OS X List of Mac Metal games

[jeanlain]

Latest Steam update release notes talked about fully supporting Metal games (although I have no idea what Steam has to do with that). Oh and Retina support for game overlays. Still a joke that their in-app browser still doesn't support retina in late 2017.

The Windows version in even worse. It doesn't support high resolution anywhere in the UI.

 

[jeanlain]

Feral's games circumvent that problem by using a Metal/OpenGL hybrid.

Do they do that for all games? I know they do for Hitman, and this is why V-Sync can be disabled. For other games, I don't know. The F1 games are limited to 60 fps, which suggest they use Metal to display the rendered image.
I'm not sure if they use openGL because of the Steam overlay or another reason related to performance or V-Sync. But the good news is that Metal 2 and the new Steam should allow Feral to get rid of openGL entirely.

 

[Maetzle]

Ah I thought you were referring to some global setting. Well you can make a comparison between openGL and Metal for a given game and choose which you prefer. Metal should be faster.

Whilst Metal used to be better for Heroes of the Storm, I (and others from what I've read), have to use OpenGL atm, since the game has really annoying graphics issues since I've installed High Sierra. Suppose it has something to do with Metal 2 which Blizzard hasn't gotten around to fix yet.

 

[jeanlain]

Yeah, I wonder what's taking them so long with the SC2 engine. The Metal version has been in beta for 9 months.

 

[Janichsan]

Do they do that for all games?

At least that’s what I read.

 

[jeanlain]

DiRT Rally for Mac is out in three days.
The system requirements are very low.
http://www.feralinteractive.com/en/news/829/

 

[Janichsan]

I did some benchmarks with Dirt Rally running under macOS High Sierra and Windows 10:

The game was running at 1920x1200 at High settings (minus Smoke Shadows on Windows, as these are not supported under macOS) with 4x MSAA on my 2016 15" rMBP with a 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7 and a Radeon Pro 460 (4 GB VRAM).

macOS:

Windows:

So macOS is almost 36% slower (i.e. Windows 55% faster).

 

[jeanlain]

So Windows is almost 36% faster.

That's the difference I'm seeing on my iMac radeon pro 580.

 

[mario-64]

Is it possible to get 60 FPS in Dirt Rally on Mac if you disable AA and dial back some settings?

 

[jeanlain]

Of couse, the opposite would imply that the fastest Mac in the world couldn't reach 60 fps with lowest resolution and quality. I'm getting 60 fps with almost everything set to high at 1440p.

On another topic. The game still appears to use openGL. Apparently, Metal 2 did not allow Feral to drop openGL completely. :-/

 

[mario-64]

Dang really? So all that Metal 2 support business is a lie?

 

[jeanlain]

No, the game may use openGL only to display what has been rendered by Metal. I've been told this is to avoid issues related to frame rate stability with Metal on certain setups.

 

[TheNormsk]

I love rally games and I still have a copy of Colin Mcrae Rally 2.0 floating around at home. So I'm glad to see this come out for the Mac. I don't really play games anymore but I'll make an exception for this. I also just recently picked up a 2017 27" iMac with the 3.8 i5, Radeon Pro 580 8GB, 2TB fusion and 40GB ram (8 original + 32 I added).

So I bought it through the App Store for $32 and I'll update with performance charts when I get the chance. It may be some time, as although I have a 100mbps connection, it is still telling me that it'll take 8-10 hours to download.

 

[TheNormsk]

My 2017 27" iMac with the 3.8 i5, Radeon Pro 580 8GB, 2TB fusion and 40GB ram hit 60fps with ease at HD quality and the recommended settings.

 

[jeanlain]

Since the average is very close to the max fps and near 60, I suppose Vsync was on. It can be disabled in the "display mode" section.
[doublepost=1511248961][/doublepost]

So Windows is almost 36% faster.

Have you checked that Vsync was effectively disabled? Two Feral employees (Brad and Edwin) told me they believed it cannot. Oddly, they did not appear absolutely sure. Maybe Vsync is enforced on some setups where the game can do without openGL, but on my iMac, it can be turned off and the app indeed uses openGL (checked with ioregistryexplorer).
Even at low fps, Vsync can still reduce performance a frame times are constrained to multiples of 16ms.

 

[TheNormsk]

On my 2017 27" iMac with the 3.8 i5, Radeon Pro 580 8GB, 2TB fusion and 40GB ram, I tested Dirt Rally with the recommended settings but at 2560x1440. It handles it with no issue.

I then tried it on Ultra, also at 2560x1440. This was noticeably less smooth in parts but it did pretty well..

So I will go back to the recommended settings for now but at 2560x1440. An thoughts on what settings I should try next, for improving quality but keeping it at around 60fps?

 

[Janichsan]

Since the average is very close to the max fps and near 60, I suppose Vsync was on. It can be disabled in the "display mode" section.

If @TheNormsk just used the recommended settings and/or the presets, and hasn't fiddled around himself, Vsync most likely was on, as this is the default.

Have you checked that Vsync was effectively disabled? Two Feral employees (Brad and Edwin) told me they believed it cannot.

Yes, absolutely. I don't know if you have seen my initial results on lower settings in the other DiRT Rally thread, but I can easily get framerates significantly above 60 fps. With Vsync on, the maximum indeed tops off at 60 fps.

Besides, Edwin mentioned that the unavoidable, OS enforced framerate cap lies at 120 fps, so far above my results.

 

[Eric5h5]

That's a bit unfortunate, given that faster monitors exist (typically 144Hz). I'm actually fine with 120fps , but I wonder why there has to be a forced cap at all.

--Eric

 

[Irishman]

That's a bit unfortunate, given that faster monitors exist (typically 144Hz). I'm actually fine with 120fps , but I wonder why there has to be a forced cap at all.

--Eric

If I had to guess why, it probably has to do with the fact that most games played on Macs these days are done so on 60hz monitors, which is all that Apple makes. I'm guessing that their logic is why engineer a framerate that you can't see?

 

[Eric5h5]

That doesn't really address the issue though. Why is there a cap at all; it seems like there would be extra effort involved in enforcing an arbitrary cap.

--Eric

 

[TheNormsk]

If I had to guess why, it probably has to do with the fact that most games played on Macs these days are done so on 60hz monitors, which is all that Apple makes. I'm guessing that their logic is why engineer a framerate that you can't see?

I was wondering about this. I couldn't figure out why people stressed over getting frame rates higher that 60fps when monitors don't go over that anyway. So there are some monitors that do?

I would presume that most people only have 60/50 fps monitors in the majority of cases.

 

[jeanlain]

The fps limit is imposed by the use of core animation to display the rendered frames. It may just be twice the monitor refresh rate, not necessarily 120 fps.

 

[TheNormsk]

Okay, a couple more, this time with v-sync off.

My settings are still 2560x1440 with recommended settings tweaked so anything below high is set to high and those that were recommended at ultra are.

V-sync off at 2xMSAA.

I then tried a 4xMSAA.

I also tried at 8xMSAA to see what would happen.

So I will stick to 2xMSAA. Honestly at 2560x1440 resolution I don't notice the difference anyway. They all look pretty awesome. I also put v-sync back to 1.

There is a v-sync option of 2. Any idea what that does?

 

[jeanlain]

My settings are still 2560x1440 with recommended settings tweaked so anything below high is set to high and those that were recommended at ultra are.

I have the same Mac as yours, we we can compare results. Can you tell me which settings are on ultra?

 

[TheNormsk]

My settings:

I think my gamma is too high. Changing it on this screen doesn't seem to do too much but the trees look too light in the game.. By default it is lower than this. I think I will change it back down.

and my results: