EU4 Upper screen renders half black on MacOS Catalina

[aeg0ntargaryen]

Hi, I updated to MacOS Catalina and my PDX games are acting weird.

Both CK2 and EUIV were showing upper screen half black. I managed to fix it for CK2 by changing the settings to fullscreen = no and borderless = yes plus gui_scale = 1.000000 but it is not working for EUIV. (Also noticed that even if I add those settings to the respective .txt files, somehow game reverts the settings to fullscreen=yes, borderless=no)

The issue:

My system Specs:

Setting files and logs attached herewith. Please help, I can't even start the game with the controls cut off.

 

[AndrewT]

Please reduce the game's resolution step by step until this goes away. In EU4 you should do this in the launcher, which will update pdx_settings.txt

I have hopes this will be fixed in 10.15.1 , if not our devs will have to look into it further.

 

[aeg0ntargaryen]

Thanks that did the trick.

 

[Picasso Sparks]

This is still happening for me in Catalina 10.15.1 (19B2106)
On a MacBook Pro 16"

Stepping down resolution doesn't work as a workaround for me.
2304x1440 and above moves the whole thing down too low.
1796x1120 pushes everything to a corner with a red box during loading.
1536x960 and lower moves the whole thing up too high. So it seems like there is no sweet spot.

Borderless windowed renders OK but it wants to be at native resolution and it leaves the Dock visible etc. So they conflict.

 

[AndrewT]

I don't know why that would be like that for you, as you can see above that generally works for other Mac users.

You are only trying resolutions listed in your system.log file, yeah?

 

[Megasdux]

Seems I also have this problem. Anybody have a resolution that works?

Not just EU4, but also stellaris, ck2, hoi4,...

 

[AndrewT]

This is now known to be a bug in the shader compiler in MacOS 10.15.x , I'm not sure it is possible for us to fix it in the games.

Did you try post #2 above? That has worked for everyone I've come across except in post #4 above.

 

[Megasdux]

Yes, I'm (rather tediously) going through all the resolutions in order now.

So far, the best is 1650x1050, which only cuts off a bit from the top.

 

[Megasdux]

Yes, it seems that (at least on the 16 inch mbp), 1650x1050 is the only thing that could be considered playable in EU4.

 

[garymagnum]

Having the same issue here.

 

[Picasso Sparks]

I don't know why that would be like that for you, as you can see above that generally works for other Mac users.

You are only trying resolutions listed in your system.log file, yeah?

Yes, just the ones in system.log.

Yes, it seems that (at least on the 16 inch mbp), 1650x1050 is the only thing that could be considered playable in EU4.

Also in the 16inch I tried this resolution and it looks like

I was able to make it look right by command-tabbing out so that it displayed as a window, moving the window to the bottom of the screen, clicking another app and clicking back. Then it lines up right. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So I guess try that?

Update: This workaround is very unpredictable. Sometimes it realigns itself with this method, and sometimes things end up further off center.

 

[AndrewT]

Sorry about that then! How about borderless or windowed modes, any better?

 

[Firemad]

I can confirm in my case in other game (I came here from Imperator forum and I saw the problem with Stellaris, HOI4 and Imperator) , I found that in my 4k monitor that if I scale to 4k instead of another resolution in macos in display (they call it the more space option in the scaling section) and then I choose the boderless mode with the 4k setting in the launcher that everything will run smoothly without any black border like the first picture.

Fullscreen doesn't work at all.

It's a workaround but yeah I need to change scaling mode in macos to be able to play... I wish the Fullscreen was able to work but yeah I guess soon

Let me know if you need a better explanation but I'm sure the solution will work for EU4 but I can't confirm it since I don't have this game yet

EDIT: I saw the same problem with CK2 and the trick in macos with the bordless corrected my problem too.

 

[Picasso Sparks]

Sorry about that then! How about borderless or windowed modes, any better?

Borderless full screen works fine in that it lines up but the menu bar and dock don't go away, which is distracting and sometimes gets in the way of buttons.

Windowed works fine.

 

[Firemad]

Borderless full screen works fine in that it lines up but the menu bar and dock don't go away, which is distracting and sometimes gets in the way of buttons.

Windowed works fine.

Can you try this setting (check the screenshot that I uploaded) in display on macos and after that can you try the borderless full screen ?

It's how I corrected my problem.

You need to use the far one on the right temporary and start the game in boderless full screen.

 

[Picasso Sparks]

Same problem as above. Dock and toolbar remain visible.

it seems like windowed is the way to go for me.

 

[PillowWhite.]

I encountered the same problem here with the mbp 16". It works fine with my old mbp 15" but on the new one, the only one that works is the 1650x1050, and with window or window full screen the menu bar and dock wont disappear.

 

[PillowWhite.]

Please reduce the game's resolution step by step until this goes away. In EU4 you should do this in the launcher, which will update pdx_settings.txt

I have hopes this will be fixed in 10.15.1 , if not our devs will have to look into it further.

for macbook 16-in, this does not work, and i cant find the "pdx_settings.txt" in the files btw

 

[AndrewT]

for macbook 16-in, this does not work, and i cant find the "pdx_settings.txt" in the files btw

Setting it in the game's launcher will edit that file for you. But that file is certainly there, in the Documents/paradox/eu4/ folder.

 

[Sizement]

I have the same problem... I've run both EU4 and CK2 in all resolutions and theres no good solution to make the games as enjoyable as they should be.

Disappointed as I just bought the 16inch macbook pro to play these games....

Please patch paradox!