Why the freaking lag, and most people and things are gray?

[Bryce2k10]

I have an ASUS N80Vm series laptop with an Intel Core Duo P8400 CPU running at 2.26Ghz. I have an Nvidia GeForce 9600M GS video card with 1 Gig of memory (that's right, 1 Gig, not a typo), 4 Gigs or Ram, and a 320Gig hard disk drive. So, unless it's my internet service provider, I dont' understand why I can't get a decent experience like many of the other folks on here. My provider is Clearnet wireless and the speed is only 1.5 megabits per second.  I've been on red lght center for 2 years with very little problems. The avatars look much better, no refresh rate problems, and no "clear cache" problems. I never have to clear a cache on there. So, why the heck do I have problems on second life? And what is this clear cache thing? Why can red light center operate as they do without the need for this and second life can't? I am totally frustrated at this point and ready to right off second life as an inferior piece of software that mimicks what software was like in the early 1980s. Sorry, but I am upset.

 

Thanks for all the comments.  I am doing much better now (4-30-11).  Think the router was a problem, had it tuned up via Cisco sytems techie.  BTW, is there any way for me to make a post on my own thread without editing the original question? Thanks.

[Venus Petrov]

You have checked the SL system requirements here https://secondlife.com/my/support/system-requirements/

but there are suggestions here http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Reducing_lag about reducing lag.

I was told once not to run SL on wireless connection as you may experience packet loss.

I do not know anything about red light center so I can make no comparison there.  Hopefully, the lag reducing tips will help.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

It comes down to the fact the RLC is a much more limited environment.  Everything in SL is 'custom' and must be downloaded to your machine the first time it is encountered.  If your graphics settings/view distance are very high and/or you are in a busy or complex area that can really slow things down.  As you move to other, new to you, areas more information has to be downloaded.

I have a wireless connection which works very well while my avatar is 'at home', 20+ fps at high graphics, broadband just ticking-over.  As soon as I teleport to a new place though I can wait 3 or 4 minutes before things rez, my ISP just won't handle that surge in traffic demand.  With mine it often gives me 5s or more ping-time to a new sim/server, let alone a lousy download rate.

[Bryce2k10]

Thank you for your help. The link to the lag tips is out of date. It says to select help, then lag meter. There is no lag meter under my help. I assume they have updated the viewer since this article was written. So, I have no clue how to locate the lag meter or if it exists anymore. This has been one of my frustrations. Advice given to me I can't execute because others' viewers are different than mine, older. Thanks for your reply, It is appreciated.

[Bryce2k10]

For some reason the other person's post disappeared after I posted to yours. This all makes no sense to me. Why would that post disappear? In regards to the comment in that post that red light center is a much more limited application, what good is an application which is more expansive if it in effect doesn't work adequately for you? The avatars are much more life like there, there is little lag, and it is getting so large that there aren't many people at any one location at any given time. IT works a lot better on my laptop than second life, much, much better. I can edit videos on my laptop very effectively with editing, sound, etc. It is a powerful system. Why the problems with second life I have no clue. But I do find the advice given but not applicable to me frustrating. I had people telling me to access a certain function within the viewer to clear the cache and that function, "network" was not there. This has been a very disappointing experience. Sorry, guys, but that's my report card for second life.

[Peewee Musytari]

Hi Bryce, the new format forums are confusing (to say the least lol) when you post a comment it does close the other posts, there is a link on the left just above the post that you replied to that says "View entire topic" which opens them all up again

[Marigold Devin]

Bryce, are you having problems on all sims, with the lag, and the greyed out avatars, etc?  It's just that, if you frequent the more busy sims (and the sim you mention on another one of your forum threads currently has 85 avatars there and no one can move!) this will be a more common problem unfortunately.

Some sim owners are taking steps to reduce lag by requesting visitors keep their scripts down to a minimum; removal of unnecessary HUDs, and scripts in footwear and hair can help a lot.

Or you're going to have to find more secluded beaches with less lag.

[paula Mellow]

Short answer, reduce the graphics settings to "Mid"  use (crtl+p) then go to   "graphics"  find  "quality and speed" then   set   the slider to "mid") and that may solve the problem. and clear the cache in second lfe. 

Also setting the "draw distance" to as low as you are confortable with will definitely help the frame rate).

Due to SL defaulting to HIGH because  it assumes that a 9600M is a class 2 GPU, (when it should be a class 1 under windows) 

it is a class 2 gpu becuase 9600m is in the Apple MAC book pro,  therefore faster than in  would be in an ASUS laptop under windows.

the 9600m is a class 3 gpu in a 6 class tier.  (notebookcheck . net / NVIDIA-GeForce-9600M-GS.9450.0 . html)

IMAO Running second life on a windows laptop, and expecting great graphics and EYE candy is not wise because it will only create a 'slide show'... so reduce the distance.

Under  windows, i use a 6970 and a AMD 955II (3.2Ghz) so while in linden home, VBO, all eyecandy on 1280x1024 full screen (ULTRA  preference and all "lighting and shadows" options and framebuffer objects on in the develop menu ) under midday sun, while dancing with: distance 256 ;9.8 fps, 96 ;13.3 fps, 64 ;18.3 fps.

With the lighting and shadows options off:  midday 256 ; 25.8 fps, 96 ;39.3 fps, 64 ;53.3 fps

with MID settings....midday 256 ; 28.3fps, 96 ;50.1fps, 64:57.3fps

if anything is gray for a long time, clear the clear group cache. (and restart SL)

RLC is not better... but it is designed to run on a laptop that is 2004...(or a IMHO 400 dollar one) and it suffers for it. The only thing it has going for it is smaller and easier to run on budget/cheap hardware. because of that it will allways be stuck on slow hardware.

I was on RCL first  (then after 6 months i decided to  try SL but i thought that it was confusing and hard to control  and i would have to  buy  land, create my own house, (funny, mainly because of  viewer 1.23 ...when i changed to viewer 2, my mind changed), the premium plan (72 a year) is what changed me to "dump" RLC and join SL.

While the startup in RLC requires nothing, it is 20 dollars (at least) a month to become VIP.  yes, the avatars walk better than the default avatars in SL, but in SL it is just an HUD away to walk better.   For every advantage that RLC has, SL can and will be better, if you look  and work at it...  

RLC only lags in the chat box, because (while IMO the graphics "were good for PS2 days", (RLC hasn't keep pace and thus it will run on anything) I hate it for that; and other reasons, ...the avatars are small, and  lack resolution.

To sum up, RCL is community college (even thou it has a adult theme)  and Second life is and IVY league college...