UE freezes M1 MacBook Air using UE version 4.26 - recommend UE 4.25.4 instead

Edit: from a quick google search it sounds like there’s loads of people experiencing crashes/freezes with using Unreal Engine 4.26 with the M1 Macs…so I guess I’m just screwed?

Edit #2: Install UE 4.25.4 instead of 4.26. See comments below on the process.

BullCowGame.log lines from the last few minutes leading up to Unreal freezing below. I can load the BullCowGame.uproject just fine but I’ve been able to replicate 3 times in a row a total freeze-up of Unreal and my whole computer if I click the white ball/axis thing at the base of a cow and try to move it. I’m fine moving things via the directional colored red/green/blue arrows. Is there something with my setup I should address or is Unreal just that prone to crashes that I have to be super careful where I click?

My computer setup is:

  • Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
  • Mac OS Big Sur 11.2.3
  • 8 GB RAM
  • Unreal Engine 4.26.2
[2021.06.06-03.47.35:631][682]LogSlate: Took 0.001061 seconds to synchronously load lazily loaded font '../../../Engine/Content/Slate/Fonts/Roboto-Italic.ttf' (157K)
[2021.06.06-03.48.32:918][430]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (LMB): StaticMeshActor (SM_Tree_Type_B)
[2021.06.06-03.48.44:507][ 39]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (context menu): BP_Sky_Sphere_C (Sky Sphere)
[2021.06.06-03.48.45:835][102]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (LMB): StaticMeshActor (SM_Tree_Cluster_A2)
[2021.06.06-03.48.46:655][149]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (LMB): BP_Sky_Sphere_C (Sky Sphere)
[2021.06.06-03.48.55:368][636]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (LMB): StaticMeshActor (SM_Toy_Cow2)
[2021.06.06-03.49.03:482][ 72]LogEditorViewport: Clicking on Actor (LMB): StaticMeshActor (SM_Toy_Cow2)

There’s technically nothing in the log you have there that suggests there’s a problem. Those are just loading a font and click entries.

A freeze won’t necessarily get to adding problem entries since logging also freezes.

You could try to search around for other logs possibly from mac OS and see if something shows up there.

I would suggest trying different UE versions (if you have the monthly bandwidth to do so) and seeing if its working better by any of them. The project probably has a minimum UE version to be aware of.

You can also try to look for various editor settings or whatever. Something might work.

I’m not sure if UE4 fully supports M1 yet. You could try verifying the engine

verify

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Think I’m going to try what this person recommends to install an older version of UE:

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I didn’t even pay attention to the M1 lol. Interesting that an older version is supposed to work better anyway. Apparently, you never know :slight_smile:

I resolved my issue by using the first part of the instructions here:

I only did the following steps from this page:

  1. Install UE 4.25.4
  2. Modify the ApplicationCore.Build.cs file per instructions at link above
  3. Modify the Core.Build.cs file per instructions at link above

That’s it! Without steps #2 and #3 above I would get a compile error when opening BullCowGame. I didn’t follow any other steps from that link above as they seem to be a method to make VSCode the default editor for UE instead of Xcode. TBD on whether that’s important…

Anyways BullCowGame opens in UE for me again. Going to test it out and see if it crashes my computer still…wish me luck.

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Ok so overall UE 4.25.4 is behaving fairly stable compared to 4.26. However, I did have it freeze up my whole computer again (but the Udemy course video sound kept playing even though the picture was frozen). From a google search of the issue I found a fix was to unplug the HDMI cable connecting my external monitor and plug it back in and things unfroze. What the heck, why does that work?! I’m not sure but it does…so I guess I’m good to go and I’ll mark this issue as resolved for now.

I do think Unreal Engine needs a proper update to make it compatible with the new M1 Macs though…eventually.

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That is quite a weird one. Would hazard a guess that the software that deals with the connection to the monitor (possibly involving drm) just happens to recreate/rerun whatever is going wrong so that its corrected.

More importantly is that you found something that works even if it should never have to be done in the first place :slight_smile:

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