Too ugly to use on a Mac - is there a trick?

[Skaffen]

Hi,
I´m extremely interested in using FG for a new campaign with friends abroad.

I´ve downloaded the demo through the "Mac OSX Installation" link (which dumps the binary in the browser instead of saving to disk btw. but got it to work saving link target instead.

It´s running, I´ve downloaded the updates and started the demo campaign - but it´s just too ugly to use. Fonts look pixelated like something out of a 8 bit retro game, the buttons are hardly readable at all, ...

I found the following thread and applied it but can´t really see much difference:

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?36278-HOW-TO-Mac-Users-Improve-Font-Quality!

The contrast to native applications is just unbelievable on my brand new 27" imac. I don´t see an option on how to post screen shots here in the forum or I would include a sample.

Is there any way to change this? I really want to like FG but I don´t think I´ll be comfortable running this for half a day or more for long sessions.

[damned]

welcome skaffen im not sure if you might need 5 or more posts to upload attachments.
a screen shot or two would help.
what is your screen resolution?
the file dumping to your browser is your browser believing it knows what the file is and how to open it... most browsers know better...
at what stage did you maximise the app? best to launch the app, load your campaign and once the desktop is displayed drag the corners to make it bigger without maximising.
yes, i know... it is built on an old game engine and has some limitations...

[Skaffen]

FG really doesn´t like Mac, looks like Safari was recognized as a mobile browser and I only got the mobile version of the website. Now I found the Full Site button which has an image upload option so here is a direct comparison.

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I did like you said, open, load, then resize.

It´s not just the aesthetics, it´s really difficult to read the thin pixelated text on such a high resolution display (5K...).

[LordEntrails]

It´s not just the aesthetics, it´s really difficult to read the thin pixelated text on such a high resolution display (5K...).
Ah, it's not a Mac issue, it's a resolution issue. The graphics were not designed for such high resolution display. I've got a similar thing when I try to display on my 15" 4k screen. But I have that issues with every app so I don't run at that resolution.

There are several "big font" extensions around and some other themes that you might like better, but the easier solution (imo) is to just drop your screen resolution to something like 1920x1080 (which is what I use).

I suspect the next version of FG that is being architected on a new platform (Unity) will have better scaling and display at high resolutions. But the current theme is simple not high enough resolution to give the best appearance.

[Nylanfs]

I know with PCGen on a Windows machine you can right click and change the resolution compatibility in the properties. Not sure if this can be done on a Mac.

Edit: I think this might be of use.



iMac with Retina 5K display, 4K displays connected to Macs

The new iMac with Retina 5K display features a screen that has resolution of 5120 by 2880 pixels. This is four times more pixels to calculate than with a regular 27″ iMac.

Based on GRAPHISOFT’s latest tests the performance of ARCHICAD can drop in some situations:

the visual feedback in 2D windows may have some delay
zooming in 2D windows my have lower FPS
turning trace and reference or the tracker on, slows down both of the two above and navigation (pan) may be slower as well

Turning ARCHICAD in low resolution mode results the same speed as with non Retina iMacs:low res

close ARCHICAD
locate ARCHICAD.app in Applications/GRAPHISOFT/ARCHICAD xx folder
select the application
from the context menu choose Get Info
check Open in Low Resolution

The performance on external 4K displays greatly depends on the type of Mac you use. Refer to Apple’s guide on 4K compatible Macs. For the best 3D speed make sure to choose a Mac with dedicated graphics.

GRAPHISOFT is actively researching the available technologies to improve the performance on such high-res displays.
MacBook Pro

ARCHICAD works smooth on retina MacBook Pros. For the best performance select models with dedicated video cards, like the top of the line 15″ model with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M.

[Skaffen]

OK, thanks for the help, finally had a chance to play around with screen resolution etc. Just doesn´t help, the difference to native apps is just too jarring for me, can´t force myself to use it. If I reduce screen resolution the fonts just look more pixelated.

When is the native / unity version coming out? The Unity thread was started in 2014 which does not bode well... :(

[damned]

Hi Skaffen the only answer to your question is when its ready.

The fact that that thread started a long time ago just means that development on that platform has been going a long time.
The current application has been (significantly) updated 15x times (by my count) in that span of time.
Hundreds of additional products have been added in that time.
Product development continues on three fronts, two we can see the results of and one we cant.

[Doswelk]

I set the UI scale to 200% on my mac (when I use it).

[Tr3v0r]

I am finding that I am in agreement with OP here. Im just trying to get it set up and it is objectively terrible looking while running on my mac. While running at 100% scale I find it barely palatable, but uses such an unnecessary amount of screen space.

When I try to change the UI scale to make better use of the space, its downright unreadable and useable. Screenshots attached.

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I would GREATLY appreciate any advice or guidance that anyone can throw my way as currently I dont think I can use it in its current state.

Thanks so much!

[Zacchaeus]

From the screenshots it looks like you are using an outdated extension. The FG GAP theme was incorporated into FG and is now called the Simple Brown Theme and is versioned at v2.5. I don't know if you are also using one of the fonts extensions and you don't say either what resolution you are running in.

[Tr3v0r]

So i've disabled the GAP theme and looks at the stock Simple Brown, but it doesn't seem to have effected much.

I can only assume that FG is running at whatever my macbook native resolution is, correct? based on the setting in Wineskin, it looks like its running natively, so 2880 x 1800
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It seems that when im scaled at 100% ui, I can read things clearly (less than optimal though), but there just isn't enough space to work with on the screen. When I scale to anything even slightly lower than 100, everything become terribly unreadable . Ive attached a few examples below of being at 100ui windowed, 100ui maximized and 70ui maximized

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I guess what i'm asking here is that if this is what is to be expected when running FG on the Mac? Do people have more optimal experiences on MacBooks that I might be able to incorporate here? I'd love to get my whole group over to FG (but they all use MacBooks) so I just want to optimize the transition as much as possible.

Let me know if there's any setting, extensions or other options I can tweak or play around with to get this running a little more optimally here.

Greatly appreciated!

[Trenloe]

I can only assume that FG is running at whatever my macbook native resolution is, correct? based on the setting in Wineskin, it looks like its running natively, so 2880 x 1800
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That doesn't look like it's using the native resolution - it looks like Wineskin is using a smaller resolution, which is being upscaled to fit on your high resolution monitor - which causes the jagged graphics.

Try selecting "Override" and playing with some of the options to see if you can get the FG window to match your screen resolution.

Also, I noticed some of your screenshots show FG maximised and some aren't - as a general point (probably unrelated to this issue) don't run FG maximised on a Mac, there can be graphical/mouse issues - run FG in a window.

[Tr3v0r]

This looks to have been the magic fix.

The resolution was scaling way down for some reason. I experimented a bit, but ended up sticking with just setting it to the same resolution as my screen which in turns seems to give me the most screen space while leaving the text mostly readable.

I disabled the 'Big Font' extension which helped with readability significantly. The panels on the right hand side and some of the text is still a little hard to read, but overall im much more happy with the screen real estate for moving windows around.

Hopefully future macbook users can find this thread as well. the default setting really put FG in a negative light without a bit of tweaking!

Thanks for all you helped and heres an updated final screenshot
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[Trenloe]

Looks much better! Glad you found settings that work well. :)

[Bidmaron]

Well, it will be hard to find without some kind of keyword sequence (or at least I have a heck of a time finding things without some good keywords), maybe "wineskin screen resolution".