New sailboat doesn't work for me

[AnnHerrick]

I bought this really nice new sailboat, and read the manual, then set out sailing it. The instructions told me if I lowered the sails the motor would start, but if it did I could not motor anywhere with it. Also I could not cross sim lines, the screen would shudder and I'd just come to a stop. Also, I would get blown into land unpredictably, and I know this particular boat works for others, so now I'm wondering if it might not work for me because I'm on a Mac. The builder came and showed me how his works perfectly for him, but I while I was on board with him his boat would vanish, leaving me in the air, but he didn't see that I guess. I did. At one point I was about 100 yards off port floating in the air in a sitting position going along with the boat that way. Weird! At one point while sailing it just blew into land at high speed and there was nothing I could do to control it, but then it was back out on the water magically again. It also sank a couple times but came right back up. Also, I could not rez it at Blake sea at all, that was not allowed, even though I used the LM's the builder sent me. I've not had a good time with this boat.

So might all this be because I'm on a Mac and the boat was built for Windows users?

Edited December 2, 2019 by AnnHerrick

[Selene Gregoire]

The OS isn't going to make that kind of a difference. More than likely it's your internet connection. 

There are a number of things that could be causing the issue so you need to do some troubleshooting. The Firestorm wiki has a lot of good troubleshooting on it. I would start here: https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_vanishing_prims and follow the link(s) provided if that page doesn't solve the problem. Keep following links until you either solve it or not.

You could also take a look at all the troubleshooting guides for more https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/firestorm_troubleshooting

[AnnHerrick]

2 minutes ago, Selene Gregoire said:

The OS isn't going to make that kind of a difference. More than likely it's your internet connection. 

There are a number of things that could be causing the issue so you need to do some troubleshooting. The Firestorm wiki has a lot of good troubleshooting on it. I would start here: https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/fs_vanishing_prims and follow the link(s) provided if that page doesn't solve the problem. Keep following links until you either solve it or not.

You could also take a look at all the troubleshooting guides for more https://wiki.firestormviewer.org/firestorm_troubleshooting

Well I think I have a pretty good internet connection, I just got Xfinity installed last week and it's way faster than the old CenturyLink connection, which was never more than 7.4 mbps, and now I have 118 mbps, so it's pretty fast and I've been able to download at 11mb/sec at times. I don't know what else the issue might be, but clearly the boat does work for others, just not me. When I get near one of these boats all sorts of weirdness happens. It's like that boat just don't like me.

[Pussycat Catnap]

Your computer type won't have any impact on that.

Most sailboats with motors have very limited motors designed for getting into and out of docks.

Some of them have very well made scripting engines - based on the 'Becky' system or a fork of it like Bandit's. Most others are junk...
- If you go to sailing sims in SL you'll notice that 80% of the boats come from the same few brands. 15% of the rest come from smaller brands using the same script engine (Becky's) as the big brands but with more unique looks to the boats. The other 5%... that's because after a few bad buys most people learn to stick to boats based on a version of the Becky or Bandit engine.

But we'd need to know what boat and what you were doing to be able to tell why the one you have isn't working.

 

Sailing in SL can be finnicky too, based on what's going on in all sims in your camera view... The issue could have nothing to do with anything you can do anything about except try to sail somewhere else...

Good places to start a boat trip:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blake Sea - Half Hitch/124/44/21

- this is Blake Sea, and a lot of wide open sea with not too many scripted things to mess you up.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Baxby Gulf/254/60/22

- This is Bellisseria, a lot of empty ocean going south from here where you can see if the problem is your boat or where you were at before. Possibly the lowest lag spot in all of SL is the trip south from here.

 

An opposite test:
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Naked/126/1/22

- This is the boat dock at 'Naked' (nudity is REQUIRED here). It is crowded with massive script load from boats and XXX-furniture... There is some good sailing to do here... but this will let you see if your boat and system can handle 'tough conditions' that also are intended for sailing (nothing that actively messes up sailing is here... just a LOT of stuff is here).

 

Here is a free copy of the Becky Boat that almost all sailing boats in SL today are based on:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dex/158/48/22

Here's Bandit/Mesh Shop that arguably makes the most reliable boats in SL:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Dutch Harbor/120/32/21
- that link is to right next to the 'Bandit IF', IMO their best boat. But they have a landing point elsewhere on the shop.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[Selene Gregoire]

2 minutes ago, AnnHerrick said:

Well I think I have a pretty good internet connection, I just got Xfinity installed last week and it's way faster than the old CenturyLink connection, which was never more than 7.4 mbps, and now I have 118 mbps, so it's pretty fast and I've been able to download at 11mb/sec at times. I don't know what else the issue might be, but clearly the boat does work for others, just not me. When I get near one of these boats all sorts of weirdness happens. It's like that boat just don't like me.

After having spent more than 5 years working on the Firestorm viewer support team with people who have SL issues, I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. If you want the boat to work for you, you can either follow the troubleshooting guide or not. Your call.

[AnnHerrick]

looking through the links you posted now. I'm supposed to have a Developer menu at the top of the screen,  but I don't. I have Avatar, Comm, World, Build, Content, Help, Advanced, and that's it.

 

okay, found it...

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by AnnHerrick
spelling

[Pussycat Catnap]

29 minutes ago, AnnHerrick said:

looking through the links you posted now. I'm supposed to have a Developer menu at the top of the screen,  but I don't. I have Avatar, Comm, World, Build, Content, Help, Advanced, and that's it.

Control-Alt-Q to show Developer menu. Be VERY CAREFUL using it. You can seriously mess up your SL using the options in there unless you 'un-use' them after testing something... so if you forget which one you used... things can get really weird...

 

If the troubleshooting guide is telling you to look in the developer menu... do it... but do ONLY EXACTLY what the guide says to do, in the EXACT ORDER AND MANNER the guide says to do it... and don't fiddle with anything in the Developer menu that the guide didn't EXACTLY TELL YOU to fiddle with...

- if you're tech savvy, and a blue screen of death (or it's Mac Equiv which I have managed to achieve on my Macs) or having your game turn into random crazy lines going in weird directions doesn't scare you... then have at it... there's some great tools in the Developer menu - but it's a place for techies, not regular users.

 

Edited December 2, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[AnnHerrick]

Okay, I did everything I could find in the posted links, including moving my chat history elsewhere. I'll see how that works.

[Lindal Kidd]

Hi Ann! 

It's hard to give exact advice, since we don't know the make of your boat or the software "engine" it uses (I mean, the software that makes it a boat, not the boat's motor!)  However...

Getting blown hither and yon can happen with any sailboat, if you use the SL wind.  The wind that's "built in" to SL is quite variable, it's always changing direction.  This makes it hard to sail.  Most sailors will set a constant wind direction and speed, and use that to sail with.  Your boat should have a provision for this; read the manual.

To use the auxiliary engine on most sailboats you have to start it.  Try saying "start" or "motor" in local chat, after dropping the sails.  Click the boat itself, if that gives you a menu, or if it comes with a HUD, see what options that has.

Getting hung up at region crossings, and getting flung off the boat entirely, can happen to anyone, but they can also be a symptom of a poor internet connection.  See this article for a number of things to check out: http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/

[AnnHerrick]

Well hey, after much troubleshooting and settings work the boat now works fabulously, and is big fun on the Blake Sea. The only thing still not good is the pose it puts me in at the helm, sitting in the air instead of standing at the helm, and that might be because I'm so short. IDK. I sailed all over the Blake Sea without trouble, although some guy was out there in the water and wanted to board me, which I didn't let happen. No idea what he was doing out there, unless his boat sank.

[Coby Foden]

31 minutes ago, AnnHerrick said:

The only thing still not good is the pose it puts me in at the helm, sitting in the air instead of standing at the helm, and that might be because I'm so short.

Turning off your AO should help to get you standing on the helm instead of sitting in the air.

[Rolig Loon]

1 hour ago, Coby Foden said:

2 hours ago, AnnHerrick said:

The only thing still not good is the pose it puts me in at the helm, sitting in the air instead of standing at the helm, and that might be because I'm so short.

Turning off your AO should help to get you standing on the helm instead of sitting in the air.

And you can also compensate for an odd floating position by adjusting your Hover Height temporarily  Right click on yourself and select Appearance >> Hover Height.

[Selene Gregoire]

2 hours ago, AnnHerrick said:

after much troubleshooting and settings work

Sometimes that is what it takes. I'm glad you got it sorted. And as was said above, turn off your AO before sitting if you are using one. Turning it off after jumping on doesn't always work. Also check to see if there is an adjuster for the poses if turning off the AO doesn't fix the pose issue. Adjusters allow you to move your avatar so that the pose looks more natural. If you know anything about AVSitter, that knowledge should help you with adjusting. If not, there should be something in the manual about adjusting poses. Keyword there being should.

Good luck and happy sailing!

Edited December 3, 2019 by Selene Gregoire

[Bree Giffen]

6 hours ago, AnnHerrick said:

...although some guy was out there in the water and wanted to board me, which I didn't let happen. No idea what he was doing out there, unless his boat sank.

That was a pirate who wanted your booty. 

[Odaks]

Just about everything here, as described originally, is pointing to sim crossing failure. As there are a number of different causes for this, as has been pointed out, a systematic approach to "tidy everything up" before you even board your vessel is essential. I have a mental checklist that I run through:-

**  AO off and all non-essential huds and scripts removed. (I have a few outfits, specially for sailing, that have all scripts removed from clothing.)

**  Graphics turned down a peg or two; Draw Distance raised to 512m. Your own computer hardware dictates what you can get away with here.

**  Minimap and World Map positioned on-screen; local chat "box" made as small as possible and parked on the bottom edge.

Hopefully, following the guidance given (above) if necessary, your internet connection is in good shape.....

... and, next time it all goes horribly wrong, you will be able to point a bigger finger at the server, rather than towards yourself!

Bon voyage!

[AnnHerrick]

Well I just tried turning off my AO to sail, and it didn't work, I still ended up sitting in the air, and I could not steer the boat at all. Also tried adjusting hover height, which appeared to work, but I still got jerked into sitting in the air and lost control of the boat. Could not steer at all. Not wearing any huds other than Maitreya, so could that be the problem?

[Rolig Loon]

It's really hard to diagnose something as complex as this from a distance.  As others have said, it could be a problem with your Internet connection (my first guess), or your boat's script (few boat scripts really work well), or it could just be a bumpy region crossing.  Moving from one region to another involves transferring control of your av and any attachments from one region server to another and keeping track of the positions and trajectories of anything that is moving. The more stuff there is to keep track of, the greater the task, which is why you try to simplify as much as possible.  Regions do not all run on the same server versions, either, and they may have different amounts of load as well, so the handoff from one region to the next can be complicated.  You may be able to resolve some of these problems by tweaking preference settings or managing how much you are carrying, or by buying a better boat or stabilizing your Internet connection, but some things are beyond your control.

[AnnHerrick]

Well I just tried to sail it again, and it went quite badly. This time I turned off my AO and detached the Maitreya hud as well, boarded, started sailing, I got out into the Blake Sea a short ways, then raised the sails, and suddenly the boat started raising up into the air and I had no control of it at all. I clicked STAND, and my avi vanished from the boat, then the boat vanished, and when I TP'd home I was hanging far up in the sky with no way to do anything. I think I'm going to give up on this sailing bit. BTW, the boat is a BBX SLB A2. I know it works great for everyone else but me. I guess the boat just doesn't like me. I'm done with this, I've tried everything and it goes sideways every time. I'm not doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

[So Whimsy]

40 minutes ago, AnnHerrick said:

Well I just tried to sail it again, and it went quite badly. This time I turned off my AO and detached the Maitreya hud as well, boarded, started sailing, I got out into the Blake Sea a short ways, then raised the sails, and suddenly the boat started raising up into the air and I had no control of it at all. I clicked STAND, and my avi vanished from the boat, then the boat vanished, and when I TP'd home I was hanging far up in the sky with no way to do anything. I think I'm going to give up on this sailing bit. BTW, the boat is a BBX SLB A2. I know it works great for everyone else but me. I guess the boat just doesn't like me. I'm done with this, I've tried everything and it goes sideways every time. I'm not doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

Sounds like you hit lag, perhaps this happened when you were crossing regions? In that case it's best to wait it out instead of chosing to stand.

[Lindal Kidd]

Ann...have you tried a boat using the BWind sailing engine?  You can get a nice little free one, the Becky's Sloop, at Tradewinds Yacht Club.

Also, have you thoroughly checked out your internet connection, as I suggested in an earlier post? http://blog.nalates.net/2011/10/26/troubleshoot-your-sl-connection/

[HeathcliffMontague]

44 minutes ago, AnnHerrick said:

Well I just tried to sail it again, and it went quite badly. This time I turned off my AO and detached the Maitreya hud as well, boarded, started sailing, I got out into the Blake Sea a short ways, then raised the sails, and suddenly the boat started raising up into the air and I had no control of it at all. I clicked STAND, and my avi vanished from the boat, then the boat vanished, and when I TP'd home I was hanging far up in the sky with no way to do anything. I think I'm going to give up on this sailing bit. BTW, the boat is a BBX SLB A2. I know it works great for everyone else but me. I guess the boat just doesn't like me. I'm done with this, I've tried everything and it goes sideways every time. I'm not doing the same thing over and over expecting different results.

You should post your computer specs (GPU, CPU, RAM etc). Are you on Wifi or plugged in? Can make a huge difference. BBX make nice boats, and the owner is a good guy. However, in my experience they aren't the best on SIM crossings, especially on weaker computers.

Also, when driving/sailing/flying anything in SL I will take off (not just turn off) my AO and keep worn scripts to an absolute minimum. You might also experiment with draw distance a bit (and other settings). Start low and increase gradually. 

[AnnHerrick]

Very well Heathcliff, I'm on a Mac Mini running Mac OS 10.12.6 processor is 2.5 Ghz Intel iCore i5, 16 gb 1600 Mhz DDR3, graphics is Intel HD 4000 1536 mb. I do not use WiFi, just CAT5 ethernet. Internet connection is Xfinity 100 mbps.

You are right, the builder is a really good guy, and he tried to help me with the boat, but there was just no end of weird things happening that even he could not account for. I credit him with excellent customer support above and beyond what I've seen from any other builder in SL. I'm pretty sure he did not see the same things happening that I did, and of course I have to go with what's on my screen. It's just one of those weird SL things I'm tried of trying to deal with.

Edited December 8, 2019 by AnnHerrick

[Pussycat Catnap]

I think you just hit a lag spike.

Were you crossing a region? What was you camera distance set to? Was there land in sight?
- region crossing can be troublesome in some places, and Blake Sea is supposed to be better about this... BUT...

the coast alongside Blake Sea is some of the laggiest in all of SL. It is littered with the worst builds on the grid... Mainland has no covenant... land barons and bad residents can put up anything... and some of them buy water land then make fake land on top of it, and then rez whole shops that don't even have a view of the ocean from the inside... but do have all kinds of laggy vendors and products... And those are the least severe offenders...

So it's been a few years since Blake Sea lost the promise of it's goal...

That's why I ask about camera distance and land in sight - some of that land trying to load into your machine is no problem, but other parts are going to zap you...

 

I highly recommend looking at the waterways around Bellisseria. The link I gave you last time now points to an area currently being redeveloped for a massive expansion to Bellisseria... so try this one instead:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Whiskey Bay/174/25/22
- That's just outside the fairgrounds, if I got it right it would put you on the dock next to a boat rezzing spot. There is a LOT of great sailing you can do starting from there, and there is a group in Bellisseria that does a daily sailing tour (on weekdays, not sure if they also do weekends) at 4pm SL-Time starting from there (Bellisseria Parade is the group name).

 

If you sail Blake Sea, start from the link I posted earlier in this thread and sail EAST - towards the rental estates... those have covenants... lag sailing there is pretty low, and if you find something nasty rezzed along the coast there that is zapping boards, there are estate managers that at least state you can tell them and they will have it removed... I have never however... actually needed to do that, because almost all the renters there want sailable water and understand it's a shared effort.

 

 

 

 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Pussycat Catnap

[HeathcliffMontague]

On 12/8/2019 at 7:01 PM, AnnHerrick said:

graphics is Intel HD 4000 1536 mb.

Should work, but in my experience SL and Intel HD Graphics don't always play well together. Intel HD is not the greatest. Still a bit weird, though, as I've been sailing with even weaker specs. With settings tweaked, of course.

Folks hate to hear this (I did. It can be expensive - but doesn't have to be, there is an online market for used parts/PCs/Macs), but sometimes you just need to upgrade your computer. I did, and SL as been a lot more enjoyable and worry free since I took that plunge. 

Edited December 16, 2019 by HeathcliffMontague
Spelling

[Odaks]

On 12/8/2019 at 4:21 PM, AnnHerrick said:

I clicked STAND, and my avi vanished from the boat

DON'T DO THIS! Quite often the situation will stabilise after a few seconds, and you can sail on. The sim crossing malaise IS back with us again though, sadly, and everything @AnnHerrick tells us points to sim crossing failure.

Ann, please - copy and paste the entire contents of your viewer's Help -> About [viewer name], when your viewer is set up for how you have it for sailing. There's some oddballs in that lot that might just point to something wrong.