Performance issues using Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks) and Unity 4.2.2

Has anyone else experienced any Unity performance issues since upgrading to Unity 4.2.2? Playing projects is now very jerky whereas in the past I've had no issues at all...

I run a dual monitor setup, so perhaps it's the new Mavericks multiple monitor setup that's confusing things?

Interested to hear if anyone else has had any issues.

 

We have upgraded to Mavericks today and Unity seems to be very slow. We use NGUI and that is also not performing well. Surely there will be soon an update for Unity.

EDIT: I have figured out that my Logitech mouse due to software incompatibility issues with maverick was making unity slow and other weird freezing issues. Just delete ur Logitech control center it will make everything nice and smooth again. wait for logitech update for maverick if u wanna use full extend of ur mouse capabilities.

 

Well, glad it's not just me. I'm definitely having performance issues. Weirdly they seem to be reduced slightly by maximizing the game window!

 

Unity 4.2.0 + Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks

 

I'm seeing the same issues here. The issue seems to come and go. I can't be sure if anything I have tried is actually affecting performance or not, but certain tricks seem to bring things back to normal. I'm pretty sure these are red herrings:

- Scrolling with mouse wheel in game window.
- Shrinking the entire editor window down and expanding it again.
- etc.

The profiler indicates (when profiling the editor) that the "Overhead" category is adding up to 50 seconds per frame.

For now, I would advise others to wait until the Unity team addresses Mavericks and gives us the go-ahead. (a.k.a. common sense)

 

I've noticed some pretty serious performance issues too. Seems to freeze for up to around 10-20 seconds every now and then for seemingly no reason.
I tried disabling App Nap for Unity but didn't change anything

 

I am experiencing the same problems. The editor feels really choppy and occasionally my systems freezes for 30 seconds.

 

I have similar problems. After i start Unity and hit play the game runs smooth, but every time i stop and hit play again it seems like the game becomes more and more laggy.

This error started after i updated to Mavericks.

 

**I can confirm Snupimans observation about uninstalling Logitech Control Center. I had one similiar issue about performance being between smooth for some seconds and then being jerky (and back), but uninstalling the Logitech CC solved this issue.**

Edit: Uninstalling LCC doesn't seem to solve the performance issue I experience, it just did not appear for some longer time. So what I experience is that performance is smooth but suddenly drops and is jerky, only to speed up again after some seconds and so forth.

Nevertheless I have another issue with Multi-Monitor-Setup. If I use the Inspector Window on the second Monitor and want to open the "Icon" Drop-Down to assign a color to a Prefab, the small popup closes itself immediately again (I can't select any color or icon) - this happens since I am on Mavericks + it does not happen when I have the Inspector Window on my Main Screen.

 

Thanks for the info. I was going to upgrade to Maverics, but i guess i'll wait until the issue is fixed. Btw, is this just with Unity editor, or also built games?

 

The problem (for me a regular stutter 2-3 times per second in play mode) seems to only be in the editor. A standalone OS X build is fine (even with the editor running in the background).

 

Interesting I have LCC installed and I've noticed that sometimes when I try to switch out of Unity my whole system locks except my mouse cursor. After a few minutes it comes back but it can be frustrating. I haven't tried uninstalling the LCC, but I did reinstall Unity as people said that was a possible solution to another issue (Unity hard locking when hitting break points in mono develop).

I also have noticed the same thing with pop up windows that aren't on the main screen closing if you give focus to another application.

 

Turned both of my external displays off. Seems to be working okay now. So far...

 

Spoke to soon. It's better but still not as it was before Mavericks.

 

I'm gonna hold off on upgrading to Mavericks and wait til things get smoothed out. Xcode 5 and Unity 4 can still be a little wonky.

 

Yeah I've found that disabling my second monitor helps a bit, but it's definitely not back to normal. It's not a show stopper at all, but it is slightly frustrating.

 

It definitely made it a little better...
however having a large project (10gb+) certainly seemed to exacerbate things and continued to be a show stopper. (I've resorted to switching to a laptop with 10.8 still installed for now)

 

I also experience freezes while I am in Maya LT, might have something to do with either the videocard and drivers or the OpenGL 4.1 environment of Mavericks

 

Also having severe performance issues since upgrading to Mavericks. Halts for 2-3 seconds every 5-10 seconds of using Unity. Profoundly annoying and nearly un-usable.

 

If your secondary monitor is causing you issues, disable each monitor having its own space in the Mission Control settings. You'll lose the improved secondary monitor support but you'll still be able to use both monitors like you used to be able to.

 

Turning off Automatic Graphics switching seems to have helped substantially.

 

@marshmatter: Thanks for the tip. Turning off Automatic Graphics Switching seems to have done the trick for the most part.

For anyone else who wants to try, you can find it here: System Preferences > Energy Saver. There is a little checkbox at the top titled Automatic Graphics Switching. Uncheck it and you will notice a world of difference.

 

Same issues here after upgrade to 10.9. Seems as though having the editor open really slows down any other UI, and will completely lock the machine up randomly for some random amount of time. Streaming music continues to play, and mouse still moves. After lockup, all input while locked up is streamed through.

I've also noticed a very definite stall when the profiler updates. In addition, my GPU profiler now shows invalid timing warnings.

Changing Automatic Graphics Switching didn't seem to resolve the issue on my machine.

OSX 10.9.0
Unity 4.2.2f1

Reported as bug: 571984

 

same issue.

And I don't find Automatic Graphics Switching on my iMac mid 2010.

 

It seems that the Automatic Graphics Switching is not the issue as I am now getting even worse temporary halts of 5-10 seconds (super fun when you are working on animations!)

I've noticed that Chrome also seems to have similar halts, and Unity seems to run much better without Chrome open. There seems to be common issues with Chrome performance in Mavericks based on some Google product forum searches.

Anybody else using Chrome noticing the issue with/without Chrome running?

 

Same problem here. Unity 4.1 and Mavericks makes my Mac stall for 5 - 10 seconds very often. When this happens I noticed that the Window Server is using over 100% of the CPU..

 

Same issue here, late 2009 iMac.

 

I am also going through same problem. This had already caused lot of issue to my games i am working on.

 

I am on a Macbook Pro without any external displays. I started having jerky playback after upgrading to 10.9 (Mavericks). I went back to 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion) and everything is back to normal.

 

How did you accomplish the revert to 10.8.5? I'd like to do the same thing, but I didn't backup before the update....

 

With Mavericks, I often see Chrome helper process not responding in the activity monitor. I switch to Safari but I still get jerkiness in Unity or even system completely frozen for 30+ seconds, which is what Pushkin describes below. (Same issues with WindowServer using a lot of CPU)

 

UPDATE: as per my previous post I gotta give an update on this matter. It has not improved despite the previously mentioned fixing methods I wrote. Unity keeps randomly freezing on all computers in our studio. We use iMacs 2012 with Mavericks now and latest 4.2.2 Unity installed. This is getting absolutely mad. Unity is unstable we go through several hard resets a day. Either Unity or the OS is not performing as expected. We have not encountered freezing issue before Mavericks whatsoever. I urge responsible ppl to release an update or give us a solution to fix this issue!

 

I too have been having the same issues with multi monitor and temporary freezing aside from my mouse. I have not yet tried to uninstall the LCC but I am using that. I previously had an issue under OS 10.8 where quitting Unity would cause my mouse (Logitech M510) to stop responding until I unplugged and replugged in the wireless receiver.

 

It seems someone might have found an answer to this.

The idea is that App Nap kills resources, and disabling it for Unity might help it run better. You can disable this feature per app by going to Get Info of Unity.app, and checking "Prevent App Nap". (I did the same for Chrome and MD)

Initially it seemed to help, but in the end I'm pretty sure that while it's running better, it's not as fast as it was. Of course, this is completely subjective.

 

Same issue here.
I used to work with more than one of unity instances, (even three or four at the same time for copy paste things)
it worked fine before mavericks.
Now it's very laggy just for one unity project open.

Unity 4.2.2
OSX 10.9.0
iMac27" 2012

 

We have the same issue and it's driving us crazy. We have tried:

- Turning the second monitor off.
- Turning "automatic graphics switching off".
- Turning on/off all the graphics emulations.
- Trying switching platforms to Android/iOS/PC.

I don't have the logitech control center installed.

 

Unity (and the rest of the system) works without hiccups if I only use one monitor, i.e. closed the lid on my laptop =)

 

iMac late 2011 - OSX 10.9.0 - Unity 4.2.2

Same problem here guys.
Yesterday I updated the OS to Mavericks and now Unity is extremely broken. It seems like VSync is off and a lot of lag too.
It's just unity editor, we tried out an app generated by the same laggy Unity and works perfectly with 1080p and Fastastic settings.
Let's hope a new Unity update is coming to solve this!

 

Same problem here. Freezing up for seconds on end every couple minutes, with stuttering performance in between. Started happening after I installed Mavericks.

2012 Mac Mini, 2.7Ghz Core i7, 16GB RAM, dual monitors.

 

I noticed that the stuttering in the Editor view port goes away when I don't have a moving object selected in the Inspector.

I.e. I can select a static camera and play in the editor with only minor stutter. But as soon as I select an object that has transformations, the game starts stuttering like crazy and Unity becomes practically unusable.

Don't remember this being an issue before updating to Mavericks.


OS X 10.9, Unity 4.2.2f1, 2010 Macbook Pro.

 

I disabled App Nap for Unity and Chrome and have notice some improvements after a day of testing. When Unity is open but not running the game, I haven't seen any system lockups when using other apps.

 

Disabling App Nap did not appear to make a difference for me. Still seeing terrible stuttering in play mode in the editor and random 10-20 second system lockups while working in Unity.

 

Hi guys,

After trying everything (app nap, automatic graphic switching, etc...) the solution for me has been to not use an external monitor. You just need to disconnect your external monitor and use only your laptop screen. Using only your external monitor with the laptop lid down won't work.

I hope it helps you.

 

Yep, I'm experiencing all these issues too. Have reported it to Apple, as I feel like it could be a Mavericks problem.

 

Unfortunately it still happens for me with a secondary monitor disconnected. I'm on an iMac rather than a Macbook, but I imagine it would be the same effect.

Ben

 

Chiming in with the same issue in 10.9.

Short pauses (that make the editor seem jerky) get progressively longer and longer until the Editor halts for 10-80 seconds. After that, everything seems fine until the cycle starts again.

During the halts, music continues to play in the background, mouse keeps moving, but the Dock won't open and I can't switch applications.

FWIW: I'm using an iMac with no graphics switching option (dedicated card only) and no external monitor. App Nap has been disabled for Unity. Don't get this issue with any other apps as far as I can tell. Boo.

 

The fact that a Unity employee posted in the other thread about the monosync bug being fixed but that this thread hasn't received the same acknowledgement worries me that Unity engineers haven't been able to find a solution to this.

 

It would be useful to know if Unity are able to reproduce this, or if we should still be trying to isolate what combination of hardware/software/options causes it. Anyone from Unity like to chime in?

 

Identical situation here. I came to the forum to find comfort from you guys, as working was becoming a pain. As I can see, I'm not the only one.

 

Same issue over here. I can't fully say it is a problem with Unity and Mavericks, but I get the 5-10 second freeze every few minutes. Completely unusable. I've noticed in the Activity Monitor that whenever this happens, the WindowServer process spikes beyond 100% and that is indeed the culprit.

Can anyone else see if this happens with them too? The WindowServer process apparently is "Responsible for managing the computer's display and mediating between the various Applications and other processes that want to display information on it."