Major sudden parcel lag

[Colwyn Baily]

I'm hopeful some expert out there can recommend preference setting changes that could help alleviate the following issue...

I've experienced major lag on my 1024 corner parcel for the last couple of weeks. Everything is normal on my build platform about 300 m up. On the ground, it's another story.

I haven't added any objects in a long time, nor changed anything or modified any objects already here. It was also present before the latest Firestorm update, which didn't seem to have any positive or negative effect.

Using Firestorm's Lag Meter, I can't get a green framerate anywhere on my parcel... it's either yellow or red. Standing toward the outside, near the water, puts the frame-rate into the red. Moving inward (away from the water) improves the framerate into the yellow.

I've flown around the sim and I get a green framerate everywhere. I used a separate lag meter for the sim and got the following result:

[12:09] True Lag Reporter LSL: Lag test starting....
[12:09] True Lag Reporter LSL: Time = 1.000000
[12:09] True Lag Reporter LSL: Fast Sim
[12:09] True Lag Reporter LSL: Good

I have my draw distance at 48, quality and speed are at Minimum, atmospheric shaders turned off, shadows off... you get the idea.

According to the About Land window:

Parcel Script Memory:
Memory used: 5840 kb out of 0 kb; -5840 kb available
URLs used: 0 out of 233; 233 available

The object that uses the most Parcel Script Memory is, ironically, the ACS Security Orb provided by the land company, at 1024 kb. All my furniture, which isn't much, drops down in usage to the low hundreds or less.

I used a script counter on myself, in case my clothing or shoes were to blame, and got the following result:

[12:19] Script & Memory Use Scale Counter: Total Scripts: 15
Total Memory: 864k
[12:19] Script & Memory Use Scale Counter: Congratulations! Script weight under 3 mb.

Bottom line is I can't find anything that could account for my parcel's lagginess. I asked the land manager to restart the sim just a couple of days ago, with no noticeable effect.

Advice? Thanks!

[Lindal Kidd]

Check your parcel to make sure nobody has left any stray objects there.  About Land, Objects tab, Refresh button.  Return any strays you find.

If the lag persists, it could be an object with laggy scripts, textures, or both, on a nearby parcel.  Ask your neighbors to check for problems, too.

[Rolig Loon]

It sounds like you have taken a good systematic approach to analyzing the problem.  The FS lag meter is a very coarse tool, though, so you are not getting much helpful information beyond the obvious verification that you have a lag issue.  Try using the viewer's Statistics Bar instead. Toggle it on with Shift + CTRL + 1.  There's a lot of information there, offering you real-time continuous feedback about your Internet connection, your sim's server load, and relevant environmental factors.  You'll find a good summary of what's there at http://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/How-to-improve-Viewer-performance/ta-p/1316923#Section_.3

The first thing to suspect is always your own computer and Internet connection, which is why those factors are right at the top of the display.  Pay particular attention to your ping time and packet loss numbers.  If ping time is greater than about 150 msec or if packet loss is more than 0.5%, you'll begin to see annoying lag.  You may want to look at Nalates's blog for ideas about how to minimize those problems. 

As you look farther down the Statistics Bar display, take particular note of the Simulator and Time portions, which you may need to click to open for more details.  You should be able to see, for example, whether the servers are taking an inordinate amount of time processing images or dealing with physical objects -- two common sources of server lag.  Armed with that information, you can do a more targeted survey of the sim to find potential culprits. 

You should know, of course, that it is not always easy to figure out what's causing lag, and you often can't do anything about it if you do figure it out.  Here are a couple more links that you may want to consult:

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/lag

http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_very_laggy