Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems Hotfix #21 has broken MacOS gameplay

This has been posted here, on the Steam forums and all over Reddit. The update on 3/7/24 has made gameplay under MacOS impossible.

Since first installing, I have been getting around 30+ fps at 4k, ultra gfx settings. Haven't played the last 6 days, now suddenly getting 5fps. Even at 1920x1080 it's only around 10fps,Mar 8. Feels like hotfix #21 may have broken or changed something for us mac folk? I've tried reinstalling, clearing caches, etc. no luck. Plus as I've said, many other mac users are reporting the same.

Hopefully a fix soon?

I am experiencing similar behavior. It seems to slow down especially in certain buildings, like the entrance to the Zent hideout in W. Rest in Act 1. In other locations (outside of buildings), it seems to be just fine.

I too am hoping for a quick fix. I did report the issue via their bug reporting system. I am hoping everyone else has done the same.

Not the only one. Already an existing thread here: https://forums.larian.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=938673#Post938673

For what it is worth, after reinstalling the game today, the issues of Hotfix #20 seem to be fixed for me. (Intel iMac 5500 XT)

I reinstalled last night and they definitely were NOT for me. Also, it's hotfix #21 that seems to be causing the massive slowdown in graphics performance, not #20.

You may not notice as much unless you're running at a high resolution (eg., 4k) at max quality (Ultra). Who knows. There absolutely has been a problem introduced though as many of us are having the exact same issue since hf21.

For me, Hotfix #20 made the game completely unplayable. Mainly, by introducing lots of frame stuttering.

It might be an ARM only issue.

I play on an M1 mac mini and the game has been running a bit worse since hotfix #21 but not significantly worse. The issue that I ran into after this update was the game taking ages to start, it kept freezing as soon as the larian studios logo came up. Since then it has been fine.

same to me, my macbook pro M1MAX 64GB RAM, it was fine before hotfix #21, now the graphic performance is intolerable.

Registered to specifically post on this thread. Same issue on my M2 Pro / 32GB RAM / Ventura 13.6.5. Hotfix 21 made the game unplayable, get very low FPS. Uninstalled, fresh install, same issue.

I am playing fine now, but I had to switch aspect ratio to 16:9 (from 16:10) and downgrade to 2880 x 1620 and medium quality across the board for everything but texture quality. This is on a 27" iMac with a dedicated Graphics card and an i7 proc.

The Mac version has taken a performance hit, there is no question. I used to be able to run it at 30 FPS at high quality and 5120 x 2880.

I know macOS is not a priority but hopefully Mac team takes a beat to improve performance for us.

Hello,
The team is currently investigating this issue with the performance on Mac. In the meantime, to alleviate the issue, they have recommended following these steps:

- Make sure you've updated to the latest Hotfix (21 as of this message)
- Switch to Borderless video mode (Settings > Video > Borderless Window)
- Lower the resolution (Settings > Video > Resolution)
- If the FPS are still low, turning on FSR mode (Settings > Video > Gamma Correction)

- Make sure you've updated to the latest Hotfix (21 as of this message)
yes

- Switch to Borderless video mode (Settings > Video > Borderless Window)
yes

- Lower the resolution (Settings > Video > Resolution)
1920 * 1200

- If the FPS are still low, turning on FSR mode (Settings > Video > Gamma Correction)
on

i've tried those steps lower the graphic performance, unfortunately the FPS still low, the only thing i can do is waiting

All due respect, as of today this has been going on for a week. I hope at least this is a top (if not THE top) priority for the dev team. Perhaps also consider giving us the option to easily roll back to prior versions under MacOS? Last I checked I don't even think we can disable automatic updates and all the rollback instructions I've seen are for Windows.

I really enjoyed the ultra graphics. I don't play games often but heard so many good things about this game. I probably won't play anything for a year or two when I'm done with it. Dropping the graphics down to playable settings really dampens the experience. I'd like to spend my last few dozen hours playing BG3 in all the glory that your studio has put into it.

They recommend lowering the resolution. You need to go lower.

On my system (M1 Max 16" Macbook Pro 64 GB, with "ProMotion" adaptive refresh and XDR display settings):

• Editing the resolution in graphicsSettings.lsx to be 768x480 was almost enough to get 60 fps inside dialogue scenes.
• For less extreme moire, setting the resolution to 960x600 in the graphics menu resulted in 30 fps in dialogues.
• For more "cinematic" dialogue, you can change the resolution to 1280x800, with which I got mean framerates of 20-25 in dialogue scenes.

In my testing, other "quality" settings had a performance impact of slim–none.

Now, you might say: And the answer is: Yes. Everybody was too busy playing Resident Evil 4 on PS2 for someone to run this patch on a mac before shipping.

Yep. I'm running an M1 Max 16" 32GB and I've just accepted not being able to play until they fix this. Was hoping we'd get a fix this week but looking like that's not happening.

Yeah I was hoping that too or at least a rollback for us MacOS folk. No gaming for me this weekend (again). Bummer.

Reposting this from a comment I made on the Steam forum for Hotfix #21:

Larian built up a lot of goodwill with me. First, they produced a great game. Second, they released it for the Mac with great performance. Thirdly, they have been steadily improving the game and fixing bugs over time. All of this is great.

However, this "fix" reveals some serious issues with Larian's quality control. It completely broke play on Macs (at least Apple Silicon) and nothing has been done to fix this in over a week. Effective controls would have made this impossible.

First, all hotfixes should be tested before they are published. I understand some minor bugs or bugs that only show up with certain hardware configurations or in specific game circumstances could be missed. No testing is perfect. However, this bug makes the game unplayable on most if not all Macs in almost all game situations. ANY testing on Macs would have caught this. There are only two possibilities. The release was not tested on Macs; or it was tested, they knew it would make the game unplayable, and they released it anyway. Neither reflects well on the company.

Second, once the issue was known they had two options. Fix it within a short period of time (say 24 hours) or, if this was not possible, rollback the hotfix until the bug could be fixed. They did neither. They have left the game essentially unplayable on one of the supported platforms for over a week.

My guess is that hotfixes are developed of the PC and then ported to the other platforms. The Mac team might be under time pressure to complete the port quickly so that it can be released to PC players, who are the main market (Larian having committed to simultaneous releases). Therefore, corners are cut to try to meet tight deadlines. This might also be why Larian does not want to roll back the hotfix as it *only* affects Mac players.

As I mentioned in my introduction, Larian built up a stock of goodwill with me. However, the longer Larian delays fixing this bug, the more that goodwill dissipates. As Gale might say, if it does not get fixed soon, I might become a tad malcontent.

Come on now, boggleboggle.

I can totally see how this got past QA:

The movie Robots was just released in theaters, you know, the one with Ewan McGregor and Robin Williams, and everybody at Larian loves it. They keep going back everyday to see it! Plus, because the game has been so successful, they splurged $12,000 and bought a Hitachi 42-inch 42PD500TA Plasma television. Really cutting edge stuff.

You can see how they might miss something like the game not playing well on "Apple Silicon" at 1080p—or something crazy like 4K: their cutting edge TV has a max resolution of 1600x1200. Plus, they hardly have time because they just can't get enough of Rodney Copperbottom and his buddy Fender—and who can blame them!

Also, imagine how hard it would be to issue an update that just undoes the previous update? What would that even look like? Too hard to figure out when you're having such a good time.

Let's just sit tight, reverse mortgage our houses, and buy Lehman Brothers stock.

hey everyone there is a solution.

keep Chess opening and launch BG3 with full screen.


thanks for steam player biggsy29, this is his post on 14/03 10:01 PM

--------------------
As seen in other threads concerning this issue, people mentioned that they forced the Game Mode on by opening Chess and going to full screen.
I tried this and an information box came up to say Game Mode was on, I left chess running opened BG3 in another window and yes it worked and the game ran fine.
So it’s obvious that for some reason the last patch is somehow not forcing the Mac into Game Mode , I sent a message to Larian giving them the info but just got the standard computerised reply suggesting remedies that have been tried over and over.
--------------------


i've tried this solution, it works better, but still not smooth as before.

What chess is he talking about? The built in MacOS one? I tried this and there is no information box that comes up. Nor is there a way I can see to launch said box. Re-downloading BG3 now to see if it has any effect, will post FPS. EDIT: I see, this requires Mac OS Sonoma. Will give it a try.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/105118

But it looks like what's happening here is that the new Game Mode feature is covering up for the actual bug. So when Larian does finally fix this, switching to game mode will give us all even better performance than before, assuming one wasn't already using it. It's not that BG3 isn't activating it, it has only existed in Mac OS Sonoma and beyond. What it does is change scheduling priority (and other things) to speed up an app for gaming.

Unfortunately, this [ensuring Game Mode = ON] does not solve the problem at all. Upgraded to Sonama lat night and made sure "game mode" was on. Very slight improvement. The game still chugs down to single digit FPS on Ultra at 4k res.

So we still need to wait on a fix for the bug(s) introduced with hotfix #21.

Confirmed, hotfix #22 does not address the graphics performance issue problem from hotfix #21. :-(

so sad

If Game Mode is just "nice-ing" background other tasks, that would make difference only if there were other processes competing for resources, no?

I look at the command buffer and see GPU commands that are taking forever—not because resources are sitting idle, but because some of them are stupid heavy.

Just adding another name to the list this has hit.
M2 Macbook Pro, 16gb mem, no mods installed. Was able to run BG3 at ultra settings before but now even at the lowest settings and a ridiculously low resolution I'm getting around 10-15 fps, sometimes even worse. Actually is unplayable.

Tried:
- Resetting graphics settings to suggested by removing graphicSettings.lsx to get a fresh copy on next open, which set it back to the highest settings where I'd had them before.
- made sure Game Mode was on
- restarted Macbook just in case, no change
- Switched to Fullscreen, no better, went back to borderless window
- reduced resolution to ridiculously low to test, no change
- Tested various FSR mode settings, no change
- Checked, am on latest patch
- Loaded an act 1 save, was better than currently in act 3, but still way worse than it had been before.
- Reduced ALL settings at once (lowest resolution possible, lowest video settings, unchecked things like God Rays etc), still same 10-15 FPS but now blurry and awful looking. Put it all back.


Noticed that even within a cutscene the FPS can go to somewhat OK (not good, around 25 fps, but better) then drop to 5 fps or so, then pop back. Tried talking to a few companions to see if it was just Astarian being too wonderfully extra that my mac couldn't handle it, but similar drops happened with others too.

(Wondered that because I have always had to set Animation Level of Detail to medium instead of high, otherwise Astarian's face was disturbingly twitchy in cutscenes. Happened to a few others, but VERY often to him. That has been happening for a long time, not new with the latest patches.)

If anyone wants to check their in-game FPS, paste this into terminal then reopen BG3:
/bin/launchctl setenv MTL_HUD_ENABLED 1

To remove the info HUD, paste this into terminal and restart BG3:
/bin/launchctl setenv MTL_HUD_ENABLED 0


Oddly, also noticed that my Macbook was getting VERY hot, but according to Activity Monitor nothing was under great pressure, none of the 12 cores, not memory... nothing. No idea what that means, but maybe someone more techie would.



Worst area I tested was heading up to meet Gortash after dealing with the steel watch. That got to 5-6 fps which means my game is on hold till this is sorted.

Great feedback, thanks for including the process you went through.

Maybe you noticed this while you were playing around with the settings: the cutscene framerates will also vary depending on the direction you approach the NPC from.

I noticed the thermals too, but Instruments was telling me everything was hunky-dory; I also noticed that the fans didn't seem to be spinning up like they did before the Bad Patches.

I am also so sad. BG3 looked and played great on my M1 Max 24c. Now, even on my new M3 Max, it's unplayable.

I can't wait to get back to the game! I bought it day 1 on Steam to support Mac dev work (grateful that BG3 is available on Mac), but waited to play until it was stable -- and 1 hotfix later I cannot play!

I found a post on Reddit that has a possible solution how to rollback on a mac to Patch 6 before the problems occurred. Scroll down to tenkitron's post.
https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1bag2b5/baldurs_gate_3_fps_drop/


I haven't tested it yet, still waiting for the depot download to complete, but may be worth a shot if you don't want to wait for any incoming fix.


EDITED TO ADD:

It works! Any saves made after that patch are no longer compatible, which was expected, but the rollback brought my FPS back up where it was. Worth it if you don't want to wait for Larian to get this fixed for Mac.

Be sure to open BG3 from the file in
~/Library/Application Support/Steam/Steam.AppBundle/Steam/Contents/MacOS/steamapps/content/app_1086940/depot_1419660/
Not through steam launcher.

Update: jinked it! On a relaunch it’s back to being a laggy mess — kinda funny haha

Happy to report that my copy is back to running smoothly on hotfix 22. I did not attempt any fixes aside from testing the game’s performance once every couple days.

Device specs: [Irrelevant now].

Graphics settings: [So are these]

Hopefully I’m not the only one lucky this way (Read with dramatic irony.)!

This worked for me as well! Thank you for sharing.

I moved the .app file from the location you mentioned to:

~/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Baldurs Gate 3/

it saved me around 120GBs to do so.

Also, after you run the app once, you can add it to the Dock while it is running and then easily launch it from there! It works great. So happy to be able to play again.

For anyone struggling with the resolutions acting funny on launch, make sure that you have your Display setting setup so that it matches the resolution setting inside of BG3 (e.g. - Display Setting is 4K for my external display and in game) prior to launch and it will look fine. Otherwise, you can only see a portion of the game. If you need to, search your Mac for "graphicSettings.lsx" and delete it to restore the default settings if you have any issues with graphic errors on relaunching the game.

Just wanted to pitch in and mention, that I am experiencing the same issues as every other mac user. Slowdowns to the point that the game becomes unplayable despite running perfectly fine before Hotfix 21.

M2 Pro, 32GB, Sonoma 14.2.1, 1 TB SSD.

It feels a bit like I'm shouting into the void though. I guess I should not be surprised given that Macs probably only make up a fraction of a fraction of the player base, but to have an entire new Hotfix that completely ignores the gamebreaking feature on your platform kinda stings, ngl…

I think after 30 days some of us may be entitled to a refund. It all depends on who your credit card carrier is. We're slowly coming up to the 30 day mark so I'll be checking soon. Coming up on 3 weeks of not being able to play, I've lost almost all interest in the game at this point.

I did not seem to have any appriciable difference with game mode enabled (using the chess app trick). M1 MAX and M1 Ultra tests.

Hello all,

Could you confirm if you've experienced an improvement in the performance in Mac after the most recent Hotfix 23?

After updating and applying the hot fix, tests on my M1 Ultra mac seem to indicate the issues are still present. The game does launch in Game mode without having to trick it using the Chess app method, but it appears I am still experiencing degraded performance.

Will test on the M1 Max next and see if anything is noticeably different there.

16" Macbook Pro, M1 Max, 64 GB, Sonoma 14.4

Performance in Hotfix #23 has definitely not improved vs. #22 or #21.

Still no improvement here either (M3 Pro chip)

Current patch with hotfixes updated today:

- 10-15 fps in an Wyrm's rock fortress with group doing nothing but walk outside in the area before Gortash.
- Campsite (docks) however is back to a more reasonable FPS (bouncing between 35-50)
- Facemaker's boutique area outside and inside shop 28 FPS on average.

Game mode is on. Activity monitor seems to show nothing under pressure (CPU or memory). The macbook is RAPIDLY heating up to worrisome levels and feels sluggish to the point that I had to close BG3 after those quick tests. Fans went wild and it's VERY hot to the touch. Before patch 6 it got really warm but was not like this.


After letting it cool, I opened Patch 6 (no hotfixes ROLLBACK) to compare FPS and overheating:

- Same spot in Wyrm's rock fortress. Bouncing between 60-78 FPS.
- Campsite (docks) 60-65 FPS
- Facemaker's boutique 30-41 FPS


The rollback version is making my Macbook very warm, fans are on but not 'fans screaming, almost burns to touch' levels that the current version was having before I had to close BG3. (Sorry for such vague temperature readings but I don't have a temperature monitor installed. I can if that info would be of help though.)

Edited to add:
I'm getting the FPS readings from using the terminal command
/bin/launchctl setenv MTL_HUD_ENABLED 1
not the Steam FPS overlay since I've never had that actually show up on Mac despite enabling those Steam settings a few times to try it out.

M2 Macbook Pro, 16GB

Edited again to add that I've rolled back to patch 6, no hotfixes, not because it was working best on that one (it got buggier as time went on) but because rolling back too far meant too much to re-play through since saves aren't backwards compatible (which is understandable). I would have gone back further to a more stable version, pre-patch 6 otherwise but I'm so close to the end I'd rather not do it all over again.

Please don't read this as me hating BG3, the team made something very special with this game and I love it dearly. But it is getting buggier and buggier with each patch and/or the further into the story I get.

Just wanted to say thank you for testing this for us. I recently rolled back to #20 and it's been pretty good so I was afraid of updating again to #23. I salute your sacrifice.

I echo what you said about BG3 and the Mac team, grateful that they've made the game available for the Mac and I hope things get better soon.

You shouldn't have to ask us about this. Larian should be testing releases for the supported platforms (including Mac) so they should know if the fix has solved the problem. This is not a bug specific to certain hardware or game situations - it pretty much breaks all game play on all Macs (admittedly there is some variation, but the problem is evident everywhere). Virtually any testing on Mac would reveal if the problem is solved.

I posted this in the hotfix #23 thread, but repeat this here as it might be relevant (with some minor edits). I think Larian has three options:

1) Fix the bug soon: Obviously the best outcome, but it clearly isn't a simple bug to fix or it would have been done by now.
2) Roll Mac users back to the functioning version of the game (hotfix 20): Would allow Mac users to play, but would presumably break cross platform multiplayer and any post hotfix 21 saves.
3) Give up on Macs and offer refunds to all Mac users: The nuclear option and lose-lose for everyone - Larian loses money, Mac users lose perhaps the flagship game released on Mac. It might also discourage other developers for developing for Mac.

Obviously, the first option is the best if it is possible. I assume Larian is working towards this but, if so, they need to communicate with Mac users about their progress, how long it is expected to take to fix, and what if anything we can do to help. I know Larian fired the firm that handled the original port and I suspect that the in house Mac developers they hired as replacements don't understand how to fix the bug. This is just speculation, so I hope I am wrong. The longer this takes, though, the more my suspicions rise.

If the first option is not possible, I think Larian needs to consider option 2. I don't play cross-platform, but I understand that cross-platform play with Mac users is close to impossible now anyway. And I think most Mac users have stopped playing the game on hotfixes 21-23 anyway, so will not lose much progress if reverting to hotfix 20 saves. Once they fix the problem, they can bring Mac users up-to-date with the other platforms. I know it is possible to roll back manually, but this is a bit hacky and something many users will not want to do (and shouldn't have to do for a game that they paid for).

Option 3 is a last resort that I hope is unnecessary. However, Larian should understand that they cannot keep money paid by users unless they offer them a functional product. Most countries have consumer laws about this.

I appreciate Larian's effort in trying to bring this game to Mac, and the work they do to fix bugs and update the game. However, the current situation for Mac users is unacceptable.

Exact same issues after this update as we have all been having since Hotfix 21. Kind of shocking and disappointing that Larian cannot verify that this is an issue on their own end, but it has been a massive downgrade in performance ever since Hotfix 21. High-end Macs were able to run the game on ultra settings with no major issues prior to that. I haven't wanted to deal with finding a way to roll the game back to a prior patch but if I could do it with the press of a button I would.

Its not *good*, but I have had gameplay success running the game with Whiskey on the latest patch on the Mac. https://getwhisky.app/ In case any of you are desperate enough for a workaround you're willing to re-downloaded it on Steam and jump through the BG3 specific setup hoops.

Definitely not for everyone, but if you have a social need to play the game this can get you over the hump.

Yeah, the latest patch has not solved the issue. I still get the same framerate drop to around 1-2 fps.

The developers of Larian Studios seem to be absent. Patch 23# still has not addressed this issue, despite our discussions over the past month. The feedback we received was unhelpful. Perhaps Larian should temporarily remove the macOS support label for BG3 on Steam or GOG shop page, as it could be considered misleading to players.

Just updated to the most recent patch. Lag is still ridiculous. Like others here, before the parade of patches, my game ran smoothly. I don't even dare look at my original save that bugged out and was stuck. I suspect it is still stuck and likely not salvageable at this point.

Macbook Pro - M2, 32GB.

I have discovered that some players, who use Windows for gaming, reported experiencing a similar issue to ours following the release of patch 23.

Nobody seems to be in a rush to fix this.

I deleted the game files earlier today (in part to speed up boot time); I think I’ll let it be for a couple months and return at a later date.

FYI to anyone interested. I forget who mentioned this elsewhere. Crossover is a viable option. I was able to play at around 10-20 fps in areas I normally used to get around 20-30fps. So the game is at least playable (using the same Ultra settings I've always used) with Crossover.

For what it's worth, I just re-tried switching the display mode from borderless window to fullscreen, and lo and behold, it works! The framerate is back to pre-HF21 levels, and the game is eminently playable again.

I tried the same trick when the frame rate problem first arose, but to no avail. I don't know if it's the subsequent hotfixes or the fact that this time I made the switch in the starting menu, before I'd loaded the save file, but anyway I'm back to the races!

2020 M1 MBP, 16GB RAM, mostly maxxed settings, using a Dell U2421HE monitor

Interesting. Ok let me download it ... again.

Nope, Just tried. In any window setting (borderless, regular or full screen) I get the same behavior.

Fly through House of Hope Raphael's Boudoir from the spa to the door with steps afterwards leading to the inner corridor.

Comes to a screeching halt < 1fps.

Not sure which shaders or effects are getting hit here, but something is clearly wrong.

M2 Max 64gr 12cores 38gpu.

Doesn't work for me either. I tried switching to fullscreen before loading the game, but it still unplayably slow on various floors of Elfsong Tavern. I don't think there was any improvement at all. Maybe the problem is worse in crowded multilevel areas (e.g. House of Hope and Elfsong Tavern)?

I have been unable to play the game for about a month now. All the immersion and narrative momentum has been lost. I have been checking daily to see if there is any fix but am getting frustrated with the lack of progress or even information from Larian. It would be great if they could at least tell us what they are working on and roughly how long they think it will take to fix. As it is, it feels like the Mac version has been abandoned.

M3 Max 64GB

This solution works for me, you might give it a try. BG3 is back.

Same issue here. Game is unplayable, just submitted a bug report.
An update 6 months after launch should not completely break a game like this.
I'm on an M2 Max 2023 Macbook Pro, game ran beautifully at 2560 x 1440 / Ultra about a month ago.
Super disappointing.

Same issue. With Hotfix 23 I have lowered resolution to 2560 x 1440 and active SFR 1.0 at ultra quality and game run slightly better.
But when start the game I Must switching the display mode from borderless window to fullscreen.

Hello all,

The latest Hotfix 24 should address the issue with performance. If after updating to Hotfix 24 (version number 4.1.1.5009956) you are still experiencing the same performance issues, please let our Support Team know: https://larian.com/support/faqs/how-to-submit-a-bug-report_85

A quick test and it seems that hotfix worked, thank you!

I went to an area that was the worst for me and it's back to playable FPS and the macbook is slightly warm (as expected and within normal range) but not screaming hot like it was before the fix.

Please send thanks to the Mac team <3

Just wanted to report that I was having the same issue after trying it on the Mac yesterday, stuttering cut scenes and overall bad performance. After the patch this morning, everything is performing much better.

A quick test and it seems that hotfix worked, but the issue of resolution remain.
I have a resoloution system of 1728x1117 and a game resolution of 2560x1600 and the screen are cropped.
I must change system resolution to 2560x1600 before run the game, or switch the display mode from fullscreen to borderless window, before close the game and switch the display mode from borderless window to full screen after run the game.

Working for me at last!

Many thanks for fixing it, but please test future patches so this doesn't happen again.

?ome on guys! this is some kind of strange policy: do one thing, break another. not only can't I check the graphics, I can't enter the game!
well, how so, is there any normal future for bg3 on mac(

when I enter the game, the size of the picture in the game is 5 times higher than my resolution. I can't even enter the settings.

how annoying it is)

I've been sitting for 40 min looking for a crutch to at least get into the settings. unbelievable.

I have reported the issues with the resolution to the team so they can look into this!

In the meantime, try browsing to the '~/Documents/Larian Studios/Baldur's Gate 3' folder and delete or rename the graphicSettings.lsx file, to get the game to recreate it the next time it is started, to see if that helps.

If the issue persists, please contact our support team! https://larian.com/support/baldur-s-gate-3#modal

Yeah, I did that right away. The game is still unplayable.

It went from 30 frames to 38. In patch 18 it was 60.
macbook 14 m1 pro

Confirmed. Thank you. The latest Hotfix does seem to improve gameplay significantly.

Oddly, it seems to have also broken the Steam FPS Counter. In fact, that may have been broken in hotfix 22 or 23.

Regardless, it feels smooth and looks good at 4k / 60hz / Ultra. So that's fine with me. Plus I don't have to pay for Crossover now just to finish the game.

I can definitely tell an improvement, but Patch 24 has not completely fixed things for me. I am still running into a graphical issue where the borders of things appear to shimmer, particularly in sunlight. I have a hard time describing it and taking a screenshot doesn't really convey the issue. I have found posts elsewhere where people seem to have run into similar issues and describe it as being grainy, pixelated, or cel shaded, but not sure if these are the same issue.

I did try deleting graphicSettings.lsx and my settings defaulted to much lower than they had previously been, most notably by turning TAA on. The issue I am describing is not present with TAA but the game looks a lot worse so that is not a satisfactory conclusion considering it ran fine on higher settings before.

Has anyone else experienced this or have any idea what the issue might be?

See link below for video of the issue. The starting screen is one of the places where the flickering is most present.

https://www.reddit.com/r/macgaming/comments/1bxjhhg/bg3_graphics_issue/

Would the Mac users who are running the game with no issues mind posting what their settings are / what type of Mac they are using? I am using the suggested settings for M1 Max from the Elverils video linked below (shown at 11:29). This ran extremely well prior to Hotfix 21 but I am still having graphical issues and some lag post hotfix 24.

Honestly as bad as this is, it's the least of the Mac version's problems.

A game with FSR1 ("a sharpness filter that should never have been released" as my friend at AMD puts it) in 2023? Atrocious performance despite Apple CPUs being quite powerful. This is a bad port out of neglect, not out of impossibility.

Just posting to say that I cannot get the game to launch at all. I get as far as the Larian graphic, then I wait for over 20 minutes for the "hit any key to continue" button. After that, the game freezes and nothing. I am using a MacBook Pro with an M1 chip.

Lariens, friends! please tell us you are working on improving optimisation on mac os in patch 7! pray*

m1 pro

I'd say that currently playing the Windows version using Whisky or Crossover runs better than native, using Msync and D3DMetal (GPTK), and with better image quality due to using FSR 2 instead 1.
Using a Mac Mini M1 16GB with settings:
1080p, triple buffering, capped to 30 fps, FSR 2 Balanced, Lowest preset then: texture high, filter AF2x, AO, Bloom, Depth field Circular.

The only drawback is some audio issues as is a wine known issue when CPU is busy, so disabled dynamic crowds and lowered audio output quality on MIDI settings as described here:
Distorted sound in Source games

Then seems the Mac version is like the GPTK one but with code compiled for native ARM, which even does not make a big difference as they run very close in CPU usage (with same settings) but for the wine audio issue that seems to be fixed in newer (but Whisky/Crossover uses an older one).

Probably many users think this, but using Metal 2 targeting Intel Macs is just harming a lot the Apple Silicon version.

Analyzed the performance with Metal HUD and my results are these (quoting):
8 hours of BG3 on Intel and M1 macOS
As example of this, lowering resolution to even 240p on the Monastery only increases about 4-5 fps compared to 800p, so most of the time the GPU is rendering nothing just waiting for drawing commands as the Monastery is an area with a lot smalls elements to render, so is a nice place to test for API overhead issues.