduce the issue now.

I really hope fixing this is a high priority... it's just completely killing the workflow for me. These days I dread doing anything in Unity at all because I never know what will trigger a freeze.

Worst of all the freezing tends to become longer the longer you have Unity open, so I have the choice between restarting Unity every 10 minutes or have it freeze up for 20-30 seconds every 2 minutes

 

Thanks whoever posted about maximizing the game view. Seems to eliminate the in-game lag for testing. (Although still getting whole system lockups when using the Editor of course.)

 

Sorry, but it's a pain in the ass to work with the Editor at the Moment .... and year the whole system freezes -.-

 

I so want to upgrade to Mavericks on my 15 Macbook Pro retina, but I am so concerned by everything that I read here that I dare not do the upgrade.

 

My recommendation is to wait until this issue is confirmed as resolved.

 

Any news on this from Unity?

I can confirm as other have said, if you use Unity with the Scene/Game windows maximized, the freezes are close to non-existant. Since I cannot go any longer without using Unity (I have work to deliver), what I'm doing is using the Scene/Game window maximized at all times (with spacebar). Whenever I need to access any of the panels (like Inspector), I press the spacebar to bring the layout back, do the change as quickly as possible, and then maximize the Scene/Game window again.

It's an absolute pain, but I prefer it to the whole machine freezing constantly.

 

the New Version of 4.3 haven't fixed the issue with Maverick Stall during game play. Is there anyone on the administration watching these issue or just ignoring ?

 

There's a ticket on the official issue tracker here: http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/maverick-and-unity-performance-issues

Please add your vote to make Unity aware that this is indeed an issue that requires priority.

 

I have the same lags even with total freezes for 30 - 60 seconds. Im working on mac book pro and i'm noticed that lags appears only when external monitor is on. When working only one monitor lags disappears, its do the trick even when i'm closing notebook and working only with external monitor.

Its not working, freezes comes back after some time.

 

Guys please write ur coment here and vote!

http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/maverick-and-unity-performance-issues?page=2#comments

 

Hey guys,
same problem here, and I tried all the tricks I read here without any success...I really hate Mavericks....
But finally, testing the game in the editor when Maximized on play fixed the issue.

I can reproduce it at 100%. Play the game few times normally, after a minute, it becomes laggy. So I stop the game, turn on maximized on play and by magic it works smoothly again !

So I guess this issue is from WindowServer and all Unity windows. I hope this will help you working until they release a fix (Apple and/or Unity).

 

Same problem. System freezes for 30-60 seconds every 5-10 minutes. Unity is nearly useless on Mavericks. Please patch this soon.

 

Same issue here...MBP Late 2011. Anyone have a fix yet?

 

I'm very much interested in how do you submit bug when your system keep freezing and locking up. This is impossible to report as bug. Am I correct in this statement or is there a way?

 

Has anyone found the issue to be any different in 4.3.1?

 

No, this issue is still present in 4.3.1.

An update on the progress of this issue from the Unity people would be nice. I guess it has to be related to the graphics driver. I don't envy the guy or guys that have to reproduce and debug it. Guys, if you are reading this, I wish you the best of luck (and minimum pain).

 

At work only iMacs does have this issue, all mac mini are still good, using Unity with Mavericks.
So maybe you're right, the graphic card may be the issue.

 

I'm so frustrated by this problem, that I decided to install Mavericks 10.9.1 developer seed build. So far everything seems to be working again, no more freezing but I will continue testing over the weekend. So if anyone is as desperate as I am, maybe you can try 10.9.1

 

I want to point everyone's attention to something that the user SONI991 wrote in the issue tracker page. I can link to the page but not the specific comment so here goes the text:

Removing the SMCFan Control daemon resolved part of the issue for me, now I can work again with Unity! It still stutters every now and then, but 70% less than before!

 

Thanks for the heads-up please do post your findings about 10.9.1. I couldn't take it anymore, so this afternoon I nuked my Mavs install and re-installed OS X 10.8. Unity was by far the worst app on Mavericks, but the OS really didn't feel as responsive in general. Even the Finder would sometimes have significant lag and non responsivness. This is late-2008 Mac Pro tower, and it runs fabulously with Mountain Lion.

 

I find it highly unlikely that everyone affected by this issue has that utility installed on their Mac... I for one do not.

 

Hi Guys this is Soni991 I had tested this for nights and my Mac is going cool with Unity. It is not only related to SMC fan Control. The problem with maverick is that slightest hitch in system performance effect Unity Overall. So open you Console Sit with Google and try to find the Modification done to system Management and try kill the PID for each error . Kill PID in sense either repair it or if not Kill it. Once your console is breathing cool ur unity would work fine or else keep trying and writing on Forum.

 

i've been testing with 10.9.1 seed build and the problem is still there

Could you please be more clear on what you mean, I also read your comment in the issue tracker and I still don't understand what you mean

 

Not sure if it's been mentioned, but I notice having photoshop (CS6 sub) open really hurts editor performance. Unity fps tracker says 100+ fps but it feels more like 15-20. Annoying, but keeping photoshop closed keeps Unity running great on my iMac.

 

edit: The lag seems to have come back after a few hours. My mistake.

 

Appreciate the suggestion, rrsimon, but I don't buy it as a solution. WindowServer draws everything you see on the screen. It acts as a mediator between applications that want to draw on the screen and the graphics hardware. When an application wants to draw something, it establishes a connection with WindowServer, tells WindowServer what to draw, and WindowServer handles the drawing.

So it there was something wrong with that, it would impact ALL our applications, not just Unity.

I don't want to speak for you or anyone else, but for me, Unity is the only app that's causing this issue.

 

Thanks for the info. It seems like it came back after diner break. It could be related with locking or computer's sleep... Anyways, thanks for the info pneill.

 

I really hope this gets fixed soon. I use UNITY Pro every day on my Macbook Pro Retina and I really am looking forward to upgrading to Maverick. But I do not want to chance of having to install and then revert to Mountain Lion and losing a day or more of work.

 

If you want to keep your mental sanity, STAY ON MOUNTAIN LION

 

Guys, try in Unity to press "Maximized on play" when you run your game, even for a second and all the freezes will disappear.
It seems that there is problems with windows system (at least for me), so maximized a window will hide the others.

So I run my game on fullscreen, most of the time, so I can work almost like before...

 

Playback is the least of my problem. I face this issue in edit mode when I'm trying write code in monodevelop. Even if Unity is just in the background while I'm doing something else I get system wide freezes. So great suggestion, but not a solution.

 

It will work even if you're not in runtime, try to maximize a window (using space or since 4.3 shift space) and it will release the memory.
It works for two of our mac here (the only ones that are laggy).

 

It begin to work a little better when I disconnected external monitor from my macbook.
Maybe you can try this?

 

Bumping the thread for visibility (note forum moderator should look to merging threads) and also ask that everyone experiencing the problem to please vote on the Unity Issue tracking site.

 

The new update to Mavericks is in the final stages of developer testing and will be out literally any day now. Here's hoping Apple fixed it in that release. Hopefully this week we'll find out…

 

I have the latest 10.9.1 seed and can confirm that it is NOT FIXED in that seed. I still get full-system freezes for up to 60 seconds. I'm running a 2012 iMac with the latest Unity.

 

That's really disappointing news. What I also find puzzling about this issue is that Unity lists this as a priority 2 bug on the issue tracker. I find it hard to believe this is a P2 bug.

 

In 12 more days, it will have been two months since we started getting this problem. Please Unity… give us another update on what's happening.

 

bump of frustration.

 

the only solution I found is to go back to lion mountain. It's not a solution but I can continue on my project.
I live in Europe and I must say that it has been difficult to find it since it's not available on European Itunes store

 

Hi Unity PPL so we have a definite solution for this. Have been testing it for a week and seems that if you follow this instruction your computer will work just fine.

This solution will only work for people with 2 Screens.

Prior to this I have disabled second panel and updated Mavericks with latest updates. Also I'm using Unity 4.2.2f1

- from all open windows no matter what software you have open, place everything on second screen and if possible maximise the windows. Make sure there is no window overlaying or extending to first screen.

- open Unity project on first screen and make sure there is only Unity opened here. In my case I work in Unity on iMac (primary screen) and everything else is on second screen. Maximise the window.

- In Game view check Maximize on Play

- One last thing

MAKE SURE YOU DO NOT OPEN ANY WINDOW (I MEAN ANYTHING THAT IS NOT UNITY) THAT WILL DISPLAY ON TOP OF UNITY!!! USE ONLY UNITY IN THIS SCREEN OTHERWISE YOU RISKING FREEZING!!!

AND OFF YOU GO!

Prior to this I have been going mad and tried everything in this thread that has been mentioned but this is for me the only way that Unity will behave normally. It's a bit of a work around but at least it works. We have two same machines in the studio and both work with no lag and freezes with this solution.

 

Am i right in saying that you cannot release for iOS 7 if you don't have Maverick ? My game is just ready for release any day now.

This problem with Unity/Maverick has been the worst two months software development i have ever experienced in my 20+ years programming. Still heard nothing other than faint rumours of a fix which were quickly scotched. Pls Unity tell us something.

 

hello Darjam

I've got an ipad air with ios7. I installed lion mountain with Xcode 5.02 on my mac and i can export my game on the ipad (io7).

I decided to go back to lion mountain because it's just not possible for me to wait 2 month until Unity fix this problem.

good luck for your game.