macOS Poor Performance since 1.50

[BrianTim]

Hello SCS,

Ever since I installed the v1.50 update, the graphics performance on my Intel iMac has been poor. Graphics are very jerky. I have to lower the quality settings significantly to get the smooth performance I once had.

Is this a known issue? Is there any way to get v1.49 back again? The gave is almost unplayable now.

Here are my specs (Yes they are old, but It was working fine before the update)

2014 iMac 5k 27"
macOS 11.7
RAM: 24GB
Internal SSD

Thanks.....Brian

[nautofon]

FWIW, I play on a 2020 iMac running OS 10.15. Performance is probably not quite as good as it was with game version 1.49, but it's really not a big difference on my machine.

I note that the GPU in your machine (usually a Radeon R9 M290X) outperforms the "minimum system requirements" listed on the ATS Steam store page by a factor of about 3. It's even close to the recommended specs I think. Based on that, it should certainly be capable of running the game. It's possible that the system requirements simply are outdated though.

Posting your 1.50 game log might help SCS diagnose the issue.

If you want to, you can move back to older game versions using Steam's beta feature: Go to game properties (gear icon in your Steam library window) -> Betas -> Beta Participation. Change from "none" to "temporary_1_49".

[BrianTim]

Thank you @nautofon

I didn't realize I could backout to 1.49 so easily. Performance is back to normal.

Does SCS read these forums to help identify bugs or do I need to submit an official bug report?
Also, do you know where the game log is located on macO? Is it [userid]/Library/Application Support/American Truck Simulator/game.log.txt ?

Thanks....Brian

[nautofon]

Yes they do read here. This is the official place to submit bug reports. However, they don't respond to every single thread because doing so takes time.

Also, as outlined in the "bug reporting process", the expectation is that an "official" bug report includes the game log from the current game version, 1.50. Without it, SCS really can't do much at all. You seem to have found it already, but for the record, this is how one would find the game log on macOS:

In the Finder, Go menu -> Go to Folder...   ⇧⌘G
Then, put in exactly the following line of text, including the ~ at the beginning. It's best to use copy-paste here (⌘C / ⌘V).

Code: Select all

~/Library/Application Support/American Truck Simulator

The Finder window will then show the hidden folder where ATS stores its data. You'll want the file called "game.log.txt". You can attach it here on the forum, or upload the contents to e.g. https://pastebin.com/ and share the link.

Note that the game log contains your Mac user account name. You can open the file in TextEdit and find & replace it if you like.

One more thing: By default, ATS overwrites the log file every time it's launched. If you already went back to 1.49, the 1.50 log is probably gone and you'd need to install and play 1.50 again to get the proper log.

[BrianTim]

Now this is weird. I re-installed v1.50 and now graphics performance is virtually the same as 1.49.
Makes no sense.......Brian

[nautofon]

Weird indeed. But whatever the reason, I'm glad the result is good!

[BrianTim]

This evening I discovered the jittery graphics happens in certain areas of the map. Oakland California is one of those areas.
I have a screen capture of Oakland and circled one section as an example where the graphics hitter significantly. In some other areas of Oakland, they are not as bad. (For some reason I can't attach the screen shot file)
When I do a quick travel to another city, Elko Nv for example, graphics are very smooth again.

This screen capture is on v1.50

I will switch back to 1.49 and see if the problem occurs in that area with the older version.
....Brian

P.S. I have no map mods installed.

[Madkine]

@BrianTim Any mod can cause issues, not just map mods. For instance my Tim Hortons mod that you have installed can cause issues on lower spec machines as I don't use LOD models, so no matter what distance the trailer is it uses the full featured model.

I'm not saying there are no issues with the base game, but to make a bug report it needs to be a mod free profile and preferably a profile that has never had a mod installed on it as removing mods can leave traces in your save game.

[BrianTim]

Thank you @Madkine
I'll try and create a clean log file...Brian

[BrianTim]

Here is the game.log.txt file for v1.50 without mods, and a new profile on my iMac.

game.log.txt

When running v1.50, the game stutters severely in some cities. Oakland California is particularly bad.

Let me know if there is anything else I can provide to hep troubleshoot this issue.

....Brian