This. It’s been way too long. And now after all this time, native support comes, and there’s not even a bump in visual quality. That’s really the bummer. Yay shadows! Shadows should not have taken 3 YEARS!!!
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The whole “no shadows” thing was a red herring. They could have turned this on a long time ago, Rosetta or not. The Apple Silicon carrot was just used as a convenient excuse to not turn on shadows for M1/M2 in High profile… Anyway, I guess it’s all water under the bridge now. In terms of visual improvements, it’s not unexpected that the native support had no improvements. The change to “Metal API” that happened months ago was where any visual improvements would have happened.
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Definitely great to see MacOS running native - well done Zwift!
I’m hoping the iOS and iPadOS apps could get some attention next. I understand they’re already native, they just don’t seem to have access to the same level of detail and framerates their M-series Mac equivalents do.
The new iPhones run the latest console games from Resident Evil and Assassin’s Creed, and the iPad is getting M3 next year. Wish Zwift could support more than Basic at 30fps soon!
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Definitely seeing significant improvement running Zwift on a Mac Mini M2 Pro. 4K resolution, high profile, pinned at 60fps (max screen resolution), also running OBS with a 4K webcam on the same machine.
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Based on this, I’m guessing they could absolutely put the M2 Pro machines at Ultra profile… hopefully this happens and we we can get the best possible experience.
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Folks, I’m running a MacAir with M1 chip and the 8core GPU. I believe this update is now supposed to support M1 natively, if so I have an issue and am wondering if anyone else is experiencing this… The issue occurs when the system is on plugged in and not on battery power. Within 4 min of riding the thermals shoot through the roof turning the laptop into a cooktop, the only way to fix this is to dummy down the laptop by changing the battery setting while connected to conserve power, essentially cutting its legs off. However if I do this the CPU and GPU run around 59 degrees C , instead of 100!! This occurs whether I’m in Ultra or 4k and 30 or 60 fps. It makes no difference ( I output to 4k capable TV through HDMI ) . SO QUESTION FOR ZWIFT HQ , Do you know why this is occurring if Zwift is now native??
Do you see the running application name as “ZwiftAppSilicon”? (If not, update the launcher) I’m running on a 10-core M1 Pro in a MacBook Pro and not seeing a problem, but my system has a cooling fan while yours does not…
Yes it does say ZwiftAppSilicon. And yes mo fan , but you would figure that if native it should not require treating it like it was unplugged in power save mode. Obviously this has game smoothness implications. Out of curiosity what are your thermals, plugged and unplugged in power save mode. Would be interested in the delta value… THANKS FOR YOUR RESPONSE!!
Sorry meant to say plugged BUT NOT USING POWERSAVE MODE
@MH-RR.Ultra
I merged your subthread to the M1 discussion.
See this bit from the first post upstream. Would this apply to you, by any chance?
I’ve manually edited the config file, and it’s extreme beyond the Ultra profile.
I get a crazy amount of details and extra rendered stuff - and the Mini M2 Pro isn’t hardly working 
I might actually pull it slightly back, since it renders so many trees that I have difficulties capturing a propper Yeti photo now 
BòóX
I tried this a while back before native support was finally rolled out, and certain worlds (Makuri and France especially) were getting some very weird freezes and glitches. What settings are you using? I may try again now that native support is real.
These are the only available settings for me so if plugged in I must choose “low power mode” otherwise the laptop cooks. I.e. If I choose “never” the laptop cpu/gpu rises to around 100 and turns orange meaning running way to hot. As an aside this the behaviour prior to the port to native so for me I really don’t see the improvement…
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These are from a ride today with the laptop plugged in.
First without Zwift running:
Second, sitting at the home screen for 15 minutes. Fans are off here.
Third, after about 75 minutes of riding. Fans are on here.
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Thanks for this, it would appear that even when not under intense graphics activity (Home Screen) the system heats up certainly more than it should. Temps drop as you ride under graphics load and have broached apples thermal setting for fan operation and thus the temps drop. Unfortunately for the MacAir with no fans it doesn’t have this out so it overheats. I honestly believe this to still be an issue as the statement that Zwift supports the M1 should come with a big caveat ref, power modes, frame rates etc as has been alluded to above. Again thanks for feedback, this is all good for Zwift HQ. To know
I’ll post the settings later today, when I’m close to the M2 
I actually ran some similar settings, before the native app was released and had close to no glitches on my setup - now it’s 99,9% perfect.
I had this issue too on the Mini M2 Pro… noticed the temperature rise like crazy, and then after some riding it was almost back to refrigerator levels.
Nothing dangerous, but high temperatures…
BòóX
The home screen has always been a very busy place as long as I can remember. No idea why.
One other thing I should mention is that I set the internal display on the laptop to 60Hz instead of ProMotion. I did that to fix the yo-yo effect of riders moving forward and back in unison. It may also reduce power consumption but I didn’t check.
Unrelated to Zwift, there are a lot of reports of overheating problems with the M1/M2 MacBook air from gamers and others who push the CPU hard. One common fix is to install a thermal pad between the heat sink and the chassis so it can transmit heat better. Doing that would also make a laptop cooling stand more effective.
res 1920x1080(0x)
sres 2048x2048
set gSSAO=1
set gFXAA=1
set gSunRays=0
set gHeadlight=0
set gFoliagePercent=2
set gSimpleReflections=0
set gLODBias=0
set gShowFPS=0
Is my current modified high.txt profile for the Mac mini M2 Pro - running on a 60FPS locked, 4K monitor
BòóX
Thanks, I do have a thermal pad ( two fans ) under laptop but with no power saving enabled when plugged in it still cooks. I guess I’ll live with this and limited fps for now. Perhaps MacOS needs some under the hood throttling for games in general… thanks again!! RIDE ON
A thermal pad is something you install inside the laptop so that heat is conducted from the heat sink to the chassis. Because there is an air gap in there, the laptop cooler with the fans doesn’t help much unless you do more to get the heat out of the laptop.
Here’s a discussion of it relating to the M2:
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