Is there a way to make Geneforge 5 play nicely?

[Lattan]

Niceness here means: behaves like an OS X app should when switching applications and reduces its CPU time when in the background.

I've noticed that the "niceness" of the Geneforge games tends to vary across the games. I originally noticed between (I think) Geneforge 3 and Avernum 4; G3 refused to let you switch applications and A4 allowed it, and thanks to being turn-based A4's CPU usage when not playing is fairly low. Geneforge 4 is fairly nice; if you switch applications it drops its CPU time to near-zero, and you can call up the dashboard/expose/spaces while playing.

Geneforge 5 provides the cool new feature of windowing, but it DOESN'T drop CPU usage when you switch to another application -- so with Geneforge 5 running it takes up an entire CPU core even if I've got it paused in a menu and hidden and have 3 other applications I've accessed more recently. If you don't play G5 in a window it's even more rude since then you're just stuck playing it with no opportunity to switch to another application without quitting. Hopefully starting other applications that require cpu time would cut into G5's usage, but when you play on a laptop the extra cpu usage translates pretty directly into a much hotter laptop and louder fans.

 

I'd previously assumed that these quirks were a consequence of the older engines and the niceness was added deliberately. But apparently not -- or the difference is now a consequence of G5 using OpenGL. Playing around with a few other similar apps it appears this cpu behavior may be endemic to windowed OpenGL apps.

But surely there must be some sort of "pause processing" command you can invoke when it loses focus? Or am I missing an option somewhere in either G5 or hidden deep within my system plist files that will change this behavior?

[Dahak]

If you bring up the main menu / pause screen does the CPU usage drop?

[Alorael at Large]

Geneforges and later Avernums just don't do very well. I believe Jeff has blamed the problem on Apple, and I haven't seen any good solutions.

 

—Alorael, who is happy enough with G5 and the ability to play it in a window.

[Lilith]

Jeff blamed it on OpenGL, yes.