Mac Client Known Issues

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Mac Client Known Issues

15.3

As of 15.3 30 March 2015:

  • The OSX Launcher will no longer download all the splash screens every time you start it. It does make an HTTP request for each splash screen to see if you have the most recent one on disk each time.

15.2

As of Update 15.2 in February of 2015, ?all?most? Mac Client specific isues have been fixed.
  1. In particular, a memory-leak has been fixed which appears to have addressed the constant crashing problem, allowing the Mac Client to be run on Ultra-High graphics settings again with no problems.
  2. The Mac Client (and the PC Client) still download all 30 "Splash"(Transition) screens every time the game is launched.
    There is currently no known way to prevent this. Previous fixes no longer work.
  3. These downloaded Splash (Transition) do not display in the Game Client. - Mac Client only
    See: Mac Client Instructions for moving the Splash Screens for a work-around.
  4. There are numerous other problems which are common to both the Mac and PC Clients.
  • The Mac and PC Clients tend to crash at the completion of Epic Battles.

15.1.1

As of Update 15.1.1 (18 December 2014) these are the primary issues with the Mac Client.
  1. The Mac Client (and the PC Client) download all 30 "Splash"(Transition) screens every time the game is launched.
    There is currently no known way to prevent this. Previous fixes no longer work.
  2. These downloaded Splash (Transition) do not display in the Game Client. - Mac Client only
    See: Mac Client: Instructions for moving the Splash Screens for a work-around.
  3. The Mac Client crashes after about 50-75 minutes in-game.
  4. The Mac and PC Clients tend to crash at the completion of Epic Battles.
  5. The Mac Client will crash when the AFK timer expires instead of taking you back to the character selection screen. fixed

Historical Mac Client Known Issues

This is a compilation of known issues with the Mac Client compiled from Forum Posts primarily in:

but also found in various General Forum posts.

/UI [save/load]

  • The /UI command does not use a valid path. It (probably) is attempting to write to Root; the work-around is to provide a full path name.

Music /Play contains a bad file path

EULA/TOC must be acknowledge in English

  • French and German language players must FIRST launch the Client in English; accept the EULA and TOS; quit the Mac Client and re-launch before selecting their native language. NOTE that this currently occurs following every Update and Patch.

Transition Screens for 3 languages are downloaded at every Client Launch

  • Each time the Client is launched, 10 "transition screens" are downloaded for all 3 languages (English, French and German).
  • This appears to be down to the inappropriate use of Windows path semantics on the MacOS platform. To verify and fix:
    • Identify "The Lord of the Rings Online" application in your Applications folder,
    • Control-click or Right-click and choose "Show Package Contents".
    • Open Contents/Resources/DownloadFilesList.xml in a text editor and verify that the path delimiter is a backslash instead of a slash i.e. the path reads "raw\en\logo\lotro_ad_pregame.jpg" instead of "raw/en/logo/lotro_ad_pregame.jpg"
    • If you update all the paths to use the latter syntax the problem should go away.
    • Once updated and saved, you may wish to lock the file to prevent any updates from undoing your good work ("Get Info" on that file (⌘I) and click "Locked" to make it read-only.)

Changing Graphics causes "Loss of Focus"

  • Switching between full screen and windowed mode (and changing certain graphic settings) results in not being able to type in chat, search boxes etc until you restart the client. Action keys (ASWD) continue to work as expected.

Various Graphics sliders do not work

One workaround for this if your video is too light or too dark in-game, is to use the Calibrate feature, and largely ignore the instructions. Just use the movable buttons while observing the effects on the game window. There are multiple steps to the calibrate tool, and sometimes only the last few steps have a big effect. At the end, you can save a separate calibration specifically for playing the game instead of saving to the default graphics file.

Select Optimal Settings (graphics) does not work correctly

The Mac Client reports incorrect information to the Lua interface

  • The Client reports 1280x1024 independent of actual screen resolution.

Various support files are stored in "~/Library" -- a hidden folder in OSX.

  • While this is the "New Apple Way;" Apple hid "~/Library" with the release of Lion. And while "sophisticated" Mac Users have not problem with this, the vast majority of Mac Users have no idea how to access "~/Library" and Apple has chosen to NOT document how to access it.

Key Bindings don't stick" or are "Unknown"

  • Many key bindings show up as "unknown" -- even if they are successfully "rebound" to other keys.
  • Attempting to bind a key to a "double-key" combination (such as "Cntl-x") results in only the "Cntl" being recognized.

Frame rates are lower with the Mac Client

  • Various people note that the Frame Rates they see with the Mac Client are lower than when running the Windows Client via BootCamp on the same hardware.

Mouse/Cursor/View Jumps

  • certain mouse movements cause the cursor to Jump to center screen and the camera to position itself overhead or behind and below the character.

A discussion of the "Inactive Memory" issue

First a definition of Memory Leak:

"A memory leak, in computer science (or leakage, in this context), occurs when a computer program acquires memory but fails to release it back to the operating system." (Wikipedia)
"A Memory Manager knows at all times what physical and virtual memory belongs to a process. However, if a process allocates memory, then doesn't free it because of a bug (an occurrence known as a leak), neither the Memory Manager nor an "external" application can recognize that the allocated memory won't be accessed again at some point and must wait until the process exits to reclaim the memory."

"Memory Cleaners can help."

  • This is just perpetuating an old myth and a lack of understanding of how modern Virtual Memory Operating Systems work.
OS X includes a fully-integrated virtual memory system that you cannot turn off; it is always on.
Virtual memory allows an operating system to escape the limitations of physical RAM.
OS X provides up to 4 gigabytes of addressable space per 32-bit process. In addition, OS X provides approximately 18 exabytes of addressable space for 64-bit processes!
If you want to understand why then check this article which explains the technical side:
The Memory-Optimization Hoax - RAM optimizers make false promises
It is an old Windows article but the facts are sound and apply to any Virtual Memory Operating System. If you want something a bit less technical, OSX oriented, and more up to date, written by C|net (which itself provides "memory cleaning" apps for download) then check here;
Memory-cleaning utilities: Not the panacea they claim to be
All these various apps do is to flush Inactive RAM to disk. Therefore you lose the Cache the kernel carefully built up of recently used data. So the green wedge in Activity Monitor grows but at the actual expense of removing the kernels' cached data which is there for a purpose: to speed up loading of recently used apps (i.e. programs) and their data, etc.
Apple explains how Inactive Memory is still available to other applications but that existing apps using Inactive Memory will open and perform quicker;
Read the Apple Support page here;
Using Activity Monitor to read System Memory and determine how much RAM is being used
For more information about Mac OS X memory management including virtual memory, see this Apple Developer link.
About the Virtual Memory System
  • One suggested "fix," the App, "Memory Clean," free from the App store, does what it claims to do, but not what you think it does nor expect it to do!
This is the same as using the "purge" command in Terminal which does free up physical RAM as one expects. However, it is a programmers tool which has specific limitations.
The only real place for such an app or use of the purge command is helping programmers to identify memory leaks. But it not a cure, it is at best a pointer to an underlying issue with a running app for that app's programmer. It provides no real benefit to the General User.
  • Both the LOTRO Mac and Windows Clients have known issues with memory leaks -- which can happen in any app.
The way to deal with this is to identify what you are doing when it happens and Submit A Bug Report
Make sure to select Mac as the operating system and give as much detail as possible: especially including your system configuration.
(You can get details on your system by clicking the Apple symbol top left of screen - About This Mac > More info > System Report and copy/paste details of the Hardware Overview; a description of the bug -- Freeze, crash to desktop, etc. -- and details of what you were doing, including /loc (location) or coordinates from beneath the Radar display and your Server. Also attach a screenshot or system report (found at More info…, see above) if relevant. Then Turbine are aware of the issue and can help fix it. (Note that Lion and Mountain Lion have slightly different layouts of the "About this Mac" pop-up.)
You can also Submit a Ticket
Provide as much detail as is possible as above -- including computer configuration, what you were doing when it happened, etc.
In this way Turbine is made aware of a potential issue with the beta Mac client and can possibly aid you directly in fixing the problem.
A bug report will not get a direct response from Turbine, but it will get the issue Logged. Whereas a Ticket will get a direct response. However, the Ticket response will likely be Generic and not really addressing the problem. Tickets and Bug Reports go to different organizations within Turbine. Tickets go to Customer Support, and Bug reports go to the Developers directly.
The only way to resolve a memory leak is for the developer to fix it. There is nothing the end user can do!
  • There are long running reports that the OS X itself does not manage memory correctly leading to huge Inactive Memory. There may be elements of truth in that but they result from a lack of understanding of Virtual Memory theory, and efforts by Apple to increase overall system performance.
A great majority of Inactive Memory will be from one app or another, and not from the LOTRO Client. And, if you run a number of memory intensive apps on your computer it doesn't matter how much RAM you have installed it will still fill the Inactive Memory eventually. That is because Virtual Memory is working as intended as explained above.
  • If you want to use a memory cleaner for the short term to see if it allows you to to play longer on LOTRO, then, either use the Purge command in Terminal as explained here, or using a truly free app which has this function such as " Onyx (check the page for versions for the OS X version you are running) which also happens to be a reliable and useful maintenance tool.
I would always recommend checking app comments on a site like [URL="https://www.macupdate.com/"]MacUpdate[/URL] because you are more likely to get an overview of how an app actually works rather than the claims made by developers. Or check the Apple Support forums will often garner useful and more balanced advice.
This sort of memory cleaning app should never need to be used on anything other than a short term, troubleshooting basis. It is never a fix in itself just a temporary respite. And remember, it does not do what is you think it does. All it does is to free up physical RAM, but does NOT make that RAM available to any given program.

Lastly, I know that there were memory issues in LOTRO running through the beta ROR and after Update 8 went live. Turbine acknowledged some issues and has worked to ["https://lorebook.lotro.com/wiki/Update_8.0.1,_Riders_of_Rohan,_Official" address] them. For many players (especially with the Windows client) there is no issue so the problem looks to be more complex and to be location specific, or indeed as they say, caused by other issues.

  • Thanks to Todlepip for the initial verbiage.

One additional comment. The Memory Leak issue in the Mac Client is triggered -- OVER TIME -- with the following situations:

  • In Rohan. In general, especially with extensive travel across multiple "land blocks" as well as with the following:

Outside of Rohan, the problem does not exist except in:

  • In Instances
  • With Swift Travel
  • In Session Plays
  • With multiple passes through "gateways" -- i.e. entering or leaving buildings, etc.
  • With multiple interactions with NPCs (Quests, Auction House, Vault) etc.
  • Going AFK.

How frequently you do these various things impacts how quickly, if at all, you encounter a memory leak.