Why does lag get worse on every update?

[Lexy Oller]

Seems the more stuff that's put into game the worse it gets. Lets fix what you have.

[Rolig Loon]

Well, we can't fix anything.  We're not Lindens --- just SL residents like you.  Lindens never come here.

If you seem to have worse lag, there are three possibilities: 

(1) You are right.  Some of the things that LL has been introducing, like pathfinding, do drop your frame rate slightly.  Over all, the viewer code has been getting more complicated.  Part of that is because there are new features -- Voice, mesh capability, media on a prim, .... -- and part of it is because people are coming to SL with fancier computers and expect higher quality graphics.  And sometimes LL makes boneheaded decisions or technical errors.

(2) Your own computer barely meets SL's minimum standards, so even a slight improvement in the viewer and server codes is too much for it.  If you're on an antique machine or on a notebook computer that was designed to handle e-mail and a few on-line games, you'll get left behind.

(3) You have a good machine, but there's something wrong with it or your Internet connection.  You might be using wireless, for example, which is a crummy way to enter SL.  Your router may need rebooting, or you may need to defrag your hard drive and clean your registry.

[Darkness Anubis]

From a SL historical perspective the grid is actually MUCH less laggy and FAR more stable now that it was even a couple years ago.

Reality is when an update is done even the best of testing  cannot find every problem or bug that will surface when it goes live. Shear load on the sytsems alone cannot be replicated on beta grid (not enough people online on beta grid at any one time to stress the systems adequately).

THere is a repeating pattern of somehting being released, something unexpected happens after release, that something getting fixed over the next few hours, days, weeks months dpending on the complexity of the issue. On hte other side things are ususaly BETTER.

FOr example I remember an update back in late 2004 or early 2005 where the entire world went grey. Gorund, sky, avatars, objects....EVERYTHING. It stayed grey for nearly a week with the occasional odd bit popping into normal color one or 2 at a time over that week. It turns out a minor change they made to a differnet bit of code messed up how sims were processiong data from the people and stuff in and near them. Pending downloads shot into the millions and until those downloads completed no one could see or do a darn thing. why didnt it show on beta. If I remember correctly beta was maybe half a dozen sims mostly empty and disconnectd. It simply didn't affect them in a noticable way. Live on the main grid and system overload happened fast. Point is it got fixed. THings loaded faster once it was than they did before it happened.

Updates are just one of those painful things we live with. We report bugs and we wait for them to get fixed.