Snow Leopard Quartz Debugger - disable Beam Sync for smoother Spaces

[polobreaka]

There has been topics about choppy/stutter Spaces and other animation problems but no real solution. I've done numerous searches on google, mroogle, and the search function on the forum. most of the post about choppy animations did not provide with permanent solutions. if there were solutions, it was about how to disable Beam Sync.

Choppy animations such as stuttering spaces or expose seemed to have happened since back from Tiger. People have been able to disable Beam Sync in Quartz Debug tool from developers tools for smoother transitions.

i am finding mix reviews about disabling this, i would like to start a thread for people with experience on how this work and how to make your animations better.

Please try this and let us know if this is also working out for you guys:

Install Quartz Debugger from the SL disc if you dont have it. in my UTD disc, it was under Xcode.pkg.

- Open Quartz Debugger (i searched under spotlight)
- drop down Beam Sync
- click "Disable"
- Now move Spaces around and see if you can tell a difference
- on the net it says to Force Quit for this setting to stick, but it is not working for me. So i leave Quartz Debugger open, since i dont reboot/shut down my laptop, so its not a problem to leave open and it doesnt take up much resources. Ive been running with it disabled for a while and watched movies, i do not notice any tearing or anything anyone has claimed negatives about it. it works prefect for me under SL and that was probably my only 'annoyance' from SL. i am wondering is there a way in Terminal to make it stick?

[polobreaka]

anyone??

[vega07]

for me quartz debug says beam sync is automatic every time I open it, but I know it's disabled because my animations are now smooth as silk. you don't need it to open all the time.

[polobreaka]

right after i close quartz debug, i can tell right away that the animation went back to being choppy. not working for me.

[Ol!ver]

http://www.the-iblog.com/2009/08/31/...-snow-leopard/

Any use?

It saves the setting for me until I restart. I've gone back to leopard though - no printer drivers pushed me over the edge.

[polobreaka]

yea ive been on that site. did exactly everything he posted. not working for me. i think i might just go back to Leopard also. i have a clone of my Leopard drive as a backup just in case SL wasnt working out. i booted externally with the Leopard and tried spaces, it is way smoother than SL.

[surrealhope]

Switching from Space 2 to 1, Safari window flying in from the left. Macbook Pro; Intel C2D 2.5GHz; 8600M GT

TL;DR conclusion: It's fast, but ugly. Whether you want to keep Quartz Debug opened (or even install dev tools if you haven't) to see fast spaces artifacts is up to you.



Few things I noticed:

1. To anyone who can't find it in Spotlight, OP means Quartz Debug NOT Quartz Debugger
2. Force quitting the app does not retain the beam sync setting
3. Disabling beam sync, while does improve the perceived "speed" (framerate, smoothness, etc.) it seems to do ease the motion to the eyes by compromising the animation quality.

The "tearing window" effect was not created by camera blur, and was clear to the eye every time I quick-switched spaces either via the menubar or my keyboard shortcuts. Horizontal motion (e.g. switching between spaces 1 and 2) are the worst, vertical being a lot less noticeable, and diagonal animations somewhere in between the two.

I'd rather wait for Apple to fix it up.

[TheSpaz]

Originally Posted by surrealhope

Switching from Space 2 to 1, Safari window flying in from the left. Macbook Pro; Intel C2D 2.5GHz; 8600M GT

TL;DR conclusion: It's fast, but ugly. Whether you want to keep Quartz Debug opened (or even install dev tools if you haven't) to see fast spaces artifacts is up to you.



Few things I noticed:

1. To anyone who can't find it in Spotlight, OP means Quartz Debug NOT Quartz Debugger
2. Force quitting the app does not retain the beam sync setting
3. Disabling beam sync, while does improve the perceived "speed" (framerate, smoothness, etc.) it seems to do ease the motion to the eyes by compromising the animation quality.

The "tearing window" effect was not created by camera blur, and was clear to the eye every time I quick-switched spaces either via the menubar or my keyboard shortcuts. Horizontal motion (e.g. switching between spaces 1 and 2) are the worst, vertical being a lot less noticeable, and diagonal animations somewhere in between the two.

I'd rather wait for Apple to fix it up.

The reason for keeping beam sync enabled is to prevent tearing because the graphics will refresh at the same rate as the display. Keeping those things in sync shows a more visually pleasing effect. Keep beam sync on.

[vega07]

I don't notice any tearing on mine.

[wankey]

I believe BeamSync is currently bugged. Leopard was pretty smooth... it should be fixed eventually.

[polobreaka]

i definitely dont see that on my screen. mine is really smooth. its pretty much like how Leopard was. i downgraded back to Leopard because the choppieness of animiation was a bug to me.

in snow leopard mine came up as Quartz Debugger. in Leopard/Tiger, its Quartz Debug.

so this seems like a hit or miss for some people. it worked perfect for me and looked terrible for others.

[TheSpaz]

My animations are smooth… maybe it's a video driver issue?

[polobreaka]

possibly? i have nvidia geforce 9400m.

[bbrik]

Hi, I have a unibody MacBook 13. Spaces and Exposé are really choppy compared to Leopard, specially when connected to ACD 24".

The beam sync on Disabled improves a lot and I don't see any tearing. But the setting doesn't stick, even with force quit.

Another weird thing is that, when iTunes is playing, it gets a lot more choppy. Does anybody get that too?

[chromescreen]

Yes, Snow Leopard's beamsync settings don't stick, but if you use Leopard's Quartz Debug, disable beamsync and force quit the app, it will stick.

Copied 10.5.x's Quartz Debug from a previous backup. Simply works.

[Ol!ver]

Originally Posted by chromescreen

Copied 10.5.x's Quartz Debug from a previous backup. Simply works.

Can you expand on this please? Are you saying if you replace the app in Snow Leopard with the one in Leopard, all the problems go away ?

[chromescreen]

Originally Posted by Ol!ver

Can you expand on this please? Are you saying if you replace the app in Snow Leopard with the one in Leopard, all the problems go away ?

I'm not talking about any particular problems. It's just about disabled beamsync setting that doesn't stick if i try and force quit 10.6's Quartz Debugger (my experience), but sticks if I use Leopard's Quartz Debug instead (disable beamsync and force quit the app). Just happens that it works for me. And UI's speed increase is noticeable with beamsync off, it's choppy in the original setting, and I hope Apple fixes this (bug?) soon.

EDIT: And of course, the setting sticks only until restart, which is good enough for me

[coolbits]

disable beamsync with

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver Compositor -dict deferredUpdates 0

At least this worked on leopard... You need to reboot after entering this command.
Change the 0 to 1 to go back to normal.