The Mac OS X Client's absymal performance is a joke.

[Delily]

Having just played and unlocked DRK and AST, my experiences were that while I definitely did noticed decreased performance, the game was playable. However, it just vanish at one point, and when I logged back in, I started getting glitches all over. I'd really like to hear something from SE regarding this. It feels like I paid $60 to beta test a product. This is company that publicly apologized and then rebuilt this game. The OS X client was a big part of the Heavensward launch. If they don't want to fix it, I'd like to know so I can refund and get the Windows client. While I don't know the specifics of the contract with Transgaming, nor how Nvidia's recent acquisition of them changes things, the Wall of Silence the company is putting up is more damaging than simply acknowledging there's an issue. This is an official product from their store, this was a part of HW. The silence is unacceptable.

[Delily]

Good point that there are Square Enix games that work fine on Apple hardware like iPads, which also use OpenGL and OS X. It is not an impossible task to deliver a game that actually works well on OS X (indeed Blizzard's games work just fine as well.)

Surely it's not too much to ask for a Mac FFXIV client that actually delivers decent performance.

iOS has used Metal since 8.0, but I don't know how many of the console ports were rewritten. But given the companies experience with iOS development, targeting Metal with Luminous Tools is not out of the question.

[Pinw]

Just received my second response from SE support (after they brushed aside my original request for a license transfer). Now it seems they are unable to do license transfers or even officially acknowledge the issue. I was told that they cannot help me at this time so I demanded a full refund in order to purchase a PC license and go back to my reliable Parallels install.

This is totally disgraceful behavior from a major software company toward their paying customers... ask top dollar for a Mac edition that is just a cheap wrapper, refuse to openly address the issue with their affected players when things go bad and ultimately throw up their hands and say 'thanks for paying us upfront but there's really nothing we can do for you'.

[KingsleyWolfe]

After spending two days, I finally got the installer downloaded and booted it up for the patching. As it was patching, I tweeted about it and had a fried said she had given up and switched back to her PS4 version. I figured it was just a long patching.

No. I now regret having preordered the Mac bundle so long ago. I finally got it running, only to spend half an hour trying to remap keys and reorganize the UI, given the lack of a "Home" key.

And only then to find out that this version runs WORSE than my PS3 version, which is saying something, given how much the PS3 version chugs along on loading times. But at least I get a consistent framerate with the PS3 version, not some sub 15 fps on the lowest settings on a not very old Mac that has no problems with any other games I throw at it.

It's just rediculous. I honestly want a refund for it. I'm going to hold out for a bit, in the off chance Square actually listens to people for once, but I'm not holding my breath.

I just wanted to play FF14 on my laptop, and not have to go through the song and dance to set up my keyboard for use with my PS3.

[Liv_Traisharan]

I have a MacBook Retina Pro from early-2014. I REALLY don't want to have to use bootcamp. I had been using Parallels, but it was unplayable. I could barely even craft, which is honestly all I'd use it for on the laptop.

The Mac client does perform better than Parallels, but like you guys said, with the recommended specs I'd be expecting somewhere around 40-60 FPS, not 20-30 FPS. I've had to turn off *everything* in graphics and play down the resolution in order to run the client. I'm super upset, but I REALLY don't want to have to boot into Windows every time I want to play. Bootcamp isn't exactly an option for my laptop since I traded a smaller HD for more memory and a better graphics card. I don't think I'll have enough space for it since I need 100GB and only have about 70GB left

[Jaysnuh]

Square: Do THIS.

[Akira-Niji]

My Mac client has two major issues. If I change zones the entire UI begins blinking uncontrollably until the client crashes. Also the really low FPS issues mentioned above that shouldn't be even happening on a Retina display Macbook Pro that ran much smoother in boot camp and parallels.

I really wish we could get these client issues on Transgaming's radar. The only place on their site you can leave them a complaint is on this page.
https://www.transgaming.com/contact-us

I'm sure SE isn't pleased either to see this occurring either.

[matsukodeluxe]

Fxxk! IT'S NOT NATIVE!!! We don't want to buy emulated version!!! COCOACOCOACOCOACOCOA!!!!

[cybereal]

I have good experiences with playing it in Windows 8.1 in Bootcamp. On your machine that should perform very well. Maybe that's a temporary solution if you have a PC version? Personally I hoped to finally wipe Windows from my Mac, but alas. Guess I'll keep it for a while longer, combined with some play sessions on PS4. Trying to get used to the controller.

FWIW, you can plug a keyboard and mouse in the PS4 version and switch to mouse mode and play that way just fine.

[FayKayuun]

Personally, I did both and all I got back was... "We appreciate you bringing this to our attention. Thank you for taking the time to contact us today and we look forward to your opinions of our upcoming titles."

I'm glad others seem to be finding resolutions with support but this felt like a total brush-off.

I have found general support to be a complete joke. Live Chat always ended up with me waiting forever in queue, and whenever I finally get through, there's no rep. Ever.

Personally, I'm trying through the SE store support which was linked earlier in the thread:
https://store.na.square-enix.com/docs/email_support

They are much more responsive, and very kind. I don't know if they will be able to handle refunding anr/or switching to the PS4 version, but I am hopeful. If I can just get a refund even, that'd be great.

If WB can suspend sales of Arkham Knight to fix it, SE should do the same for the Mac client.

I agree with this so much. This client is so unplayable that even an iMac or MBP purchased today and brought home with the highest specs would chug. It's a mess, and it is ruining SE's reputation. I can't believe they let this slide so badly.