Why I can't activate Shadow and depth of field? MAC

[AshleyVonBlood]

I have a:

Macbook Pro (late 2011)

Mac OS 10.8.1

2.4GHz Intel Core i5

16GB RAM

Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

Lighting and shadows, ambient occlutions and depth of field options in graphic preferences are unable to activate :( :'( 

[Luc Starsider]

I assume it is the intel card that does not support Lighting and Shadows. Do you know if this is the only graphics chip in your MBP?

If it CAN do shadows, you have to enable 'Hardware skinning' (is that the one???) in me->preferences->graphics.

(use edit in the options menu in the top right corner of your post to add information)

[valerie Inshan]

The Intel Graphics 3000 is considered as just about decent to run Second Life. I'm afraid you wont be able to enable these advanced features, sorry. Second Life is playable at medium graphic detail with relatively smoothness with such a card. Drivers updates only being available along with the system upgrades, you can only hope a next Mountain Lion upgrade will help, but I wouldn't be too optimistic if I was you.

[Theresa Tennyson]

I'm guessing your MacBook Pro has two different graphics setups - one that uses the built-in graphics ability of the Intel main processor to save power, and a separate more powerful graphics chip that is used for more graphically-demanding applications. For some reason your viewer using the low-powered Intel chip. I'm not familiar enough with Macs to tell you how to do it, but you should be able to convince your computer to use the better graphics chip somewhere in settings. Do a search and see if anyone out there has the procedure for doing this. Once you do this you should be able to turn shadows, etc. on.

Also, DON'T try running SL on this computer using battery power alone - most computers with "auto-switching" graphics will always use the lower-performance graphics option when not plugged into the wall.

[Luc Starsider]

The dual graphics chip thing is what I was wondering before. The latest MBPs on the lower end only have the Intel chip, but I don't remember if this is the case with the 2011 models. In any case, you force the Mac - provided it has dual chips - to use the better one in the energy savings control panel by checking that option.