Graphics Issues: Hair Aliasing and Eyes Darkening [ Edited ]

[Coirbidh]

I have been running SWTOR for a little over a year now (since September 2018), and with no unusual graphics issues, until the release of 6.0 Onslaught. Granted, my GPU is integrated, so it's not ideal, but until Onslaught, I've never any out-of-the-ordinary, easy-explanation-easy-fix issues. Now, however, since the 6.0 update, I have two graphics issues:

1. When I set Shader Complexity to "high," the edges of Toon and NPC hair experience highly pixelated/aliased flickering. This issue is present in gameplay and in cutscenes. The issue is NOT present, however, on the Character Select screen, in Character Creation, in the Appearance Modification Station, or in the Preview window. Again, this issue affects PCs and NPCs alike, and only presents itself once I set Shader Complexity to "High."

2. When I turn on Bloom, Toon and specific newer NPC eyes become darker in certain situations, the whites becoming dull brown and the iris colors being much more muted/darker. They seem to lose their "shine," so to speak. But, if I turn Bloom off, eyes appear normal. This issue appears in the following situations: the Character Select screen (Toons), gameplay (specific newer NPCs), and cutscenes (both Toons and said newer NPCs). This issue is NOT present, however, in Character Creation, the Appearance Modification Station, or the Preview window. The affected NPCs are, as I already stated, certain "newer" NPCs, which is to say some of those released since Knights of the Fallen Empire. So far, the list includes Lana Beniko, Koth Vortena, Senya Tirall, and Arcann. These are all characters that happen to have unique (compared to other humanoids) eye materials, per Jedipedia.

(eye_lanabeniko_non_a02_c01, eye_koth_non_a01_c01, eye_senya_non_a01_c01, and eye_arcann_non_a01_c01)

An image I compiled out of screenshots, showing both graphics issues, can be found here on Imgur.

Has anyone else experienced these issues, and/or does anyone know how I might go about fixing them?

It's probably best if I give a brief run-down of my specs. Like I stated above, my laptop does not have a discrete GPU. It has a 256 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM (1600 MHz, DDR3). The processor is a dual-core 2.6 GHz 4th-Gen Intel i5—specifically, a 4278U—and the graphics are integrated 1536 MB Intel Iris Graphics 5100. Notebookcheck has more in-depth info about the processor and graphics card than the Intel pages to which I have provided links.

[proxos666]

@Coirbidh 

Dxdiag per this link would be great for driver info

[Coirbidh]

Thanks for your reply!

Unfortunately, I'm not running Windows, so I can't submit a DxDiag.

However, I've seen from your replies on other topics that you are open to helping with Mac. I have made a system report (though I still can't figure out how to convert it into RTF or plain text). I also have the app OpenGL Extensions Viewer, which, in case you are unaware of it, gives a much more in-depth analysis of my CPU, GPU (integrated), and renderers (both Apple Software and Intel OpenGL Engine). The application also allows for saving as text, but I can't figure out where exactly on my computer the application saves the text file(s). If I do figure that out, I could (provided you're interested) attach OpenGL Extension Viewer report(s), in addition to the system report.

As I stated in my original post, I've been playing since September of 2018. This has always been through a PlayOnMac virtual drive, which I made according to this guide (Reddit Link). As you doubtlessly already know, SWTOR "runs on" (is this the correct terminology, given DirectX is a series of APIs?) DirectX 9. The PlayOnMac guide I followed instructs users to install crypt32.dll and d3dx9_36.dll. The version of wine I'm using, as instructed by the guide, is 3.10-staging.

My laptop is a MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Mid 2014). I've been running Mac OS X 10.10.5 (Yosemite) since until about a day before the launch of 6.0 (so, until October 20 or 21). I only upgraded because the latest Yosemite version of Safari was no longer compatible with some webpages like Reddit. Of course, the only OS upgrade available on the App Store without using backlinks I didn't know about until later, was OS 10.15 (Catalina). Upon finding out that Catalina didn't support 32-bit apps, I backed up all the info on my hard drive, wiped it, used Internet Recovery to downgrade to OS X 10.9 (Mavericks, the OS version that by MacBook originally shipped with), restored my entire hard drive using Migration assistant, then upgraded to OS 10.14.6 (Mojave).

I wonder whether upgrading to Catalina is responsible for the graphics issues I am now having. Despite downgrading to Mojave, I quite possibly didn't entirely get rid of Catalina's mods to my system, as I backed up and restored my entire hard drive, so I might have restored some Catalina files affecting the graphics card drivers and other system aspects as well. Since the downgrade, I have repaired a few issues with my computer by reinstalling my Mojave installation. However, this hasn't produced any noticeable changes in regard to the graphics issues I'm having with SWTOR. Deleting and rebuilding my PlayOnMac virtual drive did get rid of an issue where the aliasing issue I'm experiencing with hair also affected trees/bushes (now, it just affects hair).

Suffice it to say, I've never even set foot in a Computer Science class. I mean I'm lightyears ahead of my mom, but she was born in the late '40s and is hopelessly averse to learning any new tech that's come out since the slide rule, so mine is not much of an achievement. I don't know any coding languages or the full details of how a computer really works. I still don't really understand what an API, like OpenGL, really is or does.

Here's what I do know:

• My 4th-Gen Intel i5-4278U CPU, which is running 1536 MB Intel Iris 5100 (remember: I don't have a discrete GPU), supports OpenGL 4.3 and DirectX 11.2/12.
• Apple has tended to be out-of-date on its OpenGL versions, and only goes up to 4.1. That's what I have.
• Specifically, my Apple Software Renderer's OpenGL version is 4.1 APPLE-17.7.3, and my Intel Iris OpenGL Engine's OpenGL version is 4.1 INTEL-12.10.14.
• Both renderers' OpenCL platforms are OpenCL 1.2.

Apologies in advance for probably frustrating you with the length of this message, its multiple topics, and my multiple questions.