Is it worth coming back yet, for Mac users?

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

I stopped playing ESO some time before it went F2P because I could not endure the constant crashes any longer—now I occasionally think about giving it another go, as it is a very atmospheric game in spite of all its shortcomings. But have things improved for Mac users? Here are my specs so those of you kind enough to comment can form an idea of how their system and mileage might compare to mine:

27" iMac
3.4 GHz Core i7
8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680MX 2048 MB
Running OS 10.10.3

Thanks!

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

Oh, and before you ask, these were my preferred settings, although I'll tell you right now that lowering them did not, back then, put an end to the crashes:

Graphics quality: Custom (modified from Ultra-high)
Texture Quality: High
SubSampling Quality: High
Shadow Quality: Medium (down from high, the single most performance improvement)
Water Reflection Quality: Medium (default)
Max. Particle Systems: 1024 (default)
Particle Suppression Distance: 50 (default)
View Distance: 60 (down from 100)

Everything else is ON, with the exception of VSYNC, which is and stays OFF.

Additionally, I did the following, as suggested by Zeni's own chris.dillman (note that this is a Mac-specific fix):

Find eso.app in the finder.
Select it
Chose: File Menu / Get info
Turn on Prevent App Nap.

Alas, all to no avail.

Auricle · May 2015

I play on both my iMac (very similar specs to yours) and my Macbook pro and haven't had so much as a single crash. Then again, I haven't had any serious issues playing on a mac since the first month of ESO, so... Does that help somehow?

FaceFX still isn't happening for the mac, though, so that sucks. But, come back anyway!

It's no longer sub based, so what do you have to lose?

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

Hey, thanks... you're right of course—except that the massive patch download deters me a bit.

JNight · May 2015

Yep, it's worth it. no crashes here at all. Mid-high end late 2013 imac.

Jitterbug · May 2015

My 2012 13" macbook air handles the game fine now, crash wise. Of course everything is on lowest as it has been since launch, but it does not crash anymore, at least no more than on my medium-high PC.

KhajitFurTrader · May 2015

As of patch 2.0.7, the client is rock stable (again). I get around 50 (+- 10) FPS with customized High settings at 2560x1440 on my 2013 27" iMac (Core i7 3.5 GHz, GTX 780M w/ 4 GB). And this is with Vsync and AA enabled. I set Water Reflections to Low (up from the default Off), but frankly I don't notice any dramatic quality improvements when setting it higher than that, while the FPS drop significantly near water.

After patching the client up to date, reset the graphics settings to their Default ([X] in Settings > Video) once before you start tweaking them.

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

Thanks guys, this sounds promising, indeed.

SilentVigil · May 2015

I just started playing again (haven't played since last spring) and have had no crashes in about a week's time. The only thing I notice is that it takes time for things to load when I enter a building etc. I have not tried PVP however.

KhajitFurTrader · May 2015

SilentVigil wrote: »

I just started playing again (haven't played since last spring) and have had no crashes in about a week's time. The only thing I notice is that it takes time for things to load when I enter a building etc. I have not tried PVP however.

The PvP problems seem to be platform-agnostic, i.e. this is very likely a server-side problem.

The phenomenon of slow loading textures is also discussed here.

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

One more question... after patching everything, I now have a "Launcher" with a file size of 39.59 GB, as well as an "The Elder Scrolls Online" folder that's a whopping 44.99 GB in size.

Am I crazy, or is this a bit excessive... especially for the launcher. What gives?

Edit: Ah, hold on... I think I got it. There were some files in my old launcher that are now in that other folder.

timidobserver · May 2015

I don't use a Mac, but I've heard from Mac users that the client is much improved.

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

Well, I took the plunge—in the parlance of our times—and so far so good. It's nice to be back. As I said before, it is a beautiful game.

Auricle · May 2015

lecarcajou_ESO wrote: »

Well, I took the plunge—in the parlance of our times—and so far so good. It's nice to be back. As I said before, it is a beautiful game.

It really is. For all its little problems and buggery, ESO has some top notch art production.

Welcome back.

mtwiggz · May 2015

Occasionally I'll still get crashes, usually only when playing PvP.

I do have to say that booting into Windows for PvP is a much for viable thing to do. I'm not sure if you're a PvP player or not, but the differences are night and day. Windows runs the game far smoother than Mac, in my experiences. If I'm just messing around in PvP I don't mind being booted into Mac. When I want to play competitively I find myself always booting into Windows.

Just a tip for any of the advid Mac PvP users out there.

lecarcajou_ESO · May 2015

Thanks for the input, mtwiggz! I've been back for several weeks now and glad I returned. I haven't gotten into PvP much in ESO yet (which is perhaps odd considering how much I enjoyed it in WH), and can therefore say I haven't experienced any of the potential irritations of it, either. ;-)