UE 4.8.1 locks up osx 10.10.3 on MBP6,2

Complete system lockup loading/running sample project

TLDR: This model of macbook seems to be faulty in the GPU/gpu drivers department. If other users also report this problem, consider blacklisting this model and throwing up a warning dialog to save other users from an unexpected lockup.

Steps to reproduce (I’ve done this twice, and both times had to force shutdown the machine):
Launch UE 4.8.1 via Epic Games Launcher.
Load advanced vehicle sample project (scalable graphics, targeting desktops).
System will lock within a few seconds, or (in my second test) after attempting to run the game.

On the first occasion, the viewer window originally appeared to render the scene, but soon displayed blocky black and white noise. After that the machine became effectively unresponsive, and I resorted to crashing it after 25 minutes.

UE version: 4.8.1
OS: Osx 10.10.3
Model: MacbookPro6,2 (mid 2010)
Gpu: Nvidia Geforce 330m GT w/ 512MB vram (hybrid configuration, and seemingly the cause of many of the problems)
CPU: First gen i7, hyper-threaded dual core 2.66Ghz
8GB ram.

Other notes: running aftermarket kingston ssd, upgraded to 8gb ram, usb hub and mouse attached. Running on AC power. Running editor on external screen. F.Lux colour tinter was running - not that it’s ever appeared to make much difference with other similar problems.

I’m inclined to blame osx and the gpu drivers for this one. The machine demonstrates minor graphical glitches in a number of other contexts. Small chunks of rendered content on webpages will sometimes jump out of alignment and back in. Nuke (from The Foundry) crashed regularly and displayed numerous graphical glitches before doing so. This would be the first time I remember a gpu issue actually locking up the machine mind you.

Logs (missing ends due to forced shutdown):
[link1][1]
[link2][2]
[link3][3]

Screenshot a few seconds before the system completely locked up the first time:

Hey n3t6a9,

So I have recreated your steps on a Mac Book Pro with these specs.

Version 10.10.3
2.3Ghz Intel Core i7
Memory : 16GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics : NVIDIA GeForce GT750M2048MB

The Vehicle Game project does open on this computer, runs, and plays. However, it took about 10 minutes to actually boot up the first time, and while I was in UE4 I changed the settings down to medium because there were some performance issues. I was not able to recreate the crash that you experienced.

Did a little digging on the graphics card that you have installed. The 330M GT is not compatible with Direct X 11. UE4 utilizes Direct X 11 and therefore, no matter what project you might open, it will crash.

Your hardware does not meet UE4 minimal requirements.

Mac uses an OpenGL on its OSX. The version that is required to run UE4 is 4 or better. Your OpenGL is 3.3. Even if you graphics card could run UE4 the OSX wouldn’t be compatible.

Thanks .

I must confess I didn’t read the requirements, but assumed given the variety of platforms the engine has targeted in past versions, that it would run - if only on low settings.

A dialog appeared on first launch noting that my dual core cpu was sub-par for what UE4 wanted, but I don’t remember any warnings about my GPU’s supported OGL version being too old.

I’m sorry for the trouble, given my machine is clearly outside of the target range, but I still think the startup warning could be improved to check what version of OGL/directx was supported on the machine, and to warn users against continuing on unsupported systems.

Thanks again