Certain Games that I launch in Parallels have invisible objects and objects that flicker

[GarrettJ]

I've recently bought the game Fall Guys and it's great for the most part except this one game type that requires you to pick up these eggs, I can see some of the eggs, but then they will flicker and disappear and a majority of them are just invisible the entire time.

I've also encountered a similar issue playing the game Beacon. The walls and floor will flicker on and off and will become invisible for me to see. Is there some sort of setting I need to change for my parallels to read these games correctly?

Here's the screenshot from Beacon. The pieces of the map aren't there and then when I move they flicker on, and it's not part of the game, I've looked at gameplay from Youtube and that's not how it's suppose to look.

 

[Maria@Parallels]

Hi, what is the system requirements for these games?
Please also share with us your VM Configuration -> Graphic settings.

 

[DakotahI]

I am also having this issue. It continues happening with any settings in the game. Any update in this?

 

[Maria@Parallels]

I am also having this issue. It continues happening with any settings in the game. Any update in this?

Hello, what is your Parallels Desktop version?

 

[Cathy2]

Hello, what is your Parallels Desktop version?

Hi, I am also having this issue with a separate game, called Raft. I have attached information about Parallels, and the virtual machine itself.

 

[SamD13]

I am also seeing this happen for the games Fall Guys and Project Winter on
Parallels Version 16.1.2 (49151)

 

[DakotahI]

I am also seeing this in Fall Guys even on Lowest Graphic settings with every option turned off. Works fine via Bootcamp.

 

[Maria@Parallels]

Hello guys, please sorry for the delay in response.
Could you collect the tech report once the issue reproduced and post the report's ID here please?
Looking forward to your reply.

 

[Kristensen]

Go to the virtual machine configuration and click "Hardware > Boot Order > Advanced Settings > Boot flags".
Paste the following text in the "Boot flags" field:
video.untrimmed_dynamic_cbuffers=1

 

[AndrewT23]

Go to the virtual machine configuration and click "Hardware > Boot Order > Advanced Settings > Boot flags".
Paste the following text in the "Boot flags" field:
video.untrimmed_dynamic_cbuffers=1

Many thanks for writing up this fix, I applied this to the games Raft, Valheim and Shadow Warrior (2013) on my MacBook Air M1 2020, which completely fixed these issues. I've documented it here:

 

[Izzard]

Kristensen, that's really helpful and has made a bunch of us very happy in some M1 gaming communities on Discord. Please tell us how you knew or discovered this fix?

 

[Kristensen]

I asked how this change would affect us, Customer Support could tell the following regarding the shaders:

Hello Kristensen, Thank you for letting us know. Apparently, the issue is a result of an error in one of the game's shaders: to put it simply, the shader ends up using more memory than it initially declares that it will use. This isn't critical for real PCs, but is evident in a virtual machine, because it comes in conflict with some of our memory optimization procedures. The flag we've used simply allows shaders to use as much memory as they want. This may increase the memory usage just a tiny bit, but other than that, you should be fine. We've sent the information to the Development Team, so that they would simply create a local exception for this particular game, making the flag redundant. Should you have any further questions, simply reply to this e-mail.

 

[Izzard]

Thanks. I'm not sure that a game-specific fix is the right approach. This information suggests that their memory optimisation methods aren't perfect for all scenarios and so perhaps should be a user option. Could you please suggest this to them and point out that multiple games suffer a similar issue (and are fixed by the same boot flag)? E.g.:

• Raft
• Valheim
• Shadow Warrior
• Empyrion

See here: https://www.applegamingwiki.com/wiki/Parallels#Flickering_textures_or_invisible_objects

 

[Kristensen]

I suggested virtual machines set up with "Gaming" profile to not include this memory optimization, lets see what they decide.

 

[Izzard]

As far as I understand it the "gaming" option just presets a few of the options which are already individually configurable. So while that could be convenient, it still ought to have its own setting if it's useful, to be consistent (plus you might want to not use that setting if none of your games is affected).

 

[Maria@Parallels]

Guys, could you reproduce the issue and collect the tech data right after that please?

 

[DakotahI]

I can confirm this does fix the issue! Thank you!!!!
Would love to see this as an option under the Graphics Settings

 

[Maria@Parallels]

I can confirm this does fix the issue! Thank you!!!!
Would love to see this as an option under the Graphics Settings

Please let us know if the issue reoccurs.
Thanks a lot for sharing your results here.

 

[SanderB4]

Go to the virtual machine configuration and click "Hardware > Boot Order > Advanced Settings > Boot flags".
Paste the following text in the "Boot flags" field:
video.untrimmed_dynamic_cbuffers=1

Many thanks. I shall build a shrine in your honour!

 

[LauraB4]

Hi,
I know I'm a few months late, but I just wanted to, first, thank you all because this suggestion fixes an issue I'd been struggling with for a while with numerous games, and secondly, to emphasise how this should really be either a default flag for gaming mode, or something else needs to change. There were a number of games where I had been having the same issue with and had I not been lucky enough to come across this forum post today I would have kept having this issue.

Please consider all the users who are having issues with games they are trying to run and failing to find a fix because the only place this fix has been mentioned is here.