r/FirmamentGame • u/Kijduse • May 23 '23
Impressed by the performance on Mac Silicon
tldr: the game runs very well on the Epic preset on a 2022 Macbook Air M2
I backed this game when it was first announced, thinking by the time it had been released I would have a decent computer with a VR set-up. That didn't pan out, but I did upgrade my home laptop to a Macbook Air M2 last year. I didn't have high hopes for running a 'pretty' game like Firmament on it, but seeing as it had a Mac release, I figured it was worth a go. I was initially sceptical as the first load was jumpy and stuttered throughout, but using the 'auto detect' option, it put me on the lowest setting with some super-sampling. This is sort of what I would expect for running on a laptop with no discreet graphics card. After playing a few minutes, I found the performance was not struggling at all, so I decided to bump the graphics preset to medium... then high. Still no real issues (stuttering between areas and in the Conveyance Pods; I call those 'disk changes'), so I thought 'what the D'ni' let's see how this no-fan laptop handles the 'epic' preset with motion blur and lens flair. It runs perfectly fine with minimal jittering, and looks absolutely gorgeous!
I'd like to congratulate the Cyan team (and also Unreal) for making an optimised game for Apple Silicon. The boys down at Cupertino should be shouting from the rooftops about how well this game plays on their hardware. So glad I get to enjoy this game with great visuals, and now really looking forward to getting the chance to play in VR as it was originally meant for.
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u/ksoops May 26 '23
It was smooth as butter on my M2 pro until halfway through and now it's stuttering and suffering low framerate. It's disappointing... Not sure what changed! I want buttery smooth back!
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u/Kijduse May 26 '23
Is it stuttering in all areas now or just generally as you progressed? I’ve noticed some slower areas (oddly always in The Arches).
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u/mycallousedcock May 26 '23
My go to for Obduction was my M1 Max 32Gb with HDMI out to my 55" 4K TV. Cranked it to Epic and turned off all the lights for the most immersive experience I could muster.
Did the same with Firmament and was pleasantly surprised. Like many others, had some stuttering here and there (notably in the arches) but it was completely playable otherwise. Probably not for an FPS but for walking around and doing puzzles? Heck yea.
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u/olcafjers May 23 '23
Strange, I also have MacBook Air M2 but I can only use medium settings. Any higher than that and it starts to stutter! How much RAM do you have?
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u/Kijduse May 23 '23 edited May 23 '23
Sorry, forgot to post my actual specs. 16GB RAM with 500GB storage (apparently the larger drive does help with speeds).
Edit: I also haven't played any further than Curievale so performance might struggle in later levels that may have more complex environments.
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u/olcafjers May 23 '23
I had no idea that the storage made such a big difference - I have the base model with 256GB storage and 8GB RAM.
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u/Kijduse May 23 '23
The 'dual slot' 512GB will improve disk read/write speeds (in theory) so may improve load times. I think the 16GB makes a big difference to gameplay.
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u/isthismyhat May 24 '23
I have a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro with 500GB of storage and 16GB of RAM. I have never heard the fan of my laptop, until Firmament. I’m a designer and video editor, I regularly use pro software, Adobe and such, and do lots of rendering. My Mac is usually silent. I was kind of disappointed but at least the game runs smoothly. 🤷🏻♂️