Hi everyone! I have bootcamp installed on my mac, it's mac air 2020 so I thought the hardware shouldn't be too big an issue. But stadia stutters on os x, and it's fluent on bootcamp. And for os x I already set the resolution to 720 for mobile data, which is the one requires least processing power or internet, and I run 1080 on bootcamp. I think maybe there's a lot of back process in os x that runs secretly, but on windows I can utillize the processing power into the gameplay. Does anyone know how to fix this?
Those are really the two main issues for macOS. It sounds like you have an Intel-based machine if it supports Windows via Bootcamp. I don't know for sure whether that machine can manage decoding VP9 in hardware.
You might try installing the Stadia Enhanced Chrome extension. It should show which codec you're using and whether it's hardware or software decoded. As long as Chrome is able to decode the video stream in hardware, the machine should work just fine even with a few processes running in the background. If it can't decode the video stream in hardware, a Macbook Air with an Intel processor is going to struggle even if nothing else is running in the background.
Hi @Tomohiro
Are you running Stadia through Safari or Google Chrome? I used to play on a MacBook Pro and it stuttered through Safari so I popped on Chrome and it was much smoother. Make sure that if you have any programs that run in the background for example emails, music streaming services are also turned off as these can have an effect on your MacBooks overall performance as it try’s to work on multiple tasks plus running a game and streaming a game. I hope this helps in some way
Hi, you can only run on Chrome. I don't know how you did that but if you try running now, stadia will ask you to use chrome. And no, I am not running anything in the background.
I killed basically every process to run stadia, it still stutters in 720 for mobile. But when I use bootcamp, I can do 1080p and watch video in the background
Hello @Tomohiro
If you're playing via WiFi, disable Location Services (Settings –> Security & Privacy –> Privacy tab). It periodically disconnects from your WiFi network to scan other channels to determine its current location. You may also want to disable AirDrop (menu bar –> Control Center –> AirDrop). That may be getting "kicked" every time someone on your local network unlocks their iPhone or iPad.
I tried disabling the location, it still stutters, I haven’t tried disabling airdrop, but I wasn’t using my phone when playing games so I don’t think that’s a problem. Is there a gaming mode in Mac that can utilize resources? Or can I enable that in stadia?
Those are really the two main issues for macOS. It sounds like you have an Intel-based machine if it supports Windows via Bootcamp. I don't know for sure whether that machine can manage decoding VP9 in hardware.
You might try installing the Stadia Enhanced Chrome extension. It should show which codec you're using and whether it's hardware or software decoded. As long as Chrome is able to decode the video stream in hardware, the machine should work just fine even with a few processes running in the background. If it can't decode the video stream in hardware, a Macbook Air with an Intel processor is going to struggle even if nothing else is running in the background.
Thanks! I’m gonna try it out! One more follow up, so if stadia is using software decoding on OS X, if there an option somewhere I can choose hardware decoding instead?
You may be able to disable hardware decoding through a Chrome browser flag. But, if you haven't done that, it should already be enabled. To check on this, go to the "System" section of Chrome's settings: chrome://settings/system and make sure "Use hardware acceleration when available" is enabled. Then, go to Chrome's flags (chrome://flags/ ), search for "decode", and make sure "Hardware-accelerated video decode" is enabled as well. But, if both of these are already enabled, and Stadia still isn't using it, then there's another problem (like something got broken in a version of Chrome).
I checked my decoding, it's hardware decoding with vp9, but the frame drop is around 30% when actually playing the game, 20% when loading the game (I mostly play borderlands 3). Does that mean the machine is not capable of playing stadia on OS X?
Can you take a look at all of the Stadia Enhanced statistics? In particular, the decoding time? It sounds like you are seeing high packet loss, which usually indicates a networking issue. But, if that were the problem, you should see it in bootcamp as well. Even so, eliminating the WiFi connection as an issue would be a good thing to try – you'd just need an inexpensive USB-C Ethernet adapter. Do you have any additional security software installed in macOS? Antivirus or firewall software, for example?
I have a ‘hackintosh’ which is pretty low spec compared to modern Macs and an M1 Mac mini. Both can play Stadia without issue but only via Ethernet.
I used h264 on the hack and hardware VP9 on the M1.
I really needed the Stadia enhanced plugin to help diagnose the issue so can really recommend it.