Particles fire erratically in my own parcel, but properly in a sandbox

[Vulpinus]

I've made a very simple, wearable 'fire spine'; simply a chain of five prims run by llLinkParticleSystem with a small fire effect in each.

The effect I want (and have) is a subtle line of continual fire along my av's spine. I'g guessing there is no other way to get a line of fire than linking prims like this. If there is please tell me.

In a sandbox it works perfectly, but when I go back to my own parcel, the particle effect in each prim seems to be firing erratically and randomly. Fitfully, even. TP back to the sandbox and it runs properly again. I tried TPing to another sim at random and my fire worked there as well. But not at home!

I have Firestorm fully ramped up on Max Particles (8192 I think) and only have a few other small particle emittors on my parcel and they are not even visible from where I stand.

Any clues anyone?

[Madelaine McMasters]

What happens to your frame rate on your home sim? If it's substantially lower than at the sandbox, there's some non-obvious scene complexity that's bogging down your viewer. Decrease your draw distance and/or fly up to 1000+ meters and see that happens.

[Vulpinus]

Good idea, but seems not to be the issue. I'm getting around 60 fps mostly with only occasional drops below 40 if I really try hard to drop it. Although my neighbour has ten of those annoying breedable horses which don't help if I look in that direction.

Also tried it on my building platform in the sky and the same problem is there even at 100+ fps. I've relogged too, just in case.

 

I'm open to any suggestions - still quite new to all of this.

[Vulpinus]

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol).

I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Vulpinus wrote:

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol).

I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

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This reminds me of a couple folks (one in the last few days) that have mentioned a severe fps drop in certain places, and only when facing certain directions. Does the problem get better/worse depending on the direction you're facing? I've no solution if it does, I'm just curious.

[Vulpinus]

No, makes no difference at all. If I cam into my neighbour's parcel, my fps drops to 20-ish even with all the horses derendered, but as long as I don't do that it seems to have no effect.

 

Facing direction, cam direction (in my own parcel) and even going up high makes no difference.

Interestingly, I've just moved around the sim my parcel is in (it's mainland) and even into the adjacent sims, and the erratic behaviour continues.. I tP'd back to the sandbox and my fire worked perfectly again. Weird...

[Perrie Juran]

Is the sandbox on the same channel......i.e one is Main Channel, the other a Release Candidate?

[Rolig Loon]

If you look in Preferences >> Graphics >> Advanced, you'll see that you can adjust the Max Particle Count, which is the maximum number of particles you can see at once. Normally, 4096 is a decent value.  If particle sources around you have a very high emission rate, though, you will get clipping, so that you don't see all of them.  Your own particle generator may not be hitting the limit by itself, but it may be close enough that you notice a drop-off when you are in an area with other particle generators.  Try analyzing the area around you by  activating a beacon (CTRL + Shift + Alt + N) to highlight particle sources.  My guess is that you won't see many in the sandbox but will see a few in your own parcel at home.  Then you'll have two choices: (1) reduce the particle emission rate of your own object or (2) increase your Max Particle Count setting.

[Rolig Loon]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Vulpinus wrote:

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol).

I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

---

This reminds me of a couple folks (one in the last few days) that have mentioned a severe fps drop in certain places, and only when facing certain directions. Does the problem get better/worse depending on the direction you're facing? I've no solution if it does, I'm just curious.

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That's normal, Maddy. When you look in a new direction, your viewer has to download and process new graphical information, so it slows down.  If you keep looking in the new direction, your FPS should increase again in a few seconds, especially if nothing new is happening (no new avs or objects, no new signs, particles, etc.).  Open your Statistics Bar (Shift + CTRL + 1) and watch FPS as you turn to face a new direction or when you TP to a new sim. It will usually drop like a stone.

[ObviousAltIsObvious]

try your viewer's highlight transparent feature, and see if the tell-tale squares are there, even if the expected particles appear to be missing.

a bug affecting most viewers right now, BUG-3961 and several related ones, causes particles to intermittently display with wrong textures, picked up from other particle generators in the area. those can look blank if they blend with their suirroundings.

 

 

[Vulpinus]

Back after dinner... right...

 

Nothing's changed. My Max Particles is maxed out  at 8192. There are a few other sources in the vicinity but not a huge number. Is there any way to tell what sort of quantity the viewer is trying to render to see if it's hitting the limit? I really don't think it's that though.

 Highlighting Transparent shows me nothing more, no blank squares, so I guess the particles really aren't being emitted.

Settings beacons for other sources shows a few on my parcel and around me but not loads (as mentioned above). Most people around here are in skyboxes.

Oh yes, the sandbox is one of the normal premium ones, I just TP'd to it from home, so I guess that means same channel (do you mean like what I call the beta grid where we can log in to test uploads without paying for them? No, I wasn't there). Besides, I've TP'd to a few of my usual haunts (shopping places etc) and my fire works perfectly everywhere else I've been.

So I'm stuck! I thought this was so simple, and was quite pleased with myself when I got the parameters working nicely. Then I went home...

...

 

Having just types all that, while trying a few things out with no success, I though I would try TP'ing around my own vicinity again; just double clicking on the land to move around. This time, the further away from my parcel I got (a couple of sims away) the better the particles worked. I started TP'ing back again and by the time I got home, everything worked. Note that I had done the very same thing earlier with no improvement anywhere.

Well, I guess it's not anything wrong with my script anyway. SL can be weird sometimes!

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Rolig Loon wrote:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Vulpinus wrote:

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol).

I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

---

This reminds me of a couple folks (one in the last few days) that have mentioned a severe fps drop in certain places, and only when facing certain directions. Does the problem get better/worse depending on the direction you're facing? I've no solution if it does, I'm just curious.

---

That's normal, Maddy. When you look in a new direction, your viewer has to download and process new graphical information, so it slows down.  If you keep looking in the new direction, your FPS should increase again in a few seconds, especially if nothing new is happening (no new avs or objects, no new signs, particles, etc.).  Open your Statistics Bar (Shift + CTRL + 1) and watch FPS as you turn to face a new direction or when you TP to a new sim. It will usually drop like a stone.

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No, I'm referring to a case in which the FPS drops and remains low when facing in a certain direction. About a year ago, someone had a problem on their parcel, where facing a certain direction dropped their frame rate into the single digits. I went to that place and experienced it myself. I flew all over the sim trying to identify the cause and was unable to make sense of it. There was store nearby with a great many textures displaying the various items, but nothing else. Looking at it dropped my frame rate. I could fly past it and the FPS would recover, but if I turned around and looked at the store from the opposite direction, FPS did not drop. It was completely baffling.

A couple days ago, someone mentioned a similar problem.

[Perrie Juran]

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Rolig Loon wrote:

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Madelaine McMasters wrote:

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Vulpinus wrote:

Just adding that it's defintely an issue on my parcel, not with the viewer (I think, lol).

I've logged in with my wife's account and looked at myself from there, using both firestorm and SL viewer, and see the same erratic behaviour.

---

This reminds me of a couple folks (one in the last few days) that have mentioned a severe fps drop in certain places, and only when facing certain directions. Does the problem get better/worse depending on the direction you're facing? I've no solution if it does, I'm just curious.

---

That's normal, Maddy. When you look in a new direction, your viewer has to download and process new graphical information, so it slows down.  If you keep looking in the new direction, your FPS should increase again in a few seconds, especially if nothing new is happening (no new avs or objects, no new signs, particles, etc.).  Open your Statistics Bar (Shift + CTRL + 1) and watch FPS as you turn to face a new direction or when you TP to a new sim. It will usually drop like a stone.

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No, I'm referring to a case in which the FPS drops and remains low when facing in a certain direction. About a year ago, someone had a problem on their parcel, where facing a certain direction dropped their frame rate into the single digits. I went to that place and experienced it myself. I flew all over the sim trying to identify the cause and was unable to make sense of it. There was store nearby with a great many textures displaying the various items, but nothing else. Looking at it dropped my frame rate. I could fly past it and the FPS would recover, but if I turned around and looked at the store from the opposite direction, FPS did not drop. It was completely baffling.

A couple days ago, someone mentioned a similar problem.

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There was this thread last January where object updates on an adjoining SIM were causing a lot of problems.

[Vulpinus]

Hmm... I spoke too soon. It worked fine for hours, then I TP'd away and when I came back, my fire became erratic again.

Oh well, I got my stuff made anyway.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Vulpinus wrote:

 

Oh yes, the sandbox is one of the normal premium ones, I just TP'd to it from home, so I guess that means same channel (do you mean like what I call the beta grid where we can log in to test uploads without paying for them? No, I wasn't there). Besides, I've TP'd to a few of my usual haunts (shopping places etc) and my fire works perfectly everywhere else I've been.

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 Tthey are talking about what version the region is running on you can check it in your viewer  by clicking on world-region details-region tab

 

 The RC channels are the test channels for fixes and new features and may be running differently then the main channel.  You can check the server forums for updates.  Main channel normally gets updated on Tuesday and the RC channels on Wednesday.  If your ever have a problem with something that use to work then stops all of a suddenly, you can test it on different channels so see if it's caused by a recent update.

 

[Perrie Juran]

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Parrish Ashbourne wrote:

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Vulpinus wrote:

 

Oh yes, the sandbox is one of the normal premium ones, I just TP'd to it from home, so I guess that means same channel (do you mean like what I call the beta grid where we can log in to test uploads without paying for them? No, I wasn't there). Besides, I've TP'd to a few of my usual haunts (shopping places etc) and my fire works perfectly everywhere else I've been.

---

 Tthey are talking about what version the region is running on you can check it in your viewer  by clicking on world-region details-region tab

 

 The RC channels are the test channels for fixes and new features and may be running differently then the main channel.  You can check the server forums for updates.  Main channel normally gets updated on Tuesday and the RC channels on Wednesday.  If your ever have a problem with something that use to work then stops all of a suddenly, you can test it on different channels so see if it's caused by a recent update.

 

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Just adding so the differences are clear, If on the Main Channel it will say "Agni."  The RC Channels are Blue Steel, LeTigre and Magnum.

[Kayaker Magic]

In OpenSimulator there is a problem that people call "particle starvation" and I thought that this problem did not exist in SL.

The probem is caused by the PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE parameter of llParticleSystem. The Wiki says that if you set PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE to 0.0, it will generate particles as fast as possible. But in OpenSimulator if you do this, it will starve particles from all the other particle emmiters in the same SIM. The recomendation, in OpenSimulator, is to never set this paremeter 0, instead use 0.001 for example. A number that small produces lots of particles, usually indistinguishable from using 0.0, but it does not starve particles from other emiters.

Unfortinately, the fix for this is to track down all the other particle scripts in the SIM, look at the PSYS_SRC_BURST_RATE parameters, and if it is zero, then replace it with 0.001. This is unfortunate because you may not have access to all the particle scripts in your SIM.

And like I said, I thought this was a bug in OpenSumulator an not in SL, so the whole exersize may be wasted.

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So here is a completely different suggestion, a way of getting your "flame spine" without using particles at all: How about wearing a couple of flat prims that have a flame texture animation running on them? That could look pretty cool!