Issue 18 Mac Comprehensive (hopefully) Known Issues

Issue 18 Mac Comprehensive (hopefully) Known Issues

NOTE: The results of this list were generated using a very small sample size, so your results may vary. It may not cover issues that are occurring for certain individuals. If you continue to have problems, make sure to send a request to Support at help.ncsoft.com.

- If you use a City of Heroes build older than 4462 (check your version by clicking the City of Heroes application ONCE and selecting Get Info from the File menu), you’re strongly encouraged to download the new one from your NCSoft Account page or the FTP site. Version 4462 fixes many types of crashes while editing bases, ineffectiveness of Vertical Sync, and a rare crash entering RWZ base from another zone. I now consider this a critical update; I’d like to convince the CoH devs to push 4462 via the Patch Server so all Mac clients are updated.

- 4462 uses more CPU than older versions, but the motion within the game is smoother.

- If you’re using Mac OS X 10.6.x make sure to update to all the latest graphics updates - Apple has been drastically improving the performance of Mac graphics, and this affects CoH positively.

- There is a rare legacy issue which may cause video settings to become corrupted, causing game crashes or preventing the game from starting. The Mac client does not detect the erroneous cached settings; You must toss out your game preferences (Users > [yourname] > Library > Preferences > City of Heroes Preferences) to resume normal play. This is known as a “legacy issue” because it’s caused by an older version of the client, but inherited by the new one. The signature methods of crashing are Assertion Failure or sudden mass corruption of on-screen graphics and a crash.

- Build 4462 uses much more CPU than previous builds, which results in smoother gaming but more lag in background applications.

- Using Geometry Buffers on the Mac client causes severe lag on certain maps such as SG bases, RWZ base, Arachnos maps, and Pocket D.

- Using FSAA at any setting causes unusually high CPU use, resulting in typing lag both in-game and outside in other applications.

- During SG base editing, icons for base items appear corrupted. This appears to be caused by a image scaling issue occurring on the Mac client - possibly reversed sizing values.

- During SG base editing, your character turns semi-transparent; on the Mac client, this causes rogue reflection and transparency effects to appear across your character’s body.

- Cursors are RGB-reversed (issue duplicated by mixing colors in Photoshop RGB color picker).

- Mini-avatars in Mission Architect editor do not animate, and corrupt if you rotate them. This seems to have to do with a problem deciding which size of bitmap to use (the corrupted ones look like NPC’s rendered at a long distance away).

- The version number in the Patcher window is too long, and runs into the Time Remaining.

- The Training Room client on the FTP site is woefully out of date, and may unwittingly contribute to the legacy video settings corruption issue above.


More as I find them...

Thank you for putting this together, and for your committment to help the citizens of the "City for the rest of us"!

Deleted because I thought I had fixed my blackscreen problem, but it came back. *sigh*

"There's villainy ... and then there's supervillainy. The difference is performance."
-Doc_Reverend

Let's see your CoH build, Mac model, RAM, video type, etc...

Yes, you definitely need to update if you're using 3068.

Well, I did and now I'm actually crashing more frequently. No more Assertion Failure boxes, the thing just up and quits.

Funny enough, it's only when I get on a team. Minutes within getting a team I crash like a flimsy paper airplane.

Post the last few lines of your console log (Applications > Utilities > Console) after a crash, it might provide a useful clue. Also post your Mac model, RAM, video along with it.

I just started using the mac client recently and I'm having the same problem as Nalrok. My client just up and quits a lot with no error message. I do get errors in my log when it crashes. It's always the same type of error, see below:

10-09-20 1:36:32 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes cider_noui(1372,0x708cea00) malloc: *** mmap(size=16777216) failed (error code=12)
10-09-20 1:36:32 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes *** error: can't allocate region
10-09-20 1:36:32 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug
10-09-20 1:47:19 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes cider_noui(1372,0x708cea00) malloc: *** mmap(size=16777216) failed (error code=12)
10-09-20 1:47:19 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes *** error: can't allocate region
10-09-20 1:47:19 PM [0x0-0xb00b0].com.transgaming.cityofheroes *** set a breakpoint in malloc_error_break to debug

My system is:

Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac8,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 6 MB
Memory: 4 GB
System Version: Mac OS X 10.6.4 (10F569)
64-bit Kernel and Extensions: No
Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS
VRAM (Total): 512 MB


Looks like it's crashing simply trying to allocate some memory to the game. Using the /unloadgfx command before zoning got me a 4 hour session without crashing. But it's kinda annoying and easy to forget.

I have a friend that gets the Assertion Failure box without fail every time she goes into the base editor and some other times, as well, that aren't so obviously triggered. She says that her graphics drivers are as up to date as they can be and something about not being able to uninstall & reinstall them without completely uninstalling the OS. I don't think that's accurate, but haven't looked into it myself after finding this thread.

She has satellite Internet, so I downloaded the Mac installer, put it on a DVD, and had her reinstall it; she did not uninstall the old version first, but simply put the new one on top of it. She still gets the Assertion Failure message.

She's running 10.5.8 on an iMac with the following pertinent specs:
Processor: 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
RAM: 4 GB
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 4850

Any suggestions?

I'm currently trying to find a pattern with these Assertion Failure issues - it seems it's not just on nVidia systems anymore. Which Mac game build are you using? (check the original post to see how to figure that out).

My friend's build number is in the 3000s, so she's uninstalling and reinstalling from the DVD I burned. I'll update when I know more.

My friend manually uninstalled (using an uninstaller program), reinstalled from the DVD, and has a version number greater than or equal to 4462. She just had a crash with no errors or indications. In her words: "No warning. No pop up windows. Just died."

I'm getting a crash that's similar, but not identical to what's been posted here. My screen flashes black, sound loops and continues until I force reboot my MBP. When I reboot, I get an error log that Apple wants me to send to them...

Try shutting down your Mac and then starting it up while holding down Cmd-Option-P-R. Wait for it to chime twice before letting go of those keys. I looked up your particular kernel panic type via Google and that seems to be the #1 recommended thing to try first.

The #2 thing to try is use Disk Utility and check the disk for errors.

After that, it does seem there's a rare bug with Cider and your particular model of Mac (there's also one with the Core i7 Macbook Pro) out it doesn't occur with all of them. That means there's something particular about some of them that's causing it. Hopefully me or someone else will find out what that is soon.

Well whatever issue I'm having that is causing catastrophic lockups is still afflicting me after adding the new i19 patch.

Here are the specifics from the other thread. Anyone have any ideas on a fix? I've /bugged it but no formal response yet just the automated one.