CuppaManga

I use a $14 portable corded Microsoft mouse for playing CoH on my Macbook Pro, because it's cheap and comfortable. I also have a Mighty Mouse, but the lack of cord, for me, means it gets lost somewhere on the desk and I have to search for it.

The newest Macbook and Macbook Pro also have a two-button trackpad - you can set the right corner of the button to be the 2nd mouse button. I actually use that when I'm only doing something for a moment (like visiting Went's) and don't really need accurate control.

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Randomly or on load screen it shuts quits the application and gives me a error warning...

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Known Mac issue. This can be mitigated by using /reloadgfx sometimes after zoning. It's a cumulative problem, i.e. the more times you zone the more likely this is to happen.


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When I'm running around or typing in prices in WW when I go to chat or pm someone it puts in all of the numbers or letters that I put in WW etc...(This is weird.)

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This is a known issue for Windows an Mac in Issue 14. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon. It's not unique to Mac.


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Sometimes when I click on the Nav Bar or power tray they randomly pop up in a different place on the screen and I have to move them back.

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Known Mac issue. Hopefully it'll be fixed soon.

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....&PHPSESSID=

There is a way to launch CoH from the Terminal, which probably would include -demoplay, but I haven't yet tested it.

Got one more:

- In SG bases, it's possible for a rank besides Super-Leader to edit and create bases. As part of that they can place storage items. BUT, they cannot change the permissions on storage items, only the Super-Leader can. The Super-Leader cannot delegate this authority, because there's no setting to do so.

Is someone going to put that logo above the Talos Pocket D entrance instead of the blank sign?

Lots of bugs here:

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showflat....&PHPSESSID=

- The team leader cannot select factioned (labeled "hero" or "villain") missions belonging to other teammates.

- Sidekicked/Lackeyed teammates cannot enter Mission Architect missions until they un-sidekick/un-lackey first.

- Upon zoning, travel speed boosts like Swift are suppressed for five seconds.

- Opening the Map during Architect missions with lots of navigation instructions causes the compass area to compress vertically, corrupting the navigation info and the Mission Architect button.

- Editing a mission with the animated character preview open can cause your cape to disappear until you zone again. You're the only one who can see it though - other players see you normally.

- Some SG logoed and colored base items like wall banners are greyscale and are missing their tinting.

- Local and Published Mission titles don't always update until you do a blank search or use the Refresh on the Mac version.

- Published Missions show an outdated list if you log out and switch accounts. Doing a blank Search refreshes the list.

- Entering text for an Escort NPC's arrival, but no other dialoge, causes the NPC to repeat that text for every event (inactive, rescue, and also arrival).

- Local missions can be edited completely independently of their published counterparts, and there's no visual indication in the editor that the changes won't be saved in the published version. The opposite displays no warning either. This is proving to be confusing for many players, who have been editing local files and expecting the published version to be changed, or editing the published version and expected the local version to be changed.

- If you change a Custom Critter that exists in a published mission, there's no warning that the published mission needs to be edited and saved again.

- Hologram Contacts using the Valkyrie cape don't seem to want to keep it. They instead display with a standard cape.

- Pressed keys are not being cleared from the key cache, causing them to spill into text entries. Examples: Binding Shift-k for chat causes a "k" to appear in chat each time; Using movement keys and then attempting to chat causes a stream of the movement key characters to appear. This is not limited to chat, the same happens at Wentworths, and I've seen an incident of a global name changed to garbage because of it.

- There are occasional "Someone voted on 'arcname'." messages (exactly like that - "arcname" doesn't stand for anything).

- CRITICAL ISSUE: If a team begins an Architect mission, anyone who joins the team even immediately after, or *even leaves the map for any reason* (i.e. going to the hospital or leaving to buy inspirations) they may be locked out of further team architect missions until the arc ends or the team breaks up and reassembles. ADDED: This seems to be because the game believes you're on the mission map when you're not. The message in the Nav is the one from when you're inside the mish, not the one before you enter.

- MAC: The animated character previews are corrupted and broken.

- MAC: Certain zones like SG bases, Pocket D, and RWZ still have some lag-chop due to texture loading issues (though it's improved over I13).

- MAC: Zoning multiple times, especially with texture rich zones, causes the game to crash.

- MAC: Using /reloadgfx BEFORE zoning causes the game to crash.

- MAC: Turning up World Detail graphics setting beyond 100% causes frequent game crashes.

- MAC: 3D sound causes object sounds to become really loud.

- MAC: Plugging in earphones causes the game to lose sound until you cmd-tab out and back.

- MAC: FSAA and special effects are disabled.

- MAC: Occasionally, contact photos appear as white squares.

- MAC: Occasionally, costumes in the costume window appear as white squares.

Right-Click the City of Heroes application and select "Show Package Contents".

Then follow through these folders: Contents > Resources > transgaming > c_drive, and then either coh or Program Files > City of Heroes.

The keybinds.txt should be there.

(copy of previous reply)

Thanks to a few irrepressible beta testers who don't sleep, the Mac version is very close to on-par with the Windows one.

There are still a few small issues, but they're being worked out. No FSAA, and some occasional texture related lag and crashes, but ironically running in Vista has its problems too (pausing and occasional crashing).

I think you'll be happy running the Mac client.

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This game seems very buggy. It is crashing on me at least once an hour. I may shelve it and check in on it again in a few months, but I don't think I want to pay for it in this state...

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Before you do that, send in a Support request so they know how many people are experiencing frequent crashing.

There is a known issue when you change zones or tasks a lot that may cause the game to crash. And unfortunately, when you're a new player, that's the first thing you do. The issue has been on the schedule for a fix for a while now.

You can reduce the crashes a bit, but it takes some practice. When your game client starts to feel more sluggish than normal *after* zoning, type /reloadgfx in the chat box and hit Return.

Supposedly there is a physical package somewhere with a DVD in it but I haven't seen it in local stores.

If the problem is you're on dialup, you might want to see if someone friendly at your local Apple store will download it for you if you bring your own copy of the Mac CoH client on a USB stick (at least 4 GB) and come back in a few hours to pick it up.

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I have an iMac with the mighty mouse - and I cannot use all the "right" click functionality of my pc mouse

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Check your Mouse panel in System Preferences. The 2nd button may have been remapped to something other than "Secondary Button".

Another FYI post:

The Live server client for Mac is here: ftp://client.coh.com/US/

The Training Room client for Mac is here: ftp://client.coh.com/Test/US/

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I just got the mac version and followed your simple steps, but after letting my mac run for several hours the updater constantly stops downloading at 5.1 megs when it is Fixing files:texEnemies4.pigg

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"Fixing Files" usually means a download is in progress. The file is around 9 megs so you're close. If it keeps getting stuck you have 3 choices:

1. Contact Support in case they have a shortcut.

2. Show Package Contents on the City of Heroes application. Then open Contents > Resources > transgaming > drive_c and then either coh or Program Files > City of Heroes depending on what you have. Click on the piggs folder, use Get Info command, click the lock (then authenticate) and make sure your account has Read & Write permission. Then use the button or gear icon to Apply to Enclosed Items.

3. Delete the piggs folder and make the Updater download them all again.

Solution to Updater freezing before downloading files, credited to DreamMenagerie and NCSoft Support:

ATTENTION

Tech Support found the solution. It's the caches. I didn't read all of their previous response and only cleared Safari's cache, but after taking their suggestion of running the program below and clearing all the caches (System, User, Internet), the updater is now working and downloading the game's files. I will update as I see if I can actually play the game.

http://www.titanium.free.fr/pgs2/eng...x_leopard.html

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So I remember when I was running it on Boot Camp, and I had to go and download better video drivers for my GMA 950. How do I know if I have the best/correct video drivers on the Mac end, now that I'm running the Mac Edition?

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Apple is responsible for keeping its video drivers up to date, and so far they've been pretty good about it. I don't anticipate missing out on future CoH game system upgrades because of outdated drivers.

If you have the box, just insert the DVD and drag the City of Heroes application to your Applications folder. Then double-click it to start CoH.

For an electronic download, start here:

ftp://client.coh.com/US/

Look for the Mac_CoH_installer_US.dmg.

Once you've downloaded that file, double-click it to mount the disk image, and then drag the City of Heroes application to your Applications folder. Double-click the application, and wait for it to download files.

After that you're ready to play!

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Just purchased the game after really enjoying the Mac Beta. Now, how do I transfer my characters that I used during the Mac Beta to the main servers?

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Characters on the Training Room cannot be transferred to the Live Servers because the economy on the Training Room is too easily tampered with. You'll have to re-create the characters on the Live servers.

For play on a secondary External Monitor or Television:

1. Start the game and switch to Windowed Mode (Cmd-Enter)

2. Plug in the External Monitor

3. Open System Preferences, select Displays and then Arrangement. Check "Mirror Displays".

4. Switch the game back to Full-screen (Cmd-Enter)

After playing, switch back to Windowed Mode (Cmd-Enter) and then unplug the External Monitor. Then switch back to Full-Screen (Cmd-Enter) and quit.

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I only have 2 Gb. Buying memory from Mac is sooo expensive. It's so much cheaper to buy elsewhere. I just need to get some more.

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Here's a decent price for RAM: Transintl (4 GB for $88)

You can probably find cheaper at Newegg.com (beware non-brands there though) but Transintl guarantees it'll work.

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Using activity monitor, It showed that I was using 1.98 Gb out of 2 Gb of memory. This was with COH, Ventrillo, and Safari browser running. Ventrillo and Safari were using an extremely small amount of memory compared to COH and it's associated processes.

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Oh yes, lack of memory will definitely kill the framerate. I don't know why I didn't ask that first - possibly because some of the new Macs ship with 4 GB I assumed that's what you had.

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CuppaManga, could you say a little bit more about why you are wary of the -renderthread 1 tag?

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Not wary really, I just find on my Macbook Pro it produces very little benefit (a few fps) for lots of extra heat. Plus you also have to remember to put it back in every time the Updater patches, and you have to remember you put it in when you post about your comp running hot. And it adds yet another factor into troubleshooting.

For me it seems like the umbrella in a drink - it looks nice, it's harmless, only mildly useful, and it might poke you in the eye sometimes.

That said, the case may be different for other video types. The ones I tried were 8600M and 9600M.


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You mentioned that OS X deals with the dual cores in a different way from Windows - how does this make the renderthread tag a last resort?

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Windows will fill the first processor core until it's maxed out, and then start using the 2nd core and so on. MacOS will assign the cores dynamically instead.

The renderthread flag creates a new "thread" (like an independent mini-program) that is more likely to be assigned to a 2nd core in Windows. On a Mac it also increase efficiency a little bit because of the nature of its multitasking, but not as significantly as on Windows.


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I have tried several different tags to my .exe string (-renderthread, -cov, etc.) and all of them cause the updater to not launch at all. Is this a separate issue?

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That's a seperate issue. I haven't tested that yet.

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I'm not sure how to check the actual frame rate. I could visually tell the rates were slowing. eventually I crashed while jumping near the BM in Cap. next time I log in, i'll check using the /reloadgfx command.
Also I will try the /netgraph 1 command as well to check it out.

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I believe it's /fps 1 (/fps 0 to turn off) but I usually just go to the Keybind options and scroll to the end where there's an item for "Framerate" and set it to Ctrl-F.


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Currently I'm updated to OS 10.5.6, so I'm current in that regard.

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Good.

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how do I add the -rethreaded 1 command into the info.plist file?

I know it's supposed to go with this line but not sure where to put it:
<string>c:\coh\cohupdater.exe</string>

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You change it to look like this:

<string>c:\coh\cohupdater.exe -renderthread 1</string>

Save that for a last resort, though.

Also before you change the info.plist make a copy of it somewhere in case.

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any attempt I made would cause the application to not launch, and I would have to delete it, re-save file to launch COH.

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See above.

Other things that might floor your fps are: If you're using a video resolution that pushes the 8800 too hard (like a huge monitor with 1680x1150 or something), or if you're running a background application that tends to slow the computer down like "one-touch" backup hard drive software or scanner/printer software that listens for commands sent from buttons on the printer/scanner.

To check that open System Preferences and check your Login Items on your Accounts page.

And are you using Unsanity's APE, Fruitmenu, or Windowshade?