Native Apple silicon Support for M1 and M2 Macs Enabled [1.47] [September 2023]

What's New? Zwift Game
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Hi Jannik,

Does that mean - with replacing the „high“ profile against the „ultra“ profile, that you are actually playing at an ultra profile?

My sense is the config file modifications do make a difference and allow my M1Pro to capture some aspects of the full Zwift Ultra Profile that are implemented via the config files; however, it seems the only way to have true Ultra is for Zwift to code their servers on their end to provide it for M series Macs. They haven’t done that so far but might at some point. Plenty of folks are asking. Think about how they FINALLY turned on Rider Shadows for the M series macs. For now, see the series of posts above by BooX etal starting Sept 18 for some info on config file modifications.

And allow me to ask, that means „virtually locked 60FPS“? Is that a setting you set by your own, or does the MacBook limit it to 60FPS, instead it would be able to display more?

I think my FPS is limited to 60 by since 60hz is the highest setting allowed for my Samsung TV in my MacBook’s external display settings. The fact that my fps never goes above 60 and rarely below 50 suggests my M1pro could go higher if my display would accept it.

I’ve thought about moving up to an M3pro/max, but see no reason to unless Zwift implements the Ultra Profile for the M3’s but not for my current M1pro since otherwise my M1pro handles my needs quite well. Ball is in Zwift’s court…

Rick

83

I thought the graphics were all rendered locally on the local device?

If they were rendered on the server it wouldn’t matter what GPU you had as long as it could play the video feed, surely?

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84

Yes profiles are set in the client software.

85

Aah, is that a process managed by Zwift?
Thought it is an easy decision in the background, based on the available hardware.

For example like: better = higher profile

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It’s apparently a manual process matching a specific GPU and requiring a new game release.

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Good to know, thank you. I am excited for the next few releases…

89

Re: {GMPLAY-8068} Accessing Mac Sonoma Game Mode apparently is a function of the LSApplicationCategoryType property set in the Info.plist of the app rather than just being in Full Screen mode. Your developers might be interested in Howard Oakley’s article at eclecticlight dot co/2023/11/16/game-mode-revisited-why-e-cores-are-so-important/

90

Hi,
it seems I am the first with M3 Max. Just as a reference, same as your other M2 screenshots.

Screenshot 2023-11-17 alle 01.40.37
Screenshot 2023-11-17 alle 01.40.372918×1534 401 KB

I was used to run Zwift on an old iPad, it looks amazing here on my big 4K display! (but I am still slow on the bike, damn it!)

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91

Thanks for posting this. I’ve been curious. It doesn’t look any different from what I see with my M1pro. I hope Zwift will implement the Ultra graphics profile for at least the M3pro/max processors, if not for all the M series pro & max chips. If nothing else, I’m curious as to how much visual difference it would make when running 4k resolution and might nudge me to upgrade from my 2 year old M1pro.

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It’s generally not recommended to try to achieve a higher profile by tinkering with config files, and it’s worth noting that the visual difference between High and Ultra settings may not be very noticeable in any case. You can’t change profile with config file hacks.

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93

For what it’s worth, my 4K display has power over USB-PD limited to 60W.
Which is perfect for most things, but not for Zwift which tries to use 65-70W. Therefore I was looking how to decrease quality so my battery wouldn’t discharge during Zwifting.

FWIW you don’t need to tweak profiles and in Zwift laptop battery saver settings you can keep them as “Off” but… in macos system settings if you switch Low Power Mode on it decreases power consumption. Obviously under the hood it might impact the profile but this way is a bit more user friendly. YMMV.