Running The Talos Principle on a M1 Macbook Air under Ventura

[Jaap]

Hi all,

I couldn't get The Talos Principle to run initially on my M1 Macbook Air running Ventura.

The regular version it downloads wouldn't start at all on my machine and quietly stopped, so I opted to choose the 'previousversion' build. You can do this in the configuration page for the game.

This version started but only gave a whitescreen on regular start, but it did work in Safe Mode. However, whenever you would load it normally it would try to do the fullscreen as it had no configuration yet.

What worked for me was making a copy of the file 'Talos_safe.ini' (located in '/Users/USERNAME/Library/Application \Support/Steam/userdata/USERNUMBER/25710/local/' ) and renaming it to 'Talos.ini'.
(USERNAME and USERNUMBER are depending on your username for your machine and your Steam number.)

(If you have difficulty locating the Library folder in your user folder press 'Command + Shift + .' to show hidden files!)

Then, empty the file so you don't get all other the safe mode stuff you don't need, and only keep the fullscreen line entries. I only had this in the file and then it started and made the rest of the configuration file:

gfx_bFullScreen = 0;
gfx_bLastGoodFullScreen = 0;
gfx_bSimulatedFullScreen = 0;
gfx_iFullscreenMonitor = -1;

Make sure to not select to run the game in fullscreen or borderless in the Settings as you end up on a white screen again. You can (and likely should) resize the window to have it almost fullscreen and enjoy the game. You can simply resize it by dragging the bottom right part of the screen to the end of your computer screen.

I hope this is helpful for some other mac gamers out there :)

[RusHayer]

Hello! Thanks for your guide! How is the performance of the game on M1 Mac?

[prionic6]

This still works on macos 14.0 Sonoma, so far. Game starts.

[Finalsoar]

Originally posted by prionic6:

This still works on macos 14.0 Sonoma, so far. Game starts.

Hi，can u show the steps? I failed...

[parasight]

This really worked, thank you! As a note, if the Talos.ini doesn't exist you can create it yourself. I'm using the latest build (no previousversion or other beta) on an M1 Max and I was even able to fullscreen the game via the (+) button of the window, ramp the resolution up and set everything to Ultra in the graphics settings. MacOS even activated Game Mode.

Note: once everything is running, exit the game once so that it saves these settings to the ini file or you'll have to do it again if it does crash at some point. Occasionally the bottom of the screen flickers a bit (this might be caused by an app I use called uBar), but pausing to the menu and shortly using Mission Control fixes it.

[CraftMaster2190]

+1 Worked great.

[Auzas]

I'm chiming in to confirm that this fix works. I'm running it on the MacBook Air M1 with Sonoma installed.

[Nonchalant Nick]

Thank you Jaap and parasite!

I confirm it working on M1 Air with Sonoma. Ultra settings.

I noticed for me that 8x multisampling crashes the game. 2x and 4x work fine.

Just to expand on what parasight said (thank you!), for the resolution I went to my mac system settings to change it (you can keep the game running). Important to keep the in game option on windowed, but indeed fullscreened via the mac maximise button, in my case <>.

I also got the flickering white bar as mentioned, though I don't have uBar. Parasite's solution is great. It's not really an issue.

[yoz]

Thanks Jaap and everyone else for the info! I still couldn't get it to work, until I realised the typo in the original post: the correct folder is Steam/userdata/USERNUMBER/257510/local/ (not 25710)

[KBeezie]

Can't get this to work, I keep getting errors like this, on a fresh install. OSX Sonoma, M1.

Recursive resource proxy dependency detected (Content/Talos/._All.dat). Can't recover from this.

[Father Jack]

Unfortunately the above fix does not work for my 2023 M3 iMac/Sonoma 14.6.1. Adding the OP's config lines to Talos.ini just gives a brief white screen flash (after going through the various startup dialogs). Error reported is:

Crashed Thread: 0 MainThrd Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type: EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes: 0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000

[Mikelangelo]

Reverting to the previousversion worked for me, running an 2024 M3 MBA. For clarification, it is done through Properties -> Betas -> Beta Participation.

[Father Jack]

@Mikelangelo: Thanks, that did the trick for me! (2023 M3 iMac/Sonoma 14.6.1) I did find it wouldn't work properly in fullscreen/borderless (just a white screen, audio ok and you can hear beeps as you move the mouse around over the menu). It does work in windowed now, better than nothing I guess.

[Ser Pounce]

Worked for me M1/Sequioa. Thank you!

[Don't Worry]

They removed support OpenGL in new version.
Old:

11:57:51 LOG:  GPU #1: Apple M1 from Apple
11:57:51 INF:  [OpenGL] Detected GLSL 1.20
11:57:51 INF:  
11:57:51 INF:  Gfx API: OpenGL
11:57:51 INF:  Window: 640 x 480
11:57:51 INF:  Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
11:57:51 INF:  Driver: Apple (0x6810)
11:57:51 INF:  Renderer: Apple M1
11:57:51 INF:  Version: 2.1 Metal - 89.4
11:57:51 INF:  Video memory size: 2047 MB
11:57:51 INF:  Available for textures: 2047 MB
11:57:51 INF:  Shader model version: 3.0
11:57:51 INF:  Active GPU(s): 1
11:57:51 INF:  GPU architecture: forward conventional rendering
11:57:51 INF:  Allowed memory size used for streaming: 1536.0 MB

New:

12:41:03 INF:  Gfx API: Metal
12:41:03 INF:  Window: 1440 x 793
12:41:03 INF:  Driver: Metal
12:41:03 INF:  Vendor: Apple (0x106B)
12:41:03 INF:  Renderer: Apple M1 (0x0000)
12:41:03 INF:  Version: 
12:41:03 INF:  Video memory size: 2048 MB
12:41:03 INF:  Available for textures: 1024 MB
12:41:03 INF:  Shader model version: 5.0
12:41:03 INF:  Active GPU(s): 1
12:41:03 INF:  GPU architecture: forward conventional rendering
12:41:03 INF:  Allowed memory size used for streaming: 1024.0 MB
12:41:03 LOG:  Processing file Content/Shared/Config/SystemCompatibility.lua
12:41:03 ERR:  Could not obtain GPU specs!
12:41:03 LOG:  Compatibility check failed: GPUDetectCompatibility check failed: GPUDetect
12:41:03 INF:  SysMessage: Your system doesn't meet the minimum requirements for this game.
12:41:03 INF:   - Unable to detect graphics hardware