PzC Mac Problems

[proline]

So I was quite happy to pay $25 for a Mac copy of PzC Gold even though I own the iPad version already as I have been hungry to play it on the big screen for many years. Unfortunately, at this point it is pretty hard to play and not very good. Fortunately, fixing a couple simple issues would go a long way

1) There appears to be no way to make the strategic map fullscreen the way you can on the iPad by tapping the strategic map. F5 is supposed to work, but it doesn't. The strategic map in full screen was the best way to move around the battlefield quickly, and also the only good way to see at a glance which units were unmoved.

2) There is no good way to move around the map quickly. You can move the mouse to the edge of the screen to make it scroll, but the speed is awful slow. The arrow keys also make it scroll super slow. Clicking a different area on the mini-map does absolutely nothing.

3) Two finger scroll makes it zoom in and out, which is terrible because that gesture on the Mac is reserved for scrolling. Use z and ctr-z or something like that and make two finger scroll do what it is supposed to- scroll.

4) This is minor by comparison, but the UI on the right side of the screen is way bigger than it has to be

5) Also annoying- it requests the dedicated GPU when the integrated graphics would be fine, making my laptop really hot

6) combat animations and move animations are also way too slow

[yosefbenami]

Thank you for your observations. I also own the iPad version and have been hesitant about purchasing the Mac version. I've waited a long time for it and would be OK about rebuying the game just to be able to play it on a Mac. But the other comments I have read so far, like yours, are not very encouraging, especially your comment about your laptop running hot.

[peabird]

Hi folks!

I am playing on a Retina 15" Macbook with latest OS Sierra installed and I also came across several annoying bugs (I bought the gold edition):

- Message windows that appear ingame can`t be clicked away and enemy action can`t be seen (only click-able after the enemy phase is done)!

- The right column (showing the small map, unit data, prestige, etc.) is way too large and looks kinda blurry. I changed my screen resolution from small to large - always the same.

- My laptop is pretty new and even if PzC is running as only instance, the CPU becomes quit hot in no time and fans are running after a few seconds. What`s going on? I played PzC since 2011 on my heavily used 2008 Macbook (via Parallels) and never had any heat/stress issues like this!

Just my 0.2 cents. Thanx.

[proline]

Yeah the heat is almost certainly a result of it using the dedicated GPU when the integrated one would have worked. Runs hot, fan is always at its loudest, and battery life is crap. Not good. To add to my previous list

7) you can't click on the unit information to bring up the screen where you rename the unit and view its full sized art. Not sure how to access that functionality

[Shards]

Hi All,

Thanks for these reports, we're looking into things now

[kahvikuppi]

Mac vs PC

[kahvikuppi]

Mac vs PC

[Shards]

HI Proline,

Firstly, an apology, the game doesn't really have support for gestures/trackpad use, it is designed for play with a mouse. We'll update the store page to reflect that.

For your other questions:

1) You can get the strategy map by right-clicking on the mini map
2) Dragging the screen with the mouse is the fastest way to move the map around.
3) I'm afraid that the game isn't really supportive of trackpad gestures
4) By design I'm afraid
5) We can't control that as the Mac selects the GPU according to power settings. There is tool called 'gfxCardStats' that allows you to force integrated or dedicated GPU. In general all apps using OpenGL/Metal switches to dedicated GPU for better performance.
6) Can you let us know the spec of the machine you're using? Type, GPU, OSX?
7) Right-click is your best bet here.

[proline]

Firstly, an apology, the game doesn't really have support for gestures/trackpad use, it is designed for play with a mouse. We'll update the store page to reflect that.

Most Macs aren't sold with mice. Most players would want to play on the couch, in an airplane, in bed, etc. You need to fix this. It can't be that hard to make sure everything can be done with the keyboard and add a trackpad gesture or two.

1) You can get the strategy map by right-clicking on the mini map

Figured it out, thanks. However, why does left clicking the mini-map not do anything? Shouldn't it open the strategic map, or move the camera or something?

2) Dragging the screen with the mouse is the fastest way to move the map around.

3) I'm afraid that the game isn't really supportive of trackpad gestures

How hard would it be to make two finger scroll work properly? At least make the arrow keys scroll at a decent speed.

4) By design I'm afraid

I don't think so. The images above show the Mac UI is very distorted, and not in a good way.

5) We can't control that as the Mac selects the GPU according to power settings. There is tool called 'gfxCardStats' that allows you to force integrated or dedicated GPU. In general all apps using OpenGL/Metal switches to dedicated GPU for better performance.

Yes you can, at least while on battery. Include a NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching flag in your app plist. That will at least allow it to go integrated when on battery power.

6) Can you let us know the spec of the machine you're using? Type, GPU, OSX?

My machine is great, its not a spec problem. 2014 MBP. The problem is your idea of full speed assumes the user wants to really appreciate the animations. After the first day, we don't, and they get annoying. No way to disable either.

7) Right-click is your best bet here.

Figure that out too, however you can only rename one or two units before the rename function stops working and you have to restart the app.

[armstein]

I've been playing the PZCorps Gold for sometime now on Mac and yes there are some serious bugs to fix on the Mac version.

However, the most frustrating thing is that I can't seem to open the unit details during the deployment phase. This means that it's impossible to disband units and so far I've tried everything, right clicking, pressing shift D, etc.

Is there a way?

[citizen6]

I too was happy to buy again for the Mac (especially as it was the Gold version) having also bought it for ipad and long ago for the PC.
But the bugginess of it is very frustrating,

A number of issues:
- as mentioned by someone else previously the annoying unit promotion pop-up that doesn't disappear until the enemy turn is over
- the unit / reserve list does not scroll making unit selection painful. You have to deploy infantry until the list is short enough to see tanks/planes, then deploy them, and then undeploy the infantry.
- the manual speaks on being able to see detailed combat stats prior to combat by using ctrl-click - this does not work.
- there is a slow memory leak somewhere that leads to the game struggling and then throwing a warning about low memory just before it crashes (takes a couple of hours game time for this to happen)
- the gebirgsjager do not seem to be able to actually climb mountains in the Caucasus map of the Afrika Korps campaign and their movement through hills is limited to the same as any other infantry unit (the Italian and Russian mountain troops can though)
- are the unit stats the same as the pc version (some of the eastern front units seem a bit off in terms of historical reality)

Thanks

[IainMcNeil]

To help address Mac issues we've set up a new help desk.

For all Mac issues please contact support@vpltd.com. The Mac version was developed by a different company and only they can support you properly, which is why we've struggled to answer your questions having to go back to them on each query. This will help us to help you as quickly as possible. Thanks!

[proline]

To help address Mac issues we've set up a new help desk.

For all Mac issues please contact support@vpltd.com. The Mac version was developed by a different company and only they can support you properly, which is why we've struggled to answer your questions having to go back to them on each query. This will help us to help you as quickly as possible. Thanks!

Will the visual distortions that kahvikuppi posted get fixed?

[pipfromslitherine]

The OSX version uses a different engine, so the differences are not distortions, simply that the UI has ended up slightly different due to changes in the engine.

Cheers

Pip

[kahvikuppi]

[proline]

The OSX version uses a different engine, so the differences are not distortions, simply that the UI has ended up slightly different due to changes in the engine.

Cheers

Pip

For goodness sake please listen. We're not just talking about UI Elements. When artwork such as tanks become 50% wider than the artist intended, distortion is absolutely 100% the correct word to use. When text, that's right, text, is horizontally stretched making it less readable that's a distortion. Would you recommend a game where the artwork was distorted like some funny house mirror and the publisher has made no commitment to fixing it in a reasonable time frame (it has been over a month now)?

[pipfromslitherine]

I am not sure where the tank image is from, that is of course stretched, but that isn't the image(s) I was responding to - unless you mean the small icons in the grid being stretched, which I just spotted, and agree should have been spotted and fixed. There is no stretched text anywhere. that I can see, just a differently sized UI panel with a different font.

Cheers

Pip

[proline]

I am not sure where the tank image is from, that is of course stretched, but that isn't the image(s) I was responding to - unless you mean the small icons in the grid being stretched, which I just spotted, and agree should have been spotted and fixed. There is no stretched text anywhere. that I can see, just a differently sized UI panel with a different font.

Cheers

Pip

OK, do we agree that artwork for the selection of tanks in the purchase screen shown above are badly stretched? Now look at the turn counter and the prestige counter in the top right. The numbers are the same height as in the PC version but noticeably wider- they are stretched. Now when you bring up the unit info by right clicking on a unit, you get a distorted version of that unit, like the large tank just above this post. There are many other distortions but these are some of the most obvious.

[peabird]

I just got mail from the guys of Virtual Programming that did the Mac version...

The right column (showing the small map, unit data, prestige, etc.) is way too large and looks kinda blurry. I changed my screen resolution from small to large - always the same.
Unfortunately we can't change that. Mac version is based on iPad version which has fixed UI elements size.


Message windows that appear ingame can`t be clicked away and enemy action can`t be seen (only click-able after the enemy phase is done)!
We will check this issue when the time permits.


My laptop is pretty new and even if PzC is running as only instance, the CPU becomes quit hot in no time and fans are running after a few seconds. What`s going on? I played PzC since 2011 on my heavily used 2008 Macbook (via Parallels) and never had any heat/stress issues like this!
Panzer Corps Mac version uses GPU to render game graphics. That gives much better performance compared to CPU rendering. That is why you experience higher Mac temperature than typical use. If your Mac has two GPU (integrate and discrete) you can use gfxCardStatus tool to change between those two. Integrated GPU uses less power so your Mac should be much cooler.

[proline]

I just got mail from the guys of Virtual Programming that did the Mac version...

The right column (showing the small map, unit data, prestige, etc.) is way too large and looks kinda blurry. I changed my screen resolution from small to large - always the same.
Unfortunately we can't change that. Mac version is based on iPad version which has fixed UI elements size.

Well the iPad version doesn't make the tanks seem twice as wide as they really are, so there's more to it than that.

[/i]Panzer Corps Mac version uses GPU to render game graphics. That gives much better performance compared to CPU rendering. That is why you experience higher Mac temperature than typical use. If your Mac has two GPU (integrate and discrete) you can use gfxCardStatus tool to change between those two. Integrated GPU uses less power so your Mac should be much cooler.

First, no developer should be requiring users to install a 3rd party hack to make the game run better. Especially one last updated in 2012 that might not even work on the latest OS or hardware. Second, I tried gfxCardStatus and the energy use was still insane. If I can play the game for 6 hours on an ancient iPad 4, there must be a way to get more than an hour out of the latest MacBook Pro. Third, even basic one-line issues, such as enabling automatic graphics card switching in the .plist file haven't been done.