viktorcodeneb18_ESO wrote: »

VSYNC is ON, Mavericks. It doesn’t happen if VSYNC is OFF.

Check for yourself:

1. Type /fps to display a FPS counter in upper right corner
2. Check the number displayed
3. Press ⌘ + F
4. Check the number again

I’m getting 1.5x increase in windowed mode (from 30 to 45)! Please post your results.

Vsync (Vertical Sync in game) should always be OFF for the Mac client unless you have consistent 60+ FPS which is unlikely with high settings except perhaps in dungeons.

There are a few of reasons:

1) ESO uses Double Buffering Vsync to reduce the tearing on screen when frame rate do not match the display refresh rate and will cap your FPS to a value relative to the refresh rate. So for 60Hz common refresh rate, it would be capped at 30 if the frame rate as lower than 60FPS, then 15 etc. That is why it really hammers potential FPS:

Essentially this means that with double-buffered VSync, the framerate can only be equal to a discrete set of values equal to Refresh / N where N is some positive integer. That means if you're talking about 60Hz refresh rate, the only framerates you can get are 60, 30, 20, 15, 12, 10, etc etc. You can see the big gap between 60 and 30 there. Any framerate between 60 and 30 your video card would normally put out would get dropped to 30.

There is detailed explanation of how it works here.

This limitation can be removed with Triple Buffering but it does not seem to be used in ESO.

2) Double Buffering also uses additional memory and the 32-bit ESO client is already constrained by this especially the Mac client which has a memory issue currently.

3) Vsync only works in true Fullscreen mode which does work on the Mac. It is not working currently on the PC and why Vsync appears to have no impact on frame rates because it is actually not working. It also means that is why you see the difference in Windowed mode as Vsync is set by OS X at the display refresh rate.

This is why you see what you do.

viktorcodeneb18_ESO wrote: »

Thanks for the detailed answer. Totally agree with the need for tripple-buffering when using VSYNC.

I will play with VSYNC set to off. Still, I don't like screen tearing which can be noticed. If ESO only had full screen windowed mode, as opposed to true full screen, then maybe we could have best of both worlds, if I understood correctly.

I find I only get tearing when FPS goes over 60 FPS which at Ultra-High is not often except in internal spaces. I usually just turn up some setting to keep just under 60.

Well, not sure. I'm not sure exactly if just like playing without Vsync of the game window is then controlled by the OSX. But Maximised to full edges would be nice option. Not sure if it is possible ATM. There is a lot of considerations with the Apple guidelines (Mission Control, Spaces, dual displays etc.)

viktorcodeneb18_ESO wrote: »

Yeah, I just checked it in a window. The most visible tearing is when you run in a tunnel or along a wall, and the wall texture starts to jitter. By enabling VSYNC in windowed mode I got rid of tearing and FPS fell slightly, but this was totally acceptable.

Ah, anyway, tearing in TESO is not that pronounced as in other games, so I can live with some.

As I said, Vsync in game doesn't work in windowed mode. It is Mac display vsync I think.

Main thing it's not too bad generally and better to have performance and less memory crash than it on.