Jump to content

Having to rebake textures constantly...


TwoIron
 Share

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 3985 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Recommended Posts

Does anyone know if my avi is all blurry that is how it is for everyone else?

I don't get why my avi always seems to have a portion of his body blurry...I have to say SL is very unenjoyable, seems like all I do all day is rebake textures...

Why is my avi blurry all the time?  I'm using the latest releast of V3 viewer...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 56
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

Well this is completely ridiculous...so it comes down to just bad architecture...very sad that something so fundemental to the joy factor for the sim is so badly broken.  I wish developers would think about thier clients more, and a lot less about fancy implementation...totally ridiculous that we have to run around worrying about the looks of our avatar...obviously that is a fundimental thing for all of us....very very frustrating to be looking at a fuzzy avatar all the time - guess I just need to not wear a tatoo...truly pathetic...

Link to comment
Share on other sites


TwoIron wrote:

Well this is completely ridiculous...so it comes down to just bad architecture...very sad that something so fundemental to the joy factor for the sim is so badly broken.  I wish developers would think about thier clients more, and a lot less about fancy implementation...totally ridiculous that we have to run around worrying about the looks of our avatar...obviously that is a fundimental thing for all of us....very very frustrating to be looking at a fuzzy avatar all the time - guess I just need to not wear a tatoo...truly pathetic...

Try running the latest beta. I believe they fixed that particular problem as part of the run-up for the new avatar rendering system and the fix is in the beta.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That is a rather uninformed opinioin...

SL is having its 10th birthday (SL10B). It is an old game. Once up on a time the process used to render the avatar was the best possible solution for the tech of day.

Rendering the avatar is a special case. It is a more complex process than rendering in the rest of Second Life. The idea with avatars is to save CPU cycles on users' computers and the SL servers. The idea requires your viewer to download all the textures that make up your avatar and its clothes; a shape, skin, top, pants, hair, and shoes textures. The viewer ‘bakes’ those into a single composite texture. You see your avatar render nice and sharp when that bake completes. Then your viewer uploads that composite texture for all to see. That saves others downloading all the individual textures and baking them. Your avatar goes blurry as it downloads and decompresses the composite texture you just uploaded and it becomes sharp when that process finishes. You are the only one that sees the double blurry for your avatar.

If that process hangs or fails there is a problem. Where it fails affects what you or others see.

You can try the old standby quick fixes for avatar rez problems:

  1. Change your active group or group tag.
  2. Press rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R) once a minute for 3 minutes.
  3. Change your bald.
  4. Change your shape.
  5. Move to another region and try 1 to 4 again.
  6. Still failing, turn off HTTP Get Texture. – Debug Settings: ImagePipelineUseHTTP = False.
  7. With HTTP Get off, press rebake once a minute for 3 minutes. Once baked correctly change ImagePipelineUseHTTP back to TRUE.

When those fail, check your connection as it is the most likely problem: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection

There is a longer explanation of the problem here: #SL Clouds, Grey, and Blurry Avatars.

More in depth fixes are here: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth.

This whole avatar render process is changing now. It will be April or May 2013 before the process is replaced. So, we have to deal with it for now. But see: Second Life Changes Coming and 4/16 I'll have the latest update on Server Side Baking on my blog.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh excuse me for being uninformed.  Silly me, when I spend USD on clothing and the like - you know, the thing that generates the revenue stream for SL?  You know that silly little thing?  Excuse me for being uninformed but I expect my brand spanking new outfit to look good - not all fuzzy.

But you know all that matters is the technical details right?  I have no right to expect the software to work, do I?

Give me a freaking break...

Link to comment
Share on other sites


TwoIron wrote:

Oh excuse me for being uninformed.  Silly me, when I spend USD on clothing and the like - you know, the thing that generates the revenue stream for SL?  You know that silly little thing?  Excuse me for being uninformed but I expect my brand spanking new outfit to look good - not all fuzzy.

But you know all that matters is the technical details right?  I have no right to expect the software to work, do I?

Give me a freaking break...

Nalates explained what was happening and gave you the appropriate links.  Show me software that works every time in every way as you expect and I will show you a liar.  The fact that LL know this is a problem and are addressing it is something we should all be grateful for.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Hitomi Tiponi wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Oh excuse me for being uninformed.  Silly me, when I spend USD on clothing and the like - you know, the thing that generates the revenue stream for SL?  You know that silly little thing?  Excuse me for being uninformed but I expect my brand spanking new outfit to look good - not all fuzzy.

But you know all that matters is the technical details right?  I have no right to expect the software to work, do I?

Give me a freaking break...

Nalates explained what was happening and gave you the appropriate links.  Show me software that works every time in every way as you expect and I will show you a liar.  The fact that LL know this is a problem and are addressing it is something we should all be grateful for.

Why isn't he raging against the manufacturer of his computer for selling him a machine that won't run SL properly?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years. Unfortunately, SL never became successful enough for Linden Lab to make the improvements we'd all like to see. So we all adapt to the vagaries of SL living. There is little evidence to suggest the situation will improve greatly. Server side baking may help (we don't yet know what bugs that will bring), but there are plenty of other bugs lurking in the system.

Meanwhile, the Lab has embarked on bold new adventures in the massively crowded world of mobile lightweight games, where they can enjoy losing market share to 14 year olds coding in the kitchen while Mom makes lunch (oh how I miss those days ;-)

So, why do we stay here? Because even with all the warts, SL is the most wondrous experience of its kind. Okay, okay, maybe it's the only one... but it's still wondrous.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years.

 

If there is one thing I am not, it is Complacent.

This "bootlicker" has been involved in Beta Testing, contributing to JIRA's and does speak up.

But at  least my comments are half way educated.

Complacent my butt.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Your criticism is in the wrong place and addressing the wrong people.
No one here have the power to change the conditions you are complaining about.
So save your breath for the Lindens.

:smileysurprised::):smileyvery-happy:

(even if I could help you I am not sure I would. You are not asking for help but troubles)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years.

 

If there is one thing I am not, it is Complacent.

This "bootlicker" has been involved in Beta Testing, contributing to JIRA's and does speak up.

But at  least my comments are half way educated.

Complacent my butt.

 

Maybe I used the wrong word (I don't think I did). I know that I've lowered my expectations over the years. And it's hard to place the blame anywhere in particular. I could argue that SL was doomed to its trajectory from the start, not because of technical problems but because Philip Rosedale's vision wasn't something that could ever sweep the globe.

Long ago I discovered that what I love most about SL is the people in it, not the technology under it. As I watch LL spend resources on other projects, I can only wonder if they are rowing in the direction I want to go.

I too have participated in betas, filed JIRAs and attended user group meetings. I'd say that most of the encounters I've had with the Lab have been below (but not far below) the average I've come to expect from technology companies.

Why don't I **bleep** more? Because an hour spent with my friends has, over the long haul, brought me more pleasure than an hour spent trying to get something fixed. I am more adaptable than LL, so I'll adapt. When someone comes along with expectations I know LL can't meet, I'm not offended. People have a right to expect things to work. People also have a right to be unable to make things work.

I'm glad SL is here, I wish it worked better. My complacency comes from my belief that LL is in an unfortunately and perhaps unnecessarily tough spot. I won't cry over spilt milk.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Hitomi Tiponi wrote:

Show me software that works every time in every way as you expect and I will show you a liar.


Your straw man doesn't stand up for me. There may be nothing in this world, virtual or real, that works every time and in every way as I'd expect. This says nothing about the world and everything about my comprehension of it.

I am surrounded by software based systems that work as well or better than I expect. SL is not one of them. I simply do not know enough about Linden Lab to say why this is so. I imagine it's doing the best it can while looking for a better way to make a living.

As a paying customer obtaining a product from Linden Labs, I don't think I can easily rise to the level of gratefulness. Nor do I see reason to revile them. This is hard work, and as I become more aware of how difficult it is, either because of technology, changing market conditions or executive mismanagement, I make more allowances.

I'm glad SL is here, I wish it worked better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years.

 

If there is one thing I am not, it is Complacent.

This "bootlicker" has been involved in Beta Testing, contributing to JIRA's and does speak up.

But at  least my comments are half way educated.

Complacent my butt.

 

Maybe I used the wrong word (I don't think I did). I know that I've lowered my expectations over the years. And it's hard to place the blame anywhere in particular. I could argue that SL was doomed to its trajectory from the start, not because of technical problems but because Philip Rosedale's vision wasn't something that could ever sweep the globe.

Long ago I discovered that what I love most about SL is the people in it, not the technology under it. As I watch LL spend resources on other projects, I can only wonder if they are rowing in the direction I want to go.

I too have participated in betas, filed JIRAs and attended user group meetings. I'd say that most of the encounters I've had with the Lab have been below (but not far below) the average I've come to expect from technology companies.

Why don't I **bleep** more? Because an hour spent with my friends has, over the long haul, brought me more pleasure than an hour spent trying to get something fixed. I am more adaptable than LL, so I'll adapt. When someone comes along with expectations I know LL can't meet, I'm not offended. People have a right to expect things to work. People also have a right to be unable to make things work.

I'm glad SL is here, I wish it worked better. My complacency comes from my belief that LL is in an unfortunately and perhaps unnecessarily tough spot. I won't cry over spilt milk.

Complacent may apply to some but not to the responders in this thread.  People like myself, Hitomi, Nalates, Dora, etc, are anything but complacent and we are certainly not bootlickers.

All of us I believe would agree that there are many things that Linden Lab could do better.  But we are also realists who understand at least a little bit the technical complexities of SL.  SL is actually still cutting edge as far as the concept of User Built Virtual Worlds are concerned.

To me its like a recent thread where some one compared SL to Xbox.  I didn't reply in that thread but my thought was yeah, lets see you try to load 30,000 SIMS worth of info into your Xbox and then see how it runs.

Like you, I'd rather log in and enjoy and forget completely about the technical aspects.  But just like in RL I sometimes have to deal with bug splats on the windshield on my car, so do I have to deal with bugs in SL.

The question is whether it is worth it to us individually.  I think it is.

I don't stop driving because a bug decided to end its life on the windshield of my car.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Silly me, when I spend USD on clothing and the like - you know, the thing that generates the revenue stream for SL?  You know that silly little thing?

So silly!

Nal's explanation is very thorough, but when this happens to me, it usually fixes with a toggle of HTTP Textures and a rebake. It doesn't seem to matter whether I'm turning HTTP on or off; either way the problem happens and then the opposite setting will make it go away.

It's pretty annoying, but the existing avatar baking process is from The Best of Rube Goldberg, so I'm glad they're spending our money on replacing it, rather than trying to patch it up yet again.

We have to hope the replacement works better. It is a better architecture, so if the developers keep focused on fixing the inevitable glitches, it can work better.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Meanwhile, the Lab has embarked on bold new adventures in the massively crowded world of mobile lightweight games, where they can enjoy losing market share to 14 year olds coding in the kitchen while Mom makes lunch (oh how I miss those days ;-)
 

I couldn't agree more. Still, there's a chance one of them will go viral, get profitable, and make Rod Humble look smart in the eyes of his buddies and even his investors.

Anyway, it's sunk cost now, unless they're still spending development dollars on those that aren't making margin. If so, that had better not go on for long or that "look smart" thing can turn right around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So again, what is uneducated here?

So you vetarans of this service expect new players to come here and read up on all the various issues such as broken http textures or whatever else?

Here is how clueless you are.  You are addressing a veteran of the IT industry.  Been in it since the beginning, in the Seattle area.  In fact, I worked at DECwest engineering where the prism project was born.  Prism is essentially the guts of Windows NT that Dave Cutler took with Microsoft with him, and cause a lawsuit to have to be settled between Microsoft and DEC.  In fact I was on the internet with a high powered Unix workstation and DEC OSF/1 in 1993, back when this kind of software was nothing more then a chat room.  Uneducated?

I have a friend in RL who is on here.  She is upper middle class well educated and runs her own business.  Do you have any idea how steep the learning curve is for someone like her?  I'm on skype with her trying to explain the subtley of conflicting alpha layers and the like.

So yeah - when new players like us are climbing this huge learning curve, and we can't get our avi's to rez in our free apartments with nothing but a bare floor...and we just dropped 17USD on new stuff for our avatars, us uneducated masses have a problem with that.

But by all means keep trying to make yourself feel superior...it looks so good on you!

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years.

 

If there is one thing I am not, it is Complacent.

This "bootlicker" has been involved in Beta Testing, contributing to JIRA's and does speak up.

But at  least my comments are half way educated.

Complacent my butt.

 

Maybe I used the wrong word (I don't think I did). I know that I've lowered my expectations over the years. And it's hard to place the blame anywhere in particular. I could argue that SL was doomed to its trajectory from the start, not because of technical problems but because Philip Rosedale's vision wasn't something that could ever sweep the globe.

Long ago I discovered that what I love most about SL is the people in it, not the technology under it. As I watch LL spend resources on other projects, I can only wonder if they are rowing in the direction I want to go.

I too have participated in betas, filed JIRAs and attended user group meetings. I'd say that most of the encounters I've had with the Lab have been below (but not far below) the average I've come to expect from technology companies.

Why don't I **bleep** more? Because an hour spent with my friends has, over the long haul, brought me more pleasure than an hour spent trying to get something fixed. I am more adaptable than LL, so I'll adapt. When someone comes along with expectations I know LL can't meet, I'm not offended. People have a right to expect things to work. People also have a right to be unable to make things work.

I'm glad SL is here, I wish it worked better. My complacency comes from my belief that LL is in an unfortunately and perhaps unnecessarily tough spot. I won't cry over spilt milk.

Complacent may apply to some but not to the responders in this thread.  People like myself, Hitomi, Nalates, Dora, etc, are anything but complacent and we are certainly not bootlickers.

All of us I believe would agree that there are many things that Linden Lab could do better.  But we are also realists who understand at least a little bit the technical complexities of SL.  SL is actually still cutting edge as far as the concept of User Built Virtual Worlds are concerned.

To me its like a recent thread where some one compared SL to Xbox.  I didn't reply in that thread but my thought was yeah, lets see you try to load 30,000 SIMS worth of info into your Xbox and then see how it runs.

Like you, I'd rather log in and enjoy and forget completely about the technical aspects.  But just like in RL I sometimes have to deal with bug splats on the windshield on my car, so do I have to deal with bugs in SL.

The question is whether it is worth it to us individually.  I think it is.

I don't stop driving because a bug decided to end its life on the windshield of my car.

I get the complexity of SL, but take a look at Nalates' "old standby quick fixes"...

You can try the old standby quick fixes for avatar rez problems:

  1. Change your active group or group tag.
  2. Press rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R) once a minute for 3 minutes.
  3. Change your bald.
  4. Change your shape.
  5. Move to another region and try 1 to 4 again.
  6. Still failing, turn off HTTP Get Texture. – Debug Settings: ImagePipelineUseHTTP = False.
  7. With HTTP Get off, press rebake once a minute for 3 minutes. Once baked correctly change ImagePipelineUseHTTP back to TRUE.

I've been dealing with the fuzzy avatar issue for years. I've watched my avatar continually rebake for hours at a stretch. The range of fixes in Nalates' list leads me to imagine SL as a huge hairball of code that nobody understands, with unanticipated interdependencies all over the place. I could (and will) theorize that LL is moving to server side avatar baking simply to walk around the seemingly incomprehensible (and therefore intractible) problem of client side avatar. It wouldn't be the first time that a whole new way of doing something was invented because nobody could understand how the old way works, or why it was ever attempted that way to begin with.

And now that I'm thinking about it, does anybody have a good explanation for why baking was deferred to the client in the first place? It seems to me (on cursory consideration, which will likely lead me to the wrong conclusion) that the bitmap operations required to merge avatar clothing layers are not much more (or perhaps less) time consuming for the server than the delivery of all those layers across the network to the client. Was it a matter of being able to deliver textures to the client from disparate asset servers being faster than bringing all those assets to the same server for merging?

Link to comment
Share on other sites


TwoIron wrote:

So again, what is uneducated here?

So you vetarans of this service expect new players to come here and read up on all the various issues such as broken http textures or whatever else?

Here is how clueless you are.  You are addressing a veteran of the IT industry.  Been in it since the beginning, in the Seattle area.  In fact, I worked at DECwest engineering where the prism project was born.  Prism is essentially the guts of Windows NT that Dave Cutler took with Microsoft with him, and cause a lawsuit to have to be settled between Microsoft and DEC.  In fact I was on the internet with a high powered Unix workstation and DEC OSF/1 in 1993, back when this kind of software was nothing more then a chat room.  Uneducated?

I have a friend in RL who is on here.  She is upper middle class well educated and runs her own business.  Do you have any idea how steep the learning curve is for someone like her?  I'm on skype with her trying to explain the subtley of conflicting alpha layers and the like.

So yeah - when new players like us are climbing this huge learning curve, and we can't get our avi's to rez in our free apartments with nothing but a bare floor...and we just dropped 17USD on new stuff for our avatars, us uneducated masses have a problem with that.

But by all means keep trying to make yourself feel superior...it looks so good on you!

I understand the frustration, and so I don't mind hearing the rant. I also imagine the frustration inside LL as 14 year old kids create iOS/Android games that net a million dollars while they struggle to keep SL afloat with little hope of growing that side of the business (look at SL concurrent logins vs. mobile/social market growth). SL is a mess. I don't know if that could have been avoided. It is unlike any other online "world" by necessity, as it depends on the users for content creation.

I think LL finds itself stuck between a rock and a hard place as it tries to stretch the original architecture of SL to accommodate the increasing expectations of a world accustomed to the more refined performance of systems with vastly different goals, and therefore architectures. How much easier would it be if SL's 200 terabytes of user generated content were really just 200 megabytes of cleverly designed textures and carefully reused polygons that produced a cohesive look across the continents and if creation was something that could only be done off-world.

I'm not (I hope) an LL apologist. I think they've screwed up plenty. But those errors were not solely at the technological level. I think LL (and many of us, including me) vastly overestimated the attractiveness of this kind of virtual experience to the world at large. SL will never produce the sort of slick overall experience of something like WoW (though I've never seen it, I've heard it described) which was carefully designed by a team of designers with a common goal.

And you won't score any points with me using Windows as a gold standard for software excellence. I'm a Mac user, I find Windows (which I used every day since it was born) to be more than enough abomination to last me a lifetime! And don't get me started on Mac OS either. And really don't get me started on anything I wrote during the first decade of my engineering career. I don't want to think about the dumb blonde that did that stuff, even if it still works. But as I said before, I'm surrounded by software driven things that work remarkably well, and SL is not one of them.

So, marvel at the stupid problems that persist in SL years after they were first reported... but also marvel that it's still here. You are ranting to a group of people, including me, who find this place irresistible. I don't think we are at all superior, we're just marvelously nuts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


Perrie Juran wrote:


Madelaine McMasters wrote:


TwoIron wrote:

Let me make this perfectly clear since it seems so difficult.  The software is broken.  I spend money here.  I'm posting about the problem.  It's not about me being uninformed, it's about my right to opine about something that I obviously expect to work when I sign up and start spending money.

If you boot lickers have a problem with me opining about something that isnt working...that is your issue not mine.  Frankly I don't care if you people are too immature to deal with criticism that as valid.  We clear yet?  Cause if we aren't you can send me a private message and we can go from there.  

What you are seeing here is the complacency that comes with living here for years.

 

If there is one thing I am not, it is Complacent.

This "bootlicker" has been involved in Beta Testing, contributing to JIRA's and does speak up.

But at  least my comments are half way educated.

Complacent my butt.

 

Maybe I used the wrong word (I don't think I did). I know that I've lowered my expectations over the years. And it's hard to place the blame anywhere in particular. I could argue that SL was doomed to its trajectory from the start, not because of technical problems but because Philip Rosedale's vision wasn't something that could ever sweep the globe.

Long ago I discovered that what I love most about SL is the people in it, not the technology under it. As I watch LL spend resources on other projects, I can only wonder if they are rowing in the direction I want to go.

I too have participated in betas, filed JIRAs and attended user group meetings. I'd say that most of the encounters I've had with the Lab have been below (but not far below) the average I've come to expect from technology companies.

Why don't I **bleep** more? Because an hour spent with my friends has, over the long haul, brought me more pleasure than an hour spent trying to get something fixed. I am more adaptable than LL, so I'll adapt. When someone comes along with expectations I know LL can't meet, I'm not offended. People have a right to expect things to work. People also have a right to be unable to make things work.

I'm glad SL is here, I wish it worked better. My complacency comes from my belief that LL is in an unfortunately and perhaps unnecessarily tough spot. I won't cry over spilt milk.

Complacent may apply to some but not to the responders in this thread.  People like myself, Hitomi, Nalates, Dora, etc, are anything but complacent and we are certainly not bootlickers.

All of us I believe would agree that there are many things that Linden Lab could do better.  But we are also realists who understand at least a little bit the technical complexities of SL.  SL is actually still cutting edge as far as the concept of User Built Virtual Worlds are concerned.

To me its like a recent thread where some one compared SL to Xbox.  I didn't reply in that thread but my thought was yeah, lets see you try to load 30,000 SIMS worth of info into your Xbox and then see how it runs.

Like you, I'd rather log in and enjoy and forget completely about the technical aspects.  But just like in RL I sometimes have to deal with bug splats on the windshield on my car, so do I have to deal with bugs in SL.

The question is whether it is worth it to us individually.  I think it is.

I don't stop driving because a bug decided to end its life on the windshield of my car.

I get the complexity of SL, but take a look at Nalates' "old standby quick fixes"...

You can try the old standby quick fixes for avatar rez problems:
  1. Change your active group or group tag.
  2. Press rebake (Ctrl-Alt-R) once a minute for 3 minutes.
  3. Change your bald.
  4. Change your shape.
  5. Move to another region and try 1 to 4 again.
  6. Still failing, turn off HTTP Get Texture. – Debug Settings: ImagePipelineUseHTTP = False.
  7. With HTTP Get off, press rebake once a minute for 3 minutes. Once baked correctly change ImagePipelineUseHTTP back to TRUE.

I've been dealing with the fuzzy avatar issue for years. I've watched my avatar continually rebake for hours at a stretch. The range of fixes in Nalates' list leads me to imagine SL as a huge hairball of code that nobody understands, with unanticipated interdependencies all over the place. I could (and will) theorize that LL is moving to server side avatar baking simply to walk around the seemingly incomprehensible (and therefore intractible) problem of client side avatar. It wouldn't be the first time that a whole new way of doing something was invented because nobody could understand how the old way works, or why it was ever attempted that way to begin with.

And now that I'm thinking about it, does anybody have a good explanation for why baking was deferred to the client in the first place? It seems to me (on cursory consideration, which will likely lead me to the wrong conclusion) that the bitmap operations required to merge avatar clothing layers are not much more (or perhaps less) time consuming for the server than the delivery of all those layers across the network to the client. Was it a matter of being able to deliver textures to the client from disparate asset servers being faster than bringing all those assets to the same server for merging?

As to the who and why of the original architecture of SL we'd have to ask the original architects.  You can dig through old Forums and Wiki's and JIRA's and glean some answers.  Some of it comes down to it was the best available at the time.  One thing they could not see sometimes was the long term affects.

But moving forward to today two things have to be dealt with which is what makes some of the fixes harder than they may appear on the surface.  First is Domino effect.  Change one thing and suddenly a hundred others topple. 

The second is scalability.  Some of the original architecture hasn't scaled well.  But what is interesting is that 'experts' outside of SL haven't been able to improve on it very much despite having better programs and more powerful systems than the original architects of SL had.  The systems that do work better would require SL to dump everything and start all over from the ground up.

 

ETA:  If saying this makes me an apologist, so be it.  I look at it more simply as an acknowledgement of some of the challenges and barriers to building a Virtual World.  It is not my intent to say that LL couldn't do a better job.  I think that they could.  But we still need to understand it's not always as simple as pushing a button and poof, everything works perfectly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not complaining I am responding to the ridiculous statemens about how I can always leave if I don't like it or that I'm making uneducated comments...and I will continue to respond to these statements because they are ridiculous...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You are about to reply to a thread that has been inactive for 3985 days.

Please take a moment to consider if this thread is worth bumping.

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share


×
×
  • Create New...