I use liberation a lot. At my venue we have 1 Omen Transcend 14 inch laptop outdoors with a 10w laser projecting a svg file. Indoors I have a 2024 Macbook Pro M4 Chip running 7 20w lasers. I always seem to get higher FPS on my macbook, even though spec wise my omen is better. Same clip deck. i still average about 95-105 fps on my omen, and always get 110-120 on my macbook. Is liberation made to perform better on a MacBook? How can I increase my FPS on my omen?
Hi Marco!
Good question! Liberation isn’t deliberately “Mac-optimised”, it’s fundamentally the same code on both platforms. The biggest variables are likely to be hardware based, probably the graphics pipeline.
Liberation uses OpenGL, and even though macOS runs it through a compatibility layer - I think it’s effectively Metal under the hood - this tends to be very predictable and consistent because Apple control the entire stack.
On Windows, OpenGL goes through the GPU drivers (Nvidia, AMD, Intel), which means performance can vary a lot and depends on drivers, power management and laptop behaviour, even when the specs look better on paper. (In fact recently I’ve had a couple of reports that Windows graphics settings cause Liberation to completely break - let me know if that’s happening to you!)
I also think Apple Silicon is kind of a huge deal, it’s a vast performance improvement over the Intel hardware. Historically, my code would usually run faster on a PC than on a Mac. But now that seems reversed.
I’m not an expert on Windows graphics optimisations but according to my limited research it’s worth checking :
- Liberation is forced onto the discrete GPU
- setting Windows and Nvidia power modes to maximum performance
- checking Nvidia driver versions (Studio vs Game Ready ?)
- avoiding aggressive laptop power or thermal throttling profiles
It’s also worth having a quick look at what’s running in the background. Antivirus and security tools in particular can be sneaky here - third-party antivirus, Windows Defender, OEM “helper” apps, anything that hooks into graphics.
Ultimately your FPS on the Omen is still totally fine! And it’s normal with heavy loads for it to drop down from 120. As long as you’re over 60fps you’re usually fine. But if you manage to improve performance with any of these suggestions, let me know!
Seb
I solved it. It was weird, but I had 3 total “ poisoned” clips, which caused my FPS to go down to 15 when I used them. Im not sure why it caused me to have such low fps, but right after I deleted them, fps sky rocketed. Heres a video. I have the old clip deck saved if you want it.
Also I have 2 bugs to report. they’re really strange
I tend to use the “STOP ALL CLIPS” On the apc 40. I probably click it 100+ times throughout a night of busking. Sometimes near the end of the night, the button will just not work, and it wont stop all clips. It’ll just do nothing. At first I thought it was my APC40, but it fixes itself after i reset the software.
Another one, also when busking, ( and this one is really weird)
A little background, I am the operator for a hard techno club. Theres hardcore/techno/hard techno All the time. Im mashing buttons like crazy.
Occasionally, when im switching between multiple clips, the clip will break, and DISAPPEAR.
Sounds confusing, i know.
Basically, when you press on the clip, nothing shows up in the visualizer OR in real life ( obviously) However, when you open up the clip in the editor, you can see the laser in the visualizer and in real life. And yes, the clip is assigned to multiple zones/beams.
Its really weird and only happens after a laser-clip heavy song.
I also have that clip deck saved if you want to take a look.
Hi Marco,
Thanks so much for the detailed report - and great catch on the “poisoned” clips. Yes please, definitely send me the clip deck (support@liberationlaser.com or PM is fine) and let me know exactly which clips were causing the FPS drop.
I know some things can slow clips down - masking, very high detail SVGs, certain node setups - but the fact that deleting just three clips made FPS skyrocket is really interesting. It would be great to see if there’s something I can optimise internally.
Regarding the other two bugs, these are exactly the kind of heavy real-world stress cases that are super helpful.
STOP ALL CLIPS issue:
I did notice a state where “ghost” clips can still be running, I thought I fixed this though! Which build are you running?
- When it stops working, does the APC button still light up?
- Does clicking the on-screen STOP button work?
- Can individual clips still be stopped manually, or is everything “stuck”?
Disappearing clip issue:
- When the clip breaks, is it permanently broken until restart, or does it come back on its own?
- Is it always the same clip, or random ones?
- When this happens, can you check if the output zones are still active? Does the test pattern still output correctly?
- If you press the clip again a few times, does it ever come back without opening the editor?
The fact that it renders correctly when opened in the editor is particularly interesting - that suggests the clip data itself is fine, and something in the playback state might be getting stuck.
Thanks again for pushing Liberation this hard - running 7x 20W lasers in a hard techno environment sounds like a great set up! 
Hopefully we can track this down.
Seb