Troubleshooting macOS

Your Apple computer has an NVidia GPU and Lightform Creator runs very slowly.

Problem: Lightform Creator starts and runs, but it is very slow, even with an extremely simple project on a "Pro" Apple computer.

Solution: Disable your NVidia GPU. Alternatively, use an Apple computer that doesn't have an NVidia GPU.

Background information:

• Apple has discontinued support for most NVidia hardware on macOS 10.14 and higher. More information about this can be found on NVidia's forum (https://forums.developer.nvidia.com/t/faq-about-macos-10-14-mojave-nvidia-drivers/66379). 
• If you’re experiencing low performance and you have a switchable GPU (such as on a Macbook Pro 15"), you can permanently disable your NVidia GPU so that the integrated Intel GPU is always used. On most macOS 10.14+ systems with NVidia GPUs this will result in a performance increase.

Instructions for disabling your NVidia GPU follow:

• Warning: This process requires the use of unsupported non-Lightform software called "gSwitch". You use this software at your own risk.

1. You should close/quit whatever applications are running on your system before performing these steps.
2. Download the gSwitch app .zip file to your computer. Click the "Download .zip" link on https://codyschrank.github.io/gSwitch/.
3. Extract the gSwitch app .zip file to your computer.
4. Move the gSwitch app to your system's "Applications" folder.
   
5. On the keyboard hold the "Control" key, and click the gSwitch app. A popup menu will appear. Click "Open" to run the application.
6. Once gSwitch is running it will appear in your system tray. Click on it to display a menu. 
   
7. Select "Integrated Only".
8. A warning message will be displayed. Click "Always Override".
   
9. After, the "Integrated Only" item should be checked. 
   
10. Run the Lightform Creator app.
11. If you restart your computer later, you might need to run gSwitch again to select your integrated Intel GPU.

You are unable to run Lightform Creator after installing it on your computer.

Problem: You are unable to run Lightform Creator. 

Solution: The minimum macOS version supported by Lightform Creator is 10.13, so you should be running on macOS 10.13 at a minimum. However, the newest macOS version (11 currently) is strongly recommended due to improvements Apple has made to graphics driver stability.   

You are using an external GPU and Lightform Creator starts with an error.

Problem: You are using an external GPU and Lightform Creator starts up with an error page, and almost everything else in the application is gone or disabled.

Solution: On macOS 10.13 and up, you must enable the “Prefer External GPU” option for the Lightform Creator app. This is an operating-system-level setting for the app. 

• If you are still encountering issues with Lightform Creator after enabling this option, you can still submit a bug report through the "Help" menu in Lightform Creator.

Lightform Creator's layout is too small or too large.

Problem: The text and other layout elements within Lightform Creator are too large or too small.

Solution: You need to adjust the scaling:

• If all of your applications (not just Lightform Creator) have a layout that you find to be too small or too large, you should adjust the macOS scaling settings to find a more comfortable sizing. Good information on this can be found at https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202471
• Alternatively, if Lightform Creator is the only application with a layout that appears to be too small or too large, you can use the in-app settings to adjust the sizing. Navigate to the application preferences dialog in the Lightform > Preferences… menu. On the "User Interface" tab you can adjust the "User Interface Sizing" setting to your liking.