CuppaManga
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Posts
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Joined
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Yes, I can confirm that bug exists, and I already notified the devs.
For now, the workaround is to always check the game's Properties after the first install and either make sure it points to the actual City Of Heroes app, or change it so it does. -
Hang in there everyone, there's definitely something being done about the Mac client. Hopefully we'll find out what that is soon.
As another player who's familiar with the Cider family of products told me, part of the delay may be due to a major issue in the software it's based on (WINE). Pretty much anything related to it has been ground to a halt for a while because if it. An example of what went wrong is in the new Crossover Games, where lots of games that were working before with it are now badly broken.
Looking at it that way, it's probably fortunate the Mac client hasn't been updated in a while.
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This is very strange. I'm going to see if there's a way I can compare my install to your two installs and find out why mine's working and yours isn't.
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Quote:That's a known issue with the 3068 client, which is why the current Live download version was the newer one. Hopefully an update that solves both this and the ATI issue will be released soon.Originally Posted by BrainInAJar
I'm able to play, but I get a *lot* of buggy behaviour. Some are little things (like the cursor doesn't change to the "hand" symbol when I hover over a door), and some are preventing me from finishing missions correctly. -
The current Live client solves that issue - but it also currently won't work properly with recent ATI-based Macs. If you have one of those, hold off on updating for now.
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Is anyone here still NOT able to play after downloading the older Test client?
Also I'd like to say to nobody in particular - a friend of mine works in support in the game industry (not for NCSoft, though). The NC Support people work long hours for not much pay, they deal with irate customers all day, when they have about as much say in what the developers and executives decide as we do. Please, give them a break.
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Thanks everyone, but this round I have to give a lot of credit to Paragon QA and NCSoft Support for figuring out that the older client (3069) didn't have the black screen problem with ATI video that the newer one (4462) does.
Paragon took a huge risk making the Mac version available. At the time they didn't know much about Macs. And the software they chose to make it work, Transgaming's Cider, is one of the most complicated pieces of technology out there.
I like to think the reason why they took that risk is because there are active player community members like us to help them out. Otherwise they probably wouldn't have taken the chance. -
Click on the CoH application and use the Get Info command in the Finder's File menu - which version do you have?
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Quote:If your Mac client is already working right now don't bother modifying the Info.plist any further. Support probably added that in as a "and if that doesn't work..." bit.Originally Posted by buddhabear
Ok, this is little confusing. Hopefully someone can clear this up. So I received a response back from support. They recommended I use the following lines on the live client:
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I updated this guide so it matches new info from NCSoft Support on Issue 20.
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I'm checking out the solution NCSoft Support seems to be suggesting. They seem to be telling people with the black screen issue to use version 1.0.3068 (actually you're downloading 1.0.2098, but it patches to 3068) instead of 1.0.4462. 3068 is also the official patch server version.
So this is essentially a client rollback - probably QA determined that 3068 was working with ATI-based Macs and 4462 wasn't. If it's working I'm therefore going to have to change the advice in my troubleshooting guide.
Also, the Test Server client connects to Live instead of Test because the patching process doesn't seem to replace the Info.plist in the application with a new one. -
Quote:Which location were you told to download from? And can you tell me what version it is? (select the application, use the Finder's Get Info command from the File menu)Originally Posted by Incendia Tempestas
At the suggestion of the support folks at NCSoft, I installed the test client, and modified it to connect to the live servers. Thus far it resolves the black screen issue.
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Just for argument's sake - can you try removing Smart Crash Reports? The location of it is above in the log you posted. Toss it in the trash, reboot, then try starting CoH again.
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Quote:If you really want to know, apparently Transgaming uses some disk image during testing that's not distributed with the end product. It's not really important.Originally Posted by Davpa_CoX
Notice how it says it can not find the F drive?
Somebody code smart make sense of that. I saved my Console log, so if you want it, just tell me where to email it. The long list of stuff about malloc is Cider running out of memory handles and then not handling the error well, which is why the crash.
The important part though is there's nothing after the Drive F: error, which means the black screen problem possibly is caused by the game application itself, and not Cider. That means a possibly shorter wait for a fix**!
** Note: There are no guarantees with bugs like this until it's fixed. -
I timed starting up CoH on my PC vs my Mac specifically because the PC has a newer ATI video:
PC (Windows 7, Core i5, 4MB, ATI Radeon HD 6800) - 22.4 sec
Mac (Macbook Pro Core i7, 10.6.7, 4MB, nVidia Geforce 330M GT) - 55.2 sec
Note that's even with the Mac having an edge because it's using a Seagate hybrid hard drive with 4 MB SSD built in.
The conclusion is though I'm not stuck with a black screen, CoH is starting up much more slowly than it used to on the Mac. The startup times used to be about even.
P.S. Those of you with the black screen - can you switch to windowed mode with Cmd-Enter while you're looking at the black screen with the cursor? -
Quote:Davpa - can you open the Console (Applications > Console) and if you can find it paste here the section from the time you launched CoH to the time you logged in?Originally Posted by Davpa_CoX
Alright, I launched the game, got to the black screen and then walked away. I did some errands and watched some TV. Totally forgot I had launched the game and when I went into the room, what did I see? A LOG-IN SCREEN!!!!
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Quote:At least one of the devs (maybe more) were given the same model Macbook Pro I have, with the nVidia graphics.Originally Posted by mintmiki
Much as I respec what manga does, I have to agree with this guy. The devs really need to test stuff like this out themselves. It's like that mouse bug back in the autumn. That was a nightmare!
I think (I don't know for sure, but I may have heard briefly) since then they got at least one ATI-based one in QA - but remember, QA is after-the-fact, after something bad is discovered, and most of the devs who work on the Mac client pull double-duty with something else involved with the game and often don't think to toss the current Mac build to QA to be tested thoroughly on several models.
I'm not trying to make excuses for them, just stating the situation as I understand it.
Also, usually during betas I find I'm the only one testing on a Mac, and that kind of makes me, more or less, the last stop when it comes to finding really nasty issues before they go live. That doesn't make me feel powerful - it's actually a lot of pressure, and I feel a little bad when something I missed or was unable to test makes it through. I welcome any other Mac players, especially those with some troubleshooting experience, to volunteer and share both the work and the glory.
P.S. As far as the above goes, I do have a list of tests I go through after every large test patch before it goes live. Even with those, success sometimes don't translate to other models. -
Quote:That's right, you're the one with the same Macbook Pro as me but with a lot more problems. Sorry I forgot about you! Did I ask you to try creating a new user Mac side and running CoH from there?Originally Posted by Nalrok_AthZim
I don't believe so. ATI is Radeon, yes? I'm on a previous-gen Macbook Pro Core i7. nVidia 300M card. All I get is assertion failures, crashes to desktop, and millions of pageouts on my RAM.
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Quote:If I could convince Paragon Studios to buy me one of the 2011 Macbook Pros I'd do lots of ATI testing.Originally Posted by plainguy
Not for nothing but why don't they go out and pick up a Mac with ATI card and try it out themselves and see if it works. Why should we, as I am getting the same request be the guinea pigs. But that's not all that likely, so mostly I look for cues (certain bugs that tend to appear with nVidia and signal possible ATI problems). There were some potential ones that *seemed* to be fixed with Open Beta. This black screen bug caught me by surprise as much as it did the devs.
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Are you using an ATI-based Mac?
If so, the related issue I've been gathering info on (crashes on ATI-based Macs) is apparently already being looked into according to an earlier redname post. Hopefully the wait won't be long.
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Turn off Geometry Buffers and see if that helps.
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Everyone: I may have found a similar older report to this current black screen issue. I'd like to see if it's the same one - so leave the black screen on and get a cup of coffee or something, give it up to about 20 minutes. See if the login screen eventually appears.
I'm using an nvidia-based Macbook Pro and I *do* see a black screen at first. It lasts maybe 2-3 minutes, but the login screen *does* appear eventually. -
All of you with the Black Screen issue try starting CoH in Safe Mode and see if it makes a difference.
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Read the Troubleshooting guide in my signature, there's stuff about making sure you are using the latest Mac client.
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Nalrok,
Are you using a Mac with ATI video?