About clearing my cache

[LadyEllenT]

I've been told that clearing my cache is a secondary solution for long rezzing times and other technical issues regarding glitching graphics and the general sl experience, (after re-logging, re-starting and even re-installing my viewer) while others have told me it's NOT a good idea but I haven't gotten a difinitive answer as to which one is correct.

 

Can someone tell me the upsides and downsides (consering sl specifically) of clearing my cache?

[Alwin Alcott]

Clearing cache is indeed a possible solution for the issues you describe ..BUT as last one....

It;s only working when the issues are caused by corrupt cache files.

Sometimes that happens.

Keep in mind, every time you clear cache, the whole process of caching has to start over... and will lag you as long that's not finished, so causing even more issues....

The cache files are meant to make load time less, clearing it makes that impossible.

 

Most common problem for those issues however is a bad connection.

Not speed, but reliability of the connection is important for sl.

First thing to start is go wired if you'r on wifi.

Restart modem/router

check your connection, ping and speed.

 

Also... where are you rezzed... how many avatars around you, how high did you put your settings, ....if you ask more from your card than it can handly you will also get problems.

 

Also your system is a important link in the process. A non game machine will perform med at most.

On board graphics will not give the most optimal experience.... and so on ... and so on ...

 

 

[LadyEllenT]

Based on what you said, it sounds like clearing the chache won't help my issues. I'm pretty sure it is not corrupt files that are causing the long rez time and lag - it's more likely because of the fact that I don't have a computer designed for gaming. It's a basic laptop bought more for standard/office tasks. I do have a very good wireless connection. I have my graphics set pretty low. I noticed early on that when I'm in a place with lots of other people I get very laggy so I try to avoid those places or I keep my distance from the crowd. It sounds like I might just have to be satisfied with what I have for now until it's time to get a new laptop, which is soon any way. Besides, the sl experience is still very enjoyable already. Seems like what I'm wanting is to to make my experience even better than it already is and that I should keep that in mind when I go laptop shopping in a few months.

 

Thanks for your reply.

[Alwin Alcott]

addittional... if it's in special on populated places you could set the slider for the jellydolls (rendering costs) lower, only people meeting the lower value will be rendered for you, and the other look like colored jellybeans,

If you want to see them, you can always choose to right click a avatar and choose to render. ( as example for friends, always nice to see them fully )

[Claireschen Hesten]

If anything clearing cache won't help with rezzing issues i've only seen cache clearing recommended if you have corrupted textures 

[Rhys Goode]

I use clearing cache as more of a first resort. With SL off, I navigate to the folder that has the cache, and delete the folder and all its contents. Then log onto a lindien sim, such as Hatton or Hippo Hollow. Only takes a few minutes, and fixes enough problems that it is worth the trouble. IMHO.

[Alwin Alcott]

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Rhys Goode wrote:

 and fixes enough problems that it is worth the trouble. IMHO.

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it fixes nothing when it's about lag and not loading, it will make it worse... fact.

[Qie Niangao]

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Rhys Goode wrote:

I use clearing cache as more of a first resort. 

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Depends on the problem being addressed. Personally, I've never seen it help with lag of any kind, but textures that only partially load no matter how long you wait, or textures that are scrambled, or objects you can't see but others can: those are all very likely to be fixed by clearing cache.

I could make up a story where clearing cache might possibly improve texture lag if the cache is simply too large and stored on an old-school hard disk, the kind with moving parts inside. For a long time I used a RAM disk for cache, which wiped itself each reboot; for the last few years I've been using SSD (which was scary at first, but seems to have been fine). Although it's theoretically possible for a larger, HDD-based cache to improve viewer performance especially when network performance is poor, I've found the cache almost always corrupts somewhere, long before it can grow that large.

This is purely anecdotal, but it seems that my cache most often corrupts after a network disruption. Also, when my cache corrupts in the way that produces scrambled textures, I very often have also corrupted alpha-masked textures on items rezzed in-world that I can modify. (That's a freaky weird and difficult to replicate bug, discussed elsewhere.)

[Klytyna]

Problem is... Way way back in the SL Stone age when people had to hand knap their own prims from chunks of virtual flint... There was this thing called Viewer 1, which had something to do with pies, in an unholy and unspeakable manner...

 

It used to fail regularly because it's cache didnt auto rotate old unviewed textures, so 'smart people' would stave off disaster by clearing cache every week, or at the first sign of a glitch.

 

Then science was invented and Viewerr 1 was banished to the depths of the underworld, never to be seen again.

 

Unfortunately, many of it's depraved cultists still exist and will spout fact free gibberish about cache clearing being the solution to world hunger world peace and working vr that doesnt causze nausea...

 

Drive these unclean wretches away from you.

 

For most 'glitches' clearing cache is like deciding to scrap your car and build a new one because one of the tyres is a few pounds low in pressure and you can't  be bothered listening to the nice roadside assistance man when he tells you he will lend you his air-pump...