[MAC] - ESO Mac Beta Client Unofficial FAQ : Othor Games

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 5:27 am

Mac ESO Client - Beta Unofficial FAQ (21 Feb 2014)

General information for players using the Mac ESO beta client.

Information:

This FAQ is comprised of information available on the beta forums (Beta FAQ) and from https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/home?region=UK site kb articles (available in various languages) This is official material though, currently in beta, it is subject to change before launch (and often does get updated over time)

It includes other various detail to related issues generally from Apple's support & community site. Also posts from forums, related to use of the Mac client during the last stress test weekend when Mac users were able to download and use the client (ESO beta v. 1.0.0) This is not official but does give some useful user feedback, suggestions and tips/ tricks; also potential bugs and fixes.

Given that it is beta things do & will change so use the links to confirm details. If you have a question or issue the first place to go to is the https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/home?region=UK which is a very useful resource where you can pose questions or report issues via email or phone.

During the ESO closed beta test weekends the beta forum is available which is also a useful place to check. It is not available outside these weekends.

It is an unofficial guide/ FAQ written by me, as a long time Mac online gamer, for fellow Mac users looking forward to playing Elder Scrolls Online during the remaining beta testing and at launch, with our fellow PC compatriots.

Although I have tried to stick to official and attributable sources, it is up to the reading to confirm these for themselves. It will become obsolete once we hit the official launch when I aim to write another version for the official ESO forums when they come online.

Background:

One of the main points to make is that this is not an emulated solution such as Wine. This is a fully native Mac client which will run seamlessly in OS X. This makes a lot of difference to the user experience and performance on the Mac.

The development of the ESO game for the Mac platform has been headed up by Chris Dillman, ‘Lead Mac MMO Client Programmer at ZeniMax Online Studios’ for four years, having been imbedded in the development team early on when ZOS decided on launching a Mac version alongside the PC game at launch.

The Mac Beta 1.0 code was submitted back in October 2013 and began internal testing in the following December. The closed beta Mac client was first made available for the stress testing on 07 February 2014 and will be available for future beta testing events up to launch.

Mac System Requirements:

source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/264

NOTE: ESO Support have now posted a new article which confirms that a DVD-ROM is not required to install ESO as there will be a digital download option also, in this ESO Support kb https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5688;

I expect they will revise and/ or add a note to the System Requirements to reflect this.

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Known Technical Issues (Mac) Beta Test 07-02-14

I managed to copy the Known Technical Issues (Mac) from the ESO beta forum from the last test weekend. It is not all-inclusive with some other known issues not included but may help on the issues it does mention. Do check it out on the beta forum for the next beta test (whenever that is) as it will probably get updated.

NOTE: The ESO Beta servers or forum are not accessible between test weekends.

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 3:20 am

Various Mac related articles currently on the https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app;

source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5555

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5557

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5560

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5564

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5567

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5558

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5559

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5566

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5554

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/579

» Sat Feb 22, 2014 5:06 pm

con. Various Mac related articles currently on the https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app;

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/577

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5553

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5556

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1201

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2464

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source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5136

» Sat Feb 22, 2014 10:00 pm

Addons - Mac Installation:

I can confirm that add-ons should work for the next beta and launch in the Mac client. Just be aware that add-ons can introduce issues themselves and being in early development should be added with care.

With the NDA lifted we are starting to see the first glimpses of add-ons created for ESO. One site that launched today which is principally aimed at ESO add-ons is http://www.esoui.com. Not much there yet as one would expect but the ESO API’s are now publicly available there also and many will surely come over the coming months & years..

If you are used to adding add-ons in WoW then it will be pretty familiar. Right now there is no automatic way to add them but it is not too hard to manually add them (as you also can for WoW) In the future there should be but that will depend on sites developing them.

The current method of manually installing add-ons for the Mac client is as follow;

1. Download your chosen add-on.

2. Extract the file (by default Safari should auto decompress the download)

3. The default install path on a Mac is:

~/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns

Note: ‘~’ is the mac placeholder for your username.

4. If no AddOns folder currently exists, then create a new Folder in the live folder and name it AddOns.

5. Open the AddOns folder and copy the add-on folder into it.

6. Your final path should look like:

~/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns//

(where is the name of the actual folder that the add-on is in) An example would be;

myusername/Documents/Elder Scrolls Online/live/AddOns/Esohead/

7. Log into game. At the character select screen, there should be an “AddOns” button in the lower left corner. Click on that. If any of the mods in the list that pops up say “out of date” or some such, choose the “Load Outdated AddOns” option. If none are shown then check you created the AddOns folder in the correct file path and the add-on is decompressed.

If all went well the add-on should function in game.

Uninstalling works the reverse way. Simply go to the AddOns folder and drag the add-on you want to remove to the Trash. For updates Just copy/replace over the existing folder/file.

I have not used add-ons yet so can’t confirm exactly how they work in game and what options you have via the Addon button.

NOTE: If you intend testing some add-ons in the next beta test I strongly recommend only do so after you have played with none installed first for a while. Then add them one at a time and really test the game play out to avoid adding another layer of potential conflicts/ issues during testing.

» Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:38 pm

Intel Iris Integrated Graphics Cards

It is mentioned previously but some Mac players experienced issues during the last beta weekend using the Mac beta ESO client with any of the following Macs, which have the integrated Intel Iris or Intel Iris Pro graphics cards;

iMac (21.5-inch, Late 2013)

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013)

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2013)

This was an issue reported by quite a few Mac players during testing on the beta forums during the weekend.

The ESO Support site has a kb article on the current situation;

source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5554

The good news is that it appears the ZOS Mac developer is apparently aware of the issue and has been working on a fix which will hopefully be in place for future beta testing.

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 1:25 am

Graphics Settings - Mac:

Still researching this more and will add further details.

Before testing ensure that you have run http://www.onyxmac.com/perform-mac-maintenance-to-keep-your-mac-fast-with-5-easy-tasks.html on your Mac (also Disk Utility, Reboot etc.) and check that all air supply points are free of fluff etc. because, as with any more demanding game play, heat buildup over time can impact your performance and even cause issues in itself. This is especially important for MacBooks.

Currently I would recommend that Mac beta client testers start of with lower settings and gradually increase the default settings (Minimum - Ultra-High) to get a general balance of graphics quality & performance.

You can check frame rates in game by entering /fps in the chat window. This will display in the top right hand corner of the screen. Repeat to disable the FPS display.

If you are comfortable with tweaking graphics settings you can try toggling some of the other options OFF/ON one at a time and check again. Some require a screen reload which is should do automatically (there is a warning icon next to those that do this) Mousing over the Settings on the right will give a nice descriptive note of each one.

Even at Ultra-High Setting the View Distance is not maxed so you may push that up if you feel your Mac can handle it.

Just be aware that it is beta and work is currently ongoing to fix bugs in some graphics drivers (some already for inclusion in the next beta build). it is always advisable to only tweak settings upwards gradually; testing for a while between changes to get a feel of any performance difference and also avoid stressing your computer. This is especially important in older/ lower end models.

Generally on my top end specced iMac 27" I had no issues pushing everything to High settings at the native 2560 x 1440 resolution with a steady 50-60 fps outdoors questing and 45-55 fps in towns. I did not test PvP or grouped instances which will increase demand and will probably require adjusting settings down for achieve acceptable frame rates with a lot of players. Though most comments so far note how well ESO runs in even these situations.

It is hard to give definitive advice yet from only one beta testing weekend for Mac beta but there are a few settings that will impact performance more than others;

Shadow Quality - For Macs in particular this will really effect your performance. Look at reducing this setting down first when trying to improve performance. For older/lower end Macs consider switching it to Off or Low.

Ambient Occlusion - Similar to Shadow Quality though perhaps not so demanding. Like all the optional effects, try toggling ON/OFF and seeing how it goes. It can also be a matter of personal preference if you like some of the effects or not.

Water Reflection Quality - Demanding at high settings especially in areas with a lot of water. But note the description which notes lowering it can cause some distortion artefacts in the reflections.

Particle Density - Can be demanding also at higher settings.

View Distance - As with Particle Density. The higher the distance the more textures to load and the more load.

Vertical Sync - Basically only to be considered if you are getting 60+ FPS. If you are running with less than 60 FPS then Vsync should be switched OFF.

NOTE: These are just indicative for now and just a rough guide at this stage, except Shadow Quality which is very demanding on Macs.

Links:

http://elderscrollsotr.mymiddleearth.com/2014/02/09/the-graphics-of-eso-beta-eso-teso-skyrim-elder-scrolls-bethesda-zenimax-elder-scrolls-online-dragonborn-oblivion-morrowind-daggerfall-arena-eso-alliance-eso-alliance/ - There is a nice article over on The Elder Scrolls OTR which is well worth checking out, though information still to be confirmed by ZOS.

http://serato.com/video-sl/support/5613/how-to-adjust-graphics-performance-for-the-macbook-pro - Brief guide for Energy Saver settings when gaming (similar for all MacBooks) really want to have power adapter connected for this!

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:08 am

Just FYI, my system on this '08 MacBook Pro runs the game on bare-bones settings.

Model Identifier: MacBookPro5,1

Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo

Processor Speed: 2.53 GHz

Number of Processors: 1

Total Number of Cores: 2

L2 Cache: 6 MB

Memory: 4 GB

Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT

Type: GPU

Bus: PCIe

PCIe Lane Width: x16

VRAM (Total): 512 MB

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:49 am

Thanks, nice compilation!
There's a problem a few of us had in last beta where the game would only display a blank (black) screen with just a mouse pointer, and ESO music in the background... And the only way out I found was a force-kill through keyboard shortcuts. Seemed to affect various models of MacBook Pro. And no workaround that I know of

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 6:25 am

No problem. Happy to share the info.

I know that they are working on the graphics support including Intel Iris fix for the client at the moment so fingers crossed it's in for the next beta.

» Sat Feb 22, 2014 8:42 pm

Thanks for posting the details. It;s good to get some idea of how ESO runs on different Macs even if they are pushing the 5 year window of support talked about.

For anyone interested to check out more mac beta Mac model feedback check out the http://www.reddit.com/r/elderscrollsonline/comments/1y1v9b/mac_players_megathread/?sort=new which contains a lot of similar user posts of various setups.

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 4:42 am

This should be stickied though since it pertains to technical support or faqs.

» Sat Feb 22, 2014 9:30 pm

Thanks for the suggestion. I sent a request to the Mods and see if it is possible as I think it would be useful in the run up to launch for beta tests and generally.

» Sun Feb 23, 2014 12:38 am

Update to ESO Suport article relating to Mac Beta Key. Basically you can use either Beta invite to redeem in your Account and then download either PC or Mac clients;

source: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2464