which viewer is good for traveling across sims?

[danicah]

i like sailing or flying across sims, but my viewer keeps crashing after a couple minutes after crossing several sims.

Are there any good viewers that dont crash so easily? I am using Firestorm.

[Maelstrom Janus]

You'll be lucky...boundary crashing is viewer independent and has been for years...despite a previous CEOs promise to have the problem fixed ....he left just before his deadline ran out...naturally.

[Echo Hermit]

I have been finding it really quite smooth to drive around the mainland in my beat up old truck using the non-mesh version of Phoenix (1185 last numbers of the download).

Yesterday I tested a mesh vehicle using Firestorm and crashed on the first sim border, got flung out of the vehicle on my next attempt.

But to be honest, there has been this JIRA ongoing since 2007 about sim crossings - you might want to add your info to it, and opt to vote/watch (at the top of the JIRA page).

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-472

[Theresa Tennyson]

Currently there are server issues that are causing too much data to be sent in many cases so long distance travel is more difficult than usual. You really can't judge until those problems are fixed - hopefully this coming Tuesday with the weekly server updates.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

The only part a viewer would have in relation to sim crossings is that some of the viewers designed for lower performing graphics and machines won't have as large a load as, say, the SL viewers (which have all the capabilities where a "lighter" wieght viewer wouldn't).   Sim crossing problems are largely server side.......LL has made great strides in getting the problems down to mainly crossing with complicated vehicles with more scripts (which are probably the most fun vehicles because of complexity of them).  It used to happen with simple walks across sim boundaries wearing practically nothing at all and no scripts.......that seldoms happens anymore.

A sim crossing presents a problem for the servers in that you are leaving one sim and entering another.  Each sim is housed on a single core of a server CPU.  When you cross from one sim to another everything about you and your vehicle must be handed off the the sim you are entering......if you are wearing complex clothing or attachments with scripts and your vehicle is complex and has many scripts attache to it, that can become quite a mess for the servers to sort and get all transfered to the new sim.  It gets even more messy if the core the sim are are leaving resides on a core of a different CPU (LL's servers are quad core which means up to 4 sims can be housed on a CPU).  That means not only does everything have to be transfered form a core to another core, it might have to be transfered to a completely different CPU.  And to complicate things further LL has two server locations (one in San Franscisco, CA and one in Dallass, TX)......that sim boundary may mean that the different CPU might be half across the United States.  It just ain't a simple "fix it" thing......there's a lot to overcome for what is seen as a simple border crossing.

You might try changing what you are wearing (if you are a non-human avatar that may mean using a simpler avatar).  Or try using a simpler vehicle with fewer prims, textures, and scripts.  About the time LL gets a jump of a fix, something else comes along the make it more difficult.  We didn't used to have the vehicles we have today, we didn't have mesh avatars, or vehicles.....those things are more complex and require more to the transfered on a sim crossing.  I'm afraid the problem will never be completely fixed..........but it will get better.

[Jenni Darkwatch]

I'm regularly sailing across a few hundred sims without crashing - one thing I've found when testing some theories is that script load makes a huge, huuuuuge difference. As does vehicle speed.

Normal for me is ~50 scripts on my avi. That works, but once in a while I may get booted. If I drop to <10 scripts, never a problem not even when crossing over a sim corner. Realistically, all the scripts one needs are the vehicle scripts and maybe a banline HUD.

Speed also seems to be a problem. I top out at ~60km/h for safe crossings with vehicles. If I go much faster, e.g. with a plane, it's hit and miss, and definitely not a good idea to cross over sim corners.

I have a feeling sim crossing stability is a combination of both caveats. It'd make sense, because when crossing borders the simulator has to init the scripts, and LL did a while ago slow that init - now the simulator will significantly slow down script state transfers if someone wears a ton of scripted junk.

Hope that helps.

[161488303349]

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

..  I've found when testing some theories is that script load makes a huge, huuuuuge difference. As does vehicle speed.

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^^that and that^^

take off all scripted attachments and huds that dont have anything to do with the vehicle and travel. less you wearing then less that has to be transferred to next sim

+

other thing is that many experienced vehicle scripters know about the 2 second rule for sim crossings. so they design the vehicle to know when it is about to do a sim crossing. and they avoid having the vehicle scripts do anything intense while the handover is happening

basically the driver controls are paused and the vehicle is coasted across under script control. when the sim handoff is totally complete then control is returned to the driver

+

altogether is why some people dont have much trouble at all with sim crossings and other people do

 

[arabellajones]

I doubt viewer choice makes much difference. It doesn't change the amount of data that SL sends to you, or the amount of data that has to be sent from one sim server to another. You might be able to find a better vehicle, and use a simpler AV. but doubt the Viewer is an issue. If Firestorm has a weak point, updates are infrequent, which means bugs might linger. But rapid updates can create new bugs, so...

I would suggest opening the Advanced menu (ctrl-alt-D) and turning off a few rendering options. Trees, for instance. Likewise, reducing general Grphics quality in Preferences can help. For sim-crossing, the best draw distance depends on your speed. You want to start drawing the next region before you get to it, but not too much of it. Start around 150m.

Check things such as the ping time. Firestorm has those packet loss and data warnings available, they might give you the chance to turn away from a bad crossing.

 

 

 

[Qie Niangao]

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danicah wrote:

i like sailing or flying across sims, but my viewer keeps crashing after a couple minutes after crossing several sims.

Are there any good viewers that dont crash so easily? I am using Firestorm.

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Crashing? Like, the viewer just exits? (Not that you're stuck somewhere and nothing works?)

It's been a long time since I've had a viewer actually crash, just from crossing sim borders.  And I cross a lot of sim borders, so if your viewer is doing that, yeah, I'd try other viewers.

(I generally use the Linden viewer most of the time, although I also use Firestorm once in a while, so maybe you mean something different by "crash".)