SL Running SO Slow, Why?

[Sardonicus Direwytch]

Alright, first, let me give you my machine specs, which haven't changed since 2 years ago:

Gateway DX4300-03
Graphics:  ATI Radeon HD 4600 (1 gig dedicated ram)
Processor:  AMD Phenom 9750 Quad-Core Processor (2.4 Ghz)
RAM:  8 GB (7.75 usable)
OS:  Windows 7 Home Premium x64
Connection:  DSL (2,000 kbps down - that is American Internet for you -_-)

Now, back in February, before I quit until recently, SL ran fine, and I had the graphics slider set to uh, I forget what it is, but it's the third one from the left, second to last, of the four, or whatever.  On top of that, I had the advanced options open and added more stuff, like increased the draw distance, increased the quality on certain things, turned on water reflections for EVERYTHING.  Again, SL ran fine.

Also, I went on Can You Run It? and checked.

I just started using SL again these past few weeks and, well, alright all viewers I did the same thing I am about to talk about with, and all viewers are up to date with the latest, and all drivers on my computer are completely up to date, and no viruses, didn't have any other programs running that use bandwidth, etc, and ALL of them lagged like crazy.

Viewers I tried:  SL Viewer, Imprudence, Kirsten's, Phoenix, Dolphin
Settings:  graphics all set to the lowest.
Port fixed on X port, port forwarded on router for said port.
Chache cleared, also complete uninstall reinstall of ALL viewers (only one installed at a time) (so don't say this, DON'T!)
Absolutely NO other programs running that can use bandwidth. (don't say this either, DONT!  Already done.)

All of them STILL lagged like, insanely, averaging 10 FPS across the board no matter where I was, any sim, any location, areas with no traffic even, still insane lag.

On my graphics card options, I don't have any 3D quality enhancements (but speed enhancements) turned on.

Nothing at all has changed on my computer since back when SL worked, other than I've been updating the drivers to the latest versions whenever they come out (and I mean going to the actual website for the component and getting them, as often times Windows Update doesn't have the latest driver for it).  Also, Windows 7 is completely up to date with all updates.

Also, I have updated my antivirus and do regular scans (Avir, but I also do scans with Malwarebytes and SpyBot - Search and Destroy) at least once per week.

Also, I don't have a whole lot of stuff in my inventory.

Also, my current avitar rendering cost is only

Everything is slow though.  Log in slow, initial loading slow, teleporting slow, EVERYTHING slow.

So, is there a problem with the latest viewers and anythign to do with my system or, what?  Because, nobody else seems to have these problems, and I've done literally EVERYTHING you can do to get it to run faster and nothing.  >_<

I also went on Can You Run It? (opens in new window) and checked my computer for SL, and not only does everything check off on requirements, it checks on on reccomended too.  Hrm.

[WolfBaginski Bearsfoot]

I use Phoenix, and now Firestorm (Phoenix has a few features I find very useful which are not in Firestorm yet), and there's certainly been some bad behavious recently. Texture loading can be horrible. So this may not be a viewer problem. It's worth having a different Viewer available to check on thse things.

I don't know how to change it in actual Viewer 2, but one common piece of advice I've heard is to try switching off HTTP texture loading. I infer that something isn't quite right in how the server-systems and the Viewer talk to each other.

 

[Sigren Panthar]

I have been on SL for over two years, and this last week has been the worst SL experience of my time here and, frankly, I am now fed up with the dreadful grid performance, like yourself.  The lag is now beyond a joke.

As you have clearly spelt out, and despite what LL and their tiresome apologists try to offload - ie it is your machine, your graphics card, your connection, your 'laggy' clothes, etc, etc - we have the irony of SL performing at an all time low right on their 8th year celebrations.

It is time - God, how long we been asking this? - for LL to invest in new servers, and more of them. Think of the time and money they stubbornly put into V2, which many older residents consider easily the worst viewer available?  All that time and manpower could have been used to make SL RUN better.

But, do they ever listen to what the customer actually wants?   

This week, LL have virtually cured my SL addiction; I have logged on for 20 minutes tops and logged off in dismay each time. Also I am now uncomfortably thinking more and more about the cost these last two years of renting two parcels and spending on all manner of gizmos and outfits!  Now, there's irony.....LL curing people of their SL addictions. :smileywink:  

[Sardonicus Direwytch]

Well, what I don't understand is, other people that I know, aren't experiencing any lag at all.

Then with me, no matter what settings on what viewer I use, I get nothing but lag.

Then agian, if you connect to Second Life and your connection goes through a regionally based server depending on where you live, then obviously the one where I live is bombed.

I just wanted to make sure SL didn't create some new thing that any component of my computer just doesn't like in the past 6 months.

[Mayalily]

I know a lot of people who were experiencing extreme lag on the last viewer update before this recent one.

A couple things to try:  Download Google Chrome, set it as your default browser, then inword click on use 'built in browser' because I read here on the forums that one of the built in browser for SL is Google Chrome.  Anyhow, I zip around SL super fast  since doing this Google Chrome thing, except on sims with those vendor stalls.  The vendor stall sims, way too much too try to load.

I also wanted to ask if you have defragmented your computer?  Uninstalling/reinstalling can cause some patches that need to be patched from what I'm reading and trying to learn right now.   (I need to look into defragmenting my computer also as I've been uninstalling/reinstalling so many things to try to get SL to work; I think I have registry errors and need to defrag.)

ETA: 

1)  Type in search bar "why is my computer so slow" without the quotations marks, of course.

2)  Type in search bar "what is defragmenting my computer" to start to find websites about this.

3)  Type is search bar "what are registry errors" to start some searching on this. 

 

[Sardonicus Direwytch]

Trust me, I have no registry errors and I defrag my computer at least once per week, that is so not the issue.

Besides, nothing runs slow on my computer EXCEPT SL, and even then, loading up SL isn't slow at all, just being in-game is.  I don't get a FPS over 10 or 15 even on sims that have NOTHING on them.

As far as Google Chrome, downloading it and setting it to the default browswer shouldn't do anything to speed up or slow down SecondLife, especially when, even if what you say is true, it's not true for the third-party viewers, which also run slow.

[Mayalily]

I added the defragging and registry errors as a generalization as other's are reading these threads and may want to look into those two issues.

As far as Google Chrome and setting as built in browser in SL viewer, it's incredible and super fast for browsing SL.  Sims load about 50 x times faster for me since doing this. 

Maybe your problem is the third party viewer then, but if you keep uninstalling and reinstalling things, yes you could get registry errors. 

Does SL need better servers?  I'd have no idea. 

[Baloo Uriza]

1. You're using Windows.  The OpenGL support on that platform is intentionally crippled to make DirectX look good by comparison.  You're bound to get better performance out of the same hardware with one of the other platforms SL supports.
2. You're using an Aero theme.  Turn off the glassy window effect bull**bleep** and use a classic theme.  Window elements need to be functional, not decoration, anyway...

[Vudurabbit]

Exactly the same mate! I used to play not that long ago and I would be all over with no lag even in big crowds of people. I pretty much started playing again about a 2 days ago and until about a few hours ago I finally decided to look into why the hell SL lags SO bad cuz its getting on my nerves that I cant move or do anything even in the sims with nothing in them I found a help post earlier that told me how to bring up fps and it was running at like 1.3 to 3.6fps constantly i was like wtf man! dont driver updates, defragged, cleared the cashe, dropped all the graphic settings and turned all streaming media off in game but its the same thing. ((((((((((((

has SL dont something recently within the past few months thats my PC hates or what?

[Baloo Uriza]

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Vudurabbit wrote:

has SL dont something recently within the past few months thats my PC hates or what?

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What other changes have happened on your system?

[Kallina77]

Trust me when I tell you. I am in the lucky position of just buying a brand new laptop. the spec isn't quite as good as my pc but thats laptops for you.

I haven't really been anywhere of installed much with the laptop except for SL and I can play Sl like Im playing battlefield 2

no lag moves fast scenery comes up right away. graphice are photo quality. locks up if you fly or tele in realms but I suspect its supposed to. (By the way, Samsung I5 2core 2.4g 6gb-1033mhz  ram w7 2gb Grafics card.

My desktop stays grey for a matter of mins then the avatar wont move then after about 2 mins starts to remember key presses and wanders off at about 3fps. anyway you get the idea.

Desktop is amd 2core 2.6 ghz 8gb ram (speed I thinf 866mhz) w Vista 1gb grafics Asus mb

internet is 2mb which is ok and same for both.

in the same 5 mins I can log in to SL on either machine and I can safely rule out SL as the problem in this case

I tried phoenex but still as laggy

it has to be a compatability issue or anothew program affecting

I have been through with cccleaner

disabled all startups bar essential, beats me

I tried installing on fujitsu siemens lifebook which is I3 2.27, 512 graf 4gb ram and w7 and it runs not   glitchy at low detail as I would expect from a slower computer you can play it but Im a bit spoilt after the samsung

[Kallina77]

so I tried on my friends old computer which is running ubuntu and everything is ok, just a bit slow so I could have adjusted the settings down to make a difference but the point is you don't need such a fab computer to run SL

so I tried to play it on my PC using Ubuntu linux os but cant open the archive prob cos it is 64 bit

My guess is with well used windows there has been a DLL file changed and I don't have a clue what to do about that, or there is something in the open gl settings.

What really bugs me is that windows makes you create a restore point and then wiped over it with the screw up as soon as it possibly can.

I think I am going to see if MS will let me wipe the drive and reinstall the OEM again unless anyone has a better idea

 

[Baloo Uriza]

I'm not surprised about Phoenix, it's a bit heavier on the resources than the vast majority of viewers.  Have you tried Imprudence or Singularity?  SL is an OpenGL environment; you may experience better performance on Linux as a result.

[Baloo Uriza]

It's not quite a fair apples-to-apples comparison if the machine you tried isn't using identical hardware, especially GPU and VRAM.

[Theresa Tennyson]

If you've got an AMD processor you've probably got ATI graphics and SL and ATI haven't been getting along lately because of OpenGL issues. Make sure you've got the latest drivers and try going into "Graphics" - "Hardware" and turning off OpenGL VBO objects.

[Marigold Devin]

You would die laughing if you saw my system specs, and yet I am not finding much difference in performance at all. 

Other than blaming general wear and tear on your computer, or the fact it might be filthed up with dust and detritis on the inside and in need of a jolly good blow out, on all the information you've provided us with here, the only thing left to blame are your internet service provider, LL (as usual) or God! (no good if you don't believe in him).

Just note that in the time that you've been absent from Second Life, there may well be a lot of other people who have signed up for broadband in your locality and therefore your connection is greatly diluted. This would affect your speed.  

If you are just slow on particular sims, you could attribute that to the maintenance that is taking place on many servers between now and Christmas, but once those issues have been worked through, and the associated rolling restarts completed, SL should run for you as good or as bad, as fast or as slow, as ever it did.

[Marigold Devin]

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Vudurabbit wrote:

Exactly the same mate! I used to play not that long ago and I would be all over with no lag even in big crowds of people. I pretty much started playing again about a 2 days ago and until about a few hours ago I finally decided to look into why the hell SL lags SO bad cuz its getting on my nerves that I cant move or do anything even in the sims with nothing in them I found a help post earlier that told me how to bring up fps and it was running at like 1.3 to 3.6fps constantly i was like wtf man! dont driver updates, defragged, cleared the cashe, dropped all the graphic settings and turned all streaming media off in game but its the same thing.

((((((((((((

has SL dont something recently within the past few months thats my PC hates or what?

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Welcome to the Second Life Forums (welcome back?), Vudurabbit.

You might be wise to start a brand new thread, show your system specifications.



[Gary Darkfire]

I run SL on my notebook almost flawlessly -1 gig memory,  1ghz amd processor, Windows Home Premium.  When I try to run it on my desktop -Windows Ultimate, 3.11ghz athon cpu, 4gig memory, hd radeon video card,  it either crashes or runs so slow I wish it would crash.  Go figure...

[GReaper Zelmanov]

Just a data point for you all.  I have been battling really lagging performance for a while with SL Viewer 2.  Talking 2 - 14 FPS as the norm.  I've been messing with a lot of settings to no avail. 

I just loaded the Rainbow Viewer and my FPS is up in the 30 - 75 fps range.  This is with the graphics almost maxed.  Sims load much much faster as well.

I'm going to explore just what the heck the difference is between these viewers.

System specs: Intel i7 2.67 GHz, 6 GB RAM, Win 7 64 bit, NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX+ w/512MB

Cheers,

GZ

[Mick Scarbridge]

I've been using a meager 2.6 GHz 1 core 32 bit AMD Sempron based craptop for the past 3 years. My system has a miniscule 128 Mb ATI factory laptop graphics and only 2 Gb DDR2 non-ECC non-registered RAM. I am on a satellite ISP as it is one of the only two options in my area (the latter being a non-option of dialup). I was getting a decent 14 FPS for 2 1/2 of the four years I have been in SL, but this last year seems to have slowed down to a rediculously slow 4 FPS or less, sometimes dropping lower than 1 FPS. Ever since the change of the quality of graphics was forced to maximum, my SL experience has been less than desirable. SSB seems to be a double edged sword for me right now, however I understand that this technology is relatively new as with the rest of project sunshine. The user should have the option to adjust the quality of everything rendered so that people with older and outdated systems can still enjoy SL. I will be getting a new system that is more than enough for HD video editing, but that will take about a year to complete the building process as it is a professional dual socket Xeon workstation with three ATI video cards. By then, I will have moved to the city and will have a minimum of a 10 Mbps cable or fiber connection for my home business. Until then, I am stuck with running into walls from lag and conducting my usual ritual of making a cup of tea while I first login for the day. This reminds me of the old ritual that many NES gamers did when they blew out the cartridge before playing to make it work. Either way, I notice lag more than most others because of how sensitive my older craptop is to the most miniscule bit of lag, and I have definitely noticed a big change since SL forced quality to max (not to be confused with the graphics settings such as Low, Medium, High, Ultra). I think that SSB is a good thing, but at the same time this requires more server power. Perhaps LL could start a grid-wide fund raiser that allows residents who love SL to donate to help SL upgrade their server hardware? I would throw a good $20 USD their way for that.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Mick Scarbridge wrote:

Perhaps LL could start a grid-wide fund raiser that allows residents who love SL to donate to help SL upgrade their server hardware? I would throw a good $20 USD their way for that.

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Are you crazy?  You necropost to suggest that SL users should just give their money away to LL, on top of all the money they already spend in SL?  Really?

...Dres *shakes his head in disbelief*

[Baloo Uriza]

Criticising someone for continuing an existing thread, thus preserving context, rather than starting a new one, is poor form.  This is an asynchronous medium.  Delayed responses are to be expected.

[Baloo Uriza]

Go check out the wiki article on lag.  I'm guessing you're complaining about client-side lag, not server side.  The wiki article will tell you how to tell the difference.  If it is server side, the biggest culprits tend to be poorly coded scripts, or excessively scripting around something that's readily possible without a script.  In a few rare cases, physics comes into play, mostly because the Lindens are trying to shoehorn Havok into a job that would be better served much more inexpensively, realistically and reliably by Open Dynamics, as demonstrated by OpenSimulator in load tests and open to the public on osGrid.

[Dresden Ceriano]

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Baloo Uriza wrote:

Criticising someone for continuing an existing thread, thus preserving context, rather than starting a new one, is poor form.  This is an asynchronous medium.  Delayed responses are to be expected.

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Um... where did you get the idea that this is what I was doing?  The fact that Mick necroposted is just that... a fact.  A fact which I mentioned, but never said one critical thing about.  If you want to try to shame me for something that I wrote, at least have the decency to make it about something I actually wrote.

...Dres

[Baloo Uriza]

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Dresden Ceriano wrote:

  The fact that Mick necroposted is just that... a fact.  A fact which I mentioned, but never said one critical thing about.  

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The term "necropost" is highly critical.