My Graphics?

[AStormieDay]

So Before i start adding they suck and showing pictures let me mention i have a Windows 8.1 laptop or whatever it is the fact is..its windows 8 and its a laptop

but still i know there should be a way to fix A BIT of my issue

I have really horrible graphics

and lag SO SO badly!

Ill show you how it looks and my settings

I still lag no matter what

i use the provided SL viewer because the rest crash and freak out and just LAAAAAG monsters!

I honestly wouldnt mind if i could have graphics like this

 

If not that..then a lil less like a ape? someone help! :matte-motes-crying:

[sven Homewood]

Sadly you usualy can't replace any hardware on a laptop (besides the memory and some other parts, that don't affect graphics). The graphics depends mostly on your GPU and CPU. The only way to change that is to get a new laptop with better hardware. Dedicated graphics with at least 2GB of ram is a must!

[Syo Emerald]

Lag also depends a lot on your internet connection.

How good or bad your laptop is or what part of it is too weak for SL/your current settings can't be said with the things you provided. Your OS doesn't says a thing about your hardware and "laptop" just says that you can't upgrade your hardware like the owner of a normal PC could.

Also your pictures are pretty tiny.

[AStormieDay]

Yeah,my computer has about 273 GB's Local and

23.3 gb's in recovery

and im using 199 gb's in local 2.82 gb's in recovery

does this help?

also sorry about the small picture

and

[Perrie Juran]

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AStormieDay wrote:

Yeah,my computer has about 273 GB's Local and

23.3 gb's in recovery

and im using 199 gb's in local 2.82 gb's in recovery

does this help?

 

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From your Viewer (you don't have to be logged in) go to Help/About and copy/paste the info from there to here.  That will give most of the details needed to look at your situation.

[SaraCarena]

What Perrie says and to any other newbies to sl asking for advice about theier computer,

welcome to sl.... A N D

WHAT PERRIE SAYS

[AStormieDay]

Second Life 3.7.3 (287491) Mar  4 2014 05:01:31 (Second Life Release)
Release Notes

You are at 68.4, 127.8, 29.0 in Wish Song located at sim10570.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.52.76:13013)
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Wish%20Song/68/128/29
(global coordinates 253,508.0, 356,992.0, 29.0)
Second Life Server 14.02.28.287383
Retrieving...

CPU: AMD E-300 APU with Radeon HD Graphics (1297.65 MHz)
Memory: 3683 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit  (Build 9200)
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6310

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 8.17.0010.1140
OpenGL Version: 4.2.11764 Compatibility Profile Context

libcurl Version: libcurl/7.24.0 OpenSSL/0.9.8q zlib/1.2.5
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.0
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Ex 4.44.12
Qt Webkit Version: 4.7.1 (version number hard-coded)
Voice Server Version: Vivox 4.5.0009.17865

Built with MSVC version 1600
Packets Lost: 296/274,026 (0.1%)

[Deej Kasshiki]

The AMD E-300 is an older, very low-end processor designed for netbooks and smaller laptops. It was designed more with low battery usage rather than performance in mind.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but, from what I read your E-300 (and its integrated Radeon HD 6310 graphics) are only slightly above the performance of what would be found in a very basic netbook. In other words, you have a low cost, low-end processor with equally low-end built-in graphics that will never allow you to see SL with advanced lighting and shadows as in the example picture you posted. Your hardware just isn't powerful enough. The E-300 is meant for very basic computing only and not gaming. This is likely also the cause of your lag, although you may be able to get slightly better performance using a wired connection (if you aren't already) and adding more memory (if possible).

If you want to see SL as in the example you posted you'll need to look at a more powerful computer with discrete (separate) graphics card. Good luck in your search.

 

[Dresden Ceriano]

If you're willing to shell out some serious cash to pay by the hour to be in SL, you could try SLGO... link.  Otherwise, to see SL with all the bells and whistles, you'll need to shell out some cash for a better system, which makes more sense in the long run.

...Dres *is sure Makkie and Kinn would be flattered that you used their image as an example*

[MizzKittenzz]

How old is your laptop? Did it come with windows 8 or? Also how much Ram do you have? How big is the Hard drive? Can you provide the specs of your graphics and video card? It may not be the connection, other things could factor in... Honestly I know it may recommend a 2gb of ram to play but I'd recommend at least 8gbs and you're gonna need an updated graphics card, and its always good to have plenty of hard drive space. All this and more comes into play, if you're able to provide more info I can probably help you.

PS. If the above specs is yours you're probably gonna want to look into getting a laptop with higher end graphics. I doubt it has anything to do with you being on a wireless connection, as long as you're close to a router that should not be an issue. The only thing internet connection issues could possibly cause would be lag but that still wouldn't explain poor graphics so I doubt this is the issue, especially if you can pull up Google or YouTube. But I'd still need to know more to really help you... A lower end graphics card is usually the culprit when it comes to a PC not being able to play a game on anything higher than a "low setting". I admit a poor internet connection could possibly cause lag but thats usually not the case when near a router, most game servers have lag at times.

 

(My husband has a Masters in IT & Computer Enginering)

[Deej Kasshiki]

Looking at the OP's posted specs I stand by my original appraisal of her problem. Her poor graphics and lag issues are tied together in that her computer system is using an outdated low-end processor, slow integrated graphics and only 3 GB of memory. It's basically a netbook (a stripped down, cheap portable system) that's ok for web browsing and email but definitely not for graphically complex games.

The reason I mentioned a wired connection was based on the fact that her network info showed dropped packets. This is typical of wireless connections. Unlike many online games that stream data at constant low rates or in short bursts, SL transmits a very constant stream of large amounts of data. It requires a good deal of bandwidth and a consistent connection. I know this from experience. Years ago I tried running SL over a solid wireless connection but I was still getting a lot of lag that I knew others weren't. I knew my computer was well above the minimum requirements so, I checked further. I found that my wireless router was dropping anywhere from 0.1% to 10% of data packets. Different wireless routers gave me similar performance. It's just the nature of the beast. Losing a packet here and there doesn't matter much for browsing or email but when streaming HD videos or playing SL it mattered a lot. Once I switched to a wired connection there was 0 packet loss and my SL experience has been fantastic ever since.

[Perrie Juran]

The E-300 was introduced in Aug 2011.

It shows up in Chromebooks and lower end Lenova's.  Not sure where else.

[AStormieDay]

 

1.got my laptop is 2 years old..i thiiink? i joined sl when i got my laptop

2.i tryed catnip viewer....didnt work (so if someone is gonna recommend viewers jsing)

and also tryed singularity (however u spell it) I LOVE IT!...i dont lag,i can set my graphics to high and look AMAZING

but..my only issue,is how how to set shadows,unless u go to ultra for that? correct?

[Nyll Bergbahn]

Singularity is a popular viewer so glad you like it and that it works for you.

The AMD 6310 has OpenGL 4.1 support [shadows (Advanced LIghting) requires 3.0] so you should be fine in that respect but you may have to go into Ultra graphics mode to make it selectable. This can occur with some AMD cards where Advanced Lighting is not accessible until you move the slider to the highest Ultra graphics setting. You can easily check by moving though the graphics settings until it becomes selectable.

However, given your laptop specs, it's highly unlikely you can run your laptop in Ultra graphics mode for more than a few seconds before it slows the application to an unusable crawl, even using Singularity. It really needs a decent graphics card. Advanced Lighting demands an even higher spec graphics card. By all means try but it will likely bring your laptop to a total freeze.

[MizzKittenzz]

I'm glad you got it working! Honestly due to your specs, I'd suggest you to not worry about the shadows and extra things like that as the more you click on the more chance of lagging. Then again I'm more worried about playability then appearance of things like having the water glisten in the sun, or a shadow on everything it's not really important.... For taking photos it's nice but for playing it's not much use. I think for certain things like shadows you have to be set to ultra which probably would not work too well for you...

[Venus Petrov]

I disagree.  I started on SL with a laptop that was not made for SL so things rezzed very slowly, if at all.  Over time, I got better computers and now can run on ultra most of the time.  It makes a huge, huge difference in my enjoyment of SL.   To really enjoy the beauty in SL (if you like to explore), I suggest that you get a better system.

[squashy Beeswing]

I'm a little puzzled.  You say that you've changed viewers and now all of a sudden you're able to have your settings on high with no lag.  In your initial post your settings were about as low as low could be, and you said that you still lagged.

I'm glad you've found something that works for you, but astonished that switching viewers could make such a vast difference.  Normally you'd only get that kind of improvement by upgrading your graphics card (as i know from experience).

[Perrie Juran]

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squashy Beeswing wrote:

I'm a little puzzled.  You say that you've changed viewers and now all of a sudden you're able to have your settings on high with no lag.  In your initial post your settings were about as low as low could be, and you said that you still lagged.

I'm glad you've found something that works for you, but astonished that switching viewers could make such a vast difference.  Normally you'd only get that kind of improvement by upgrading your graphics card (as i know from experience).

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While correlation does not always equal causation, I have had similar happen to me also.