Bohnanza and Pandemic are slow on Mac OS X

[morngnstar]

I have noticed Bohnanza getting slower and slower as I update to newer versions of Macintosh OSX. Previously I was using a different computer with Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard, and Bohnanza was fine. Then I got a new computer with Max OS X 1.6.5 Snow Leopard, and Bohnanza became quite slow.

The network connection is fine, it's just the graphics are really slow to update. For example if I click beans to propose a trade, they don't appear until several seconds later. When I try to drag beans to plant or trade, the cards don't move with my mouse. If I stop for a few seconds they can catch up.

Now I updated to Snow Leopard 10.6.6, and Bohnanza is even slower. Another user I know has also complained about the problem. Also, Pandemic now has some graphics slowdown, but it's not nearly as bad as Bohnanza, probably just because the graphics are simpler.

It's just a wild guess, but some internet searches turned up that maybe the Aqua look and feel is associated with some slowness issues in Java GUIs. I tried starting BSW up with

java -Dswing.defaultlaf=javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalLookAndFeel /Applications/BrettspielWelt/de/brettspielwelt/client/Starter

But it doesn't appear to change the look and feel. Maybe the BSW code hard-codes the selection of Aqua look and feel. Anyway I don't know if it would help, just an idea.

Thx and ds if anyone can help.

[Spam9]

which window ratio are you using?

It might be that you just need to resize the window to a smaller size. If that helps you have a  lack of CPU power.

An alternative problem might be a change in the MAC Java VM do you use sun/oracle or mac specific one?

Finnaly there might have been a change in the CPU load handler if its juste the OS that changed (then you may try and change the priority of Java which I honestly dont know how to do on a mac)

[Blitter]

All games play very slowly on my OSX client, clicking in/out of the window causes redraw which can take a second or two. Chatting is almost impossible when actions in games are happening as the CPU usage goes right up and the keyboard stops responding. Many players get annoyed with my slow playing, but its just the way it is.

At a guess its something to do with the code around the network transfers, when the game is idle and there is no activity everything runs ok (with the slow screen redraws on focus change).

[Blitter]

Good news for mac users,

Running windows XP in a window using VirtualBox we can have excellent performance.