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

Unity guys, you've been good with communication to users previously... please don't throw that away now.

 

Here is a link to the issue on the tracking site:

http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/maverick-and-unity-performance-issues

 

Cosigning bump of frustration.

 

+1 for bump of frustration.

Unity is completely unusable in its current state on Mac OS X Mavericks.

 

Hi,

just to let you know I've got the same problem. I don't get any major slowdowns but sometimes when the editor is playing, there are performance hiccups. This will happen at any moment. It's not a scene loading issue or some instantiating problem that slows down unity.

I get half seconds beachballs sometimes too. This is on both my macs running 4.2.2 on 10.9.1.

 

Hey! I found a solution for my Macmini5,2 (OS X 10.9, Unity 4.3.1f1).
look like my hardware’s performance can’t handle well OSX “App Nap” technology, but my “Mission Control” is back to lightning speeeeeed!

Try enable "Prevent App Nap" in both "Unity.app Info" and "MonoDevelop.app.Info”.

Optional setting in Unity application :
Unity > Preferences > External Tools > External Script Editor, Browse.. 'your MonoDevelop.app location'.

Good Luck!

 

This has been suggested in this thread previously and was shown not to work in the long run.

I think it's pretty clear that only Unity can fix this, but apparently they're not interested.

 

Joachim, thank you so much for replying in the forums. It means a lot to hear you're looking into this. Any idea on when we can expect a patch to address? I ask because downgrading to a lower OS is a petty painful move, but one I think many of us would do if we knew a solution was six months out. But if the solution is just a few weeks away, then I think we many of us can uncomfortably live with the situation using the current work arounds.

Again, thanks for responding and I think everyone here would welcome dialogue.

 

I'm guessing you guys have got in touch with Apple… And I'm also guessing Apple are silent… So I guess our best guess is for us all to submit this as a bug report to Apple until they fix it.

https://bugreport.apple.com

I submitted this issue a while back (filed as a 'serious hanging issue in Mavericks', because it's not just occurring in Unity) and might help accelerate a fix if others submit it too. Apple will ask you to perform a sysdiagnose dump while the problem is occurring.

 

filed.

 

Just curious, are nvidia gpus a common factor among those effected?
geforce 330m

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M here.

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M 256 MB

 

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M as well ....

 

I have found pretty good results making sure automatic graphics switching is off... before dismissing this, it keeps turning itself back on upon rebooting, so check it if you are having hangups.

 

Apparently not; my GPU is a AMD Radeon HD 6570M 512 MB (Mid 2011 iMac 21.5-inch) and I have the same symptoms described in this thread.

 

Thought we might be onto something but no, mine is an AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512 MB

 

MBP with AMD Radeon HD 6750M 1024 MB

I don't have complete hang ups (not using multiple monitors though) but if something is selected by the inspector the performance of the game view is horrible, setting maximize on play helps but is unviable if proper debugging is desired.

 

This sounds like an issue with App Nap. There should be an update available to fix this. It's something Unity can also fix with a couple of hacks.

 

Turning off App Nap was previously suggested and improves results in some cases but doesn't solve the problem. My guess would be that it's a data synchronisation/threading issue related with changes to the OpenGL context implementation introduced with Mavericks.

 

I had to revert to Mountain Lion in the end... luckily I had a backup, but it makes me angry that I had to resort to this!

 

Perhaps the memory compression stuff is also at fault? I cannot upgrade to mavericks while this exists.

 

for those inclined to test... I'm too scared,
http://superuser.com/questions/668114/disable-compressed-memory-in-mac-os-10-9-mavericks

 

I may be saying this prematurely - but THIS IS WORKING SO FAR! Huge props to Hippo and holyjewsus if this continues to be stable.

 

I've tried it and the problem is still affect.

 

Don't know if it helps, but I just played around with Unity for a while without starting MonoDevelop and I didn't had any freezes so far. Still there are some framerate issues in the game view (less stutter, but could be just my perception), but at least my mac doesn't lock up anymore...

 

Just tried it, but problems persists, although I have the impression it is slightly better (only short test though and usually problems get worse over time).

 

Is anyone else noticing that their graphics cards do not support the open gl context that apple specifies should be compatible with their systems?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5942
according to this document I should have 3.1 support, but in mavericks OpenGL extensions viewers shows that 3.0 and 3.1 are not supported for me.

330m here.

did anyone check their OpenGL support before upgrading to mavericks?

 

Shouldn't you have 3.3?

https://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/opengl/capabilities/

 

yes, you're right previous post was in error, had to update OpenGL extension viewer through app store but upon starting new version I get an error:

failed to initialize compatible renderer
CGLGetCurrentContext() failed.

 

This has actually fixed the huge freezes when I was switching between different contexts (i.e. Unity to MonoDevelop or different areas of the editor AFAIK. Thanks for the tip!

Edit: I also spoke too soon, although I think it is a bit better now.

 

I actually spoke to soon.. I thought at first it resolved the system wide freezes, but it's definitely as bad as ever :/

 

I went on a system wide uninstall witch hunt, and I noticed some other strange behavior:

does anyone else have graphical stuttering even when unity is not running in the mission control animations, notification center switching, and spaces switching animations?

I somehow resolved these by uninstalling many applications, trashing window server preferences, and removing lots of plugins. I'm unsure if resolving these stuttering issues has fixed my unity issues as I have not been able to work in unity for long periods, but it seems to have fixed it for short times.

curious on others performance with mavericks outside of unity...

 

So, no fix for this issue in 4.3.3?

 

Nope. Unity seems to think it's an Apple problem. But I just fear this could end up being a case of of Unity pointing at Apple and then Apple turns back and points at Unity, with us developers stuck in the middle. I hope Unity is right. Only real solution is to revert to older OS. The is very painful thing for me to do, but I might do it soon.

 

This tweet will probably be of interest!
https://twitter.com/lucasmeijer/status/423021268258926592

 

That's great news. Hopefully the can ship a patch soon (or at least give Apple more details on the bug so they can fix it).

 

Oh god, I hope this Lucas Meijer is not pulling our legs!

 

There's been an update in the issue tracker:

http://issuetracker.unity3d.com/issues/maverick-and-unity-performance-issues

 

I'm glad it's solved… slightly less glad we have to wait on Apple to resolve it. Hopefully Unity will consider releasing their workaround version, even if it's privately to us in this thread!

 

Anyone tested the bug under the new 10.9.2 build that Apple released a couple days ago?

 

10.9.1 here and according to app store no updates available. BTW problem unsolved in 10.9.1...

 

I think he meant the new preview build of 10.9.2 that developers can install.

 

i've been having this performance issues, i have a macbook pro with mavericks and its so frustrating trying to work with unity with this problem.

i manage to download that 10.9.2 patch.. almost 600mb download, install it and.. its not fixed at all..

unity works little better now, doesnt seems to freeze quite often but the problem remains, is not fixed at all.

i dont want to wipe out my computer and go back to mountain lion.. actually im thiking on putting a virtual machine with mountain lion on my mavericks system and try to run Unity on that virtual machine.. what you guys think?

 

If there is a workaround Unity should release it and not wait for Apple to fix it on their side, even if it is Apple's fault. Apple is notoriously slow when it comes to fixing bugs and releasing patches.

 

That doesn't sound like a viable workaround to me. You'd just be trading one form of slowness for another.

I don't really care whether it's Apple's or Unity's bug in the end: Of the dozen or so 2D and 3D graphics applications I use in daily production, Unity is the only one that exhibits this defect.

So as far as I'm concerned, it's up to Unity to fix it.

 

Heavens to Betsy!