Textures are refusing to load completely on some objects

[MelodicRain]

The issue mostly happens with clothing (and it's the same clothing every time), but sometimes on rezzed furniture as well. Additionally, the issue is not client-side, as every other person I've talked to is able to see this issue. For these objects the texture will not load to full resolution, it's stuck as either gray (not loaded at all), or a very low res (like 32x32 or something). The only way to fix this is to go into edit mode and inspect each face (generic texture refresh on whole object will not fix), when the face is selected it forces the texture to reload to full resolution. But, the moment I detach the clothing, and wear it, the issue will happen again. However this is not practical at all because other people are not going to inspect my clothing and cycle through each face to reload the texture.

In the above screenshot I took off every other attachment and went to an almost empty sim to ensure it's not lag. I sat there for literally half an hour and the textures still in this barely-loaded state.

Anyone know how to fix this? I'm on Firestorm.

[Nalates Urriah]

I have some clothes with the same problem. I have a gorgeous swimsuit that just absolutely refuses to render for me.With that suit I am pretty sure the problem is with the developer and not my computer/viewer/network. But, it can be a network or viewer issue. So, before you start ripping your compute or viewer apart eliminate a developer problem. 

Next time you start the viewer pop open the Viewer Stats (Ctrl-Shift-1 a toggle) and look at your network stats, Packet Loss and PING time. They should be <1% and <250ms. Packet loss is high at startup. The % will usually go down over time. If not <1% over 15 to 30 minutes, look at your network first.

Next... get a redelivery of the item and try it. Avoid using an archived 'box' you saved. The dev may have updated something and not said anything. So you want new.

If the network and redelivery are good then an easy test is to ignore the good advice to "never clear your cache" and clear the viewer's texture cache... or make it simpler and just clear the whole freaking cache system (it is a thing in Preferences). I am recommending clearing for simplicity. But you shouldn't be clearing your cache without a REALLY good reason. If you are having network issues, clearing cache will aggravate your problems.

If that does not resolve the problem look to see who is making the clothes. If you have the problem with a number of items from the same designer... it may be they are uploading textures from a viewer without Kakadu (a JPG2000 library). FS and LL's SL Viewer both use it so that covers 90+% of users. But... This is a complex problem that is intermittent and depends on an individual image not compressing well while others do well. Makes it hard to figure out what is wrong. This used to be a big problem then the FS Dev Team sprung for Kakadu and the problem mostly went away.

Try 3 different viewers, LL's SL Viewer (default), FS, and Catznip (recommended 3rd viewer) or Black Dragon or Singularity... the third viewer is up to you. They all use a separate caches. You will be loading copies of the problem stuff 3 times. See if the problem item is a problem in all viewers.

If this doesn't fix in here somewhere... come back and post what you have tried.

[Semirans]

I just started experiencing this exact issue. Was there ever a fix?

[Henri Beauchamp]

Well known issue, usually caused by a badly designed product causing a low texture LOD to be used.

To work around it, I implemented (years ago) a ”Boost attachment textures LOD” in the Cool VL Viewer... While it works for all rezzed avatars, it of course only works (on their screen) for people using this viewer.

[Nalates Urriah]

@Semirans I don't know that the problem was fixed. However, the problem went away, at least for me and my swimsuit. I had quit wearing the suit. Then a couple of months later I tried it and it rendered correctly. Did that give my cache and the CDN cache time to drop the texture? Yeah, but was that really the fix?

That my suit started rendering suggests a number of possibilities. I didn't test them because my problem went away. I just happily wore the suit.

Henri built a fix into his viewer. That it works and my suit now renders without his viewer two hints the problem may be in the CDN pipeline or the network in general.

In your IM to me where you say you see the problem across accounts omits whether you tried the accounts on the same machine, but I assume you did. If your cache or the CDN's cache is corrupt this will be the case. All accounts on the same machine using the same viewer share a single cache. So, if cache content is bad, its bad for all accounts in that computer and viewer.

If other machines work OK with the texture that suggests it is not the CDN or network. I think it then points to the cache on your machine. Try clearing it.

Your husband's idea that it is a mipmap problem is easily tested. The viewers have a setting in Preferences to turn mipmap on or off. I think the default setting depends on your video card. But, change it to test.

[Semirans]

I am still hunting for the mipmap setting in Firestorm.  I wish I had been able to capture the shot of the texture showing a level 5 mipmap when I hit the button at the bottom left of the texture window.  It showed exactly what was happening.  I'll keep looking for the mipmap setting in case you don't see this and point me in the correct direction.

[Profaitchikenz Haiku]

49 minutes ago, Nalates Urriah said:

All accounts on the same machine using the same viewer share a single cache

There is a way around this problem that is a little klutzy but it's quite workable.

Let's assume you are going to use CoolVlViewer and you're going to use it for SecondLife, some OSGrid work, and your SimonaStick, and you don't want to start mixing textures and objects from totally different grids.

Let's assume you've just finished some SL-hopping and bopping around.

CoolVlViewer in the preferences will have a cache director location. Let's assume it's F:/Caches/CoolVlViewer.

In F:/Caches, create two additional folders CoolVlViewerOSGrid and CoolVlViewerLocal.

Create a third folder called CoolVlViewer_now_SL (This is telling you that currently the cache folder called CoolVlViewer is being used for SL visits.)

So now you decide to go off to the OSGrid. Shut down CoolVlViewer.

In the cache folder, rename CoolVlViewer to CoolVlViewerSL (This is keeping your SL content safe)

Rename CoolVlViewer_Now_SL  to CoolVlViewer_now_OSGRid (This is telling you that the cache folder is now going to hold OSGrid stuff

Rename CoolVlViewerOSGrid to CoolVlViewer

Now, when you start CoolVlViewer, it will have an empty cache and as you wander around the OSGrid, it will start to collect the things it must

At the end of your wanderings, if you want to go back to SL for a while, you reverse the procedure

Rename CoolVlViewer to CoolVliewerOSGrid (whatever the CoolVlViewer_now_ indicator folder says it is)

Rename CoolVlViewerSL to CoolVlViewer

Rename CoolVlViewer_now_OSGrid to CoolVlViewer_SL 

Like I said, it's a bit of a klutz, but it's actually quicker to do than it is to read the description of it.

[Henri Beauchamp]

12 hours ago, Profaitchikenz Haiku said:

Let's assume you are going to use CoolVlViewer and you're going to use it for SecondLife, some OSGrid work, and your SimonaStick, and you don't want to start mixing textures and objects from totally different grids.

If you are using the Cool VL Viewer, you do not need to worry at all about cache locations and file names when logging in in different grids... File names that do risk to collide (such as for the regions objects cache, the inventory caches, etc) have a grid suffix appended for non-SL grids (also, the Cool VL Viewer uses a different cache location or cache file names than any other viewer, where appropriate, so you may use it along other TPVs without any risk).

Assets and textures caches are shared, but the collision risk (i.e. encountering two different assets or textures with the same UUID on two different grids) is totally negligible (just as probable as getting a duplicate UUID generated for a new asset/texture uploaded in SL). The only exception is fo UI sounds (which have a fixed UUID but different actual sounds in SL and OpenSim), but even for those, the Cool VL Viewer offers a way to cache UI sounds and make them ”static”, to avoid mix-up when you log in both SL and OpenSim grids...

Edited July 29, 2021 by Henri Beauchamp

[Semirans]

On 7/28/2021 at 10:04 AM, Henri Beauchamp said:

Well known issue, usually caused by a badly designed product causing a low texture LOD to be used.

 

This issue happens with a basic cube that I rez in game and attach to my avatar.  I've also been making some of these items for 3 years and never had this problem so I dont think my particular issue is related to badly designed products. Thank you for your input however.

[Semirans]

I've never logged into another grid. I only do SL.  As I said, the issue is happening with not just mesh garments (that I have been using the same ones successfully for a few years) but also your basic "cube" made from the build menu if it is attached to the avatar.  It started happening about 6 days ago.

[Henri Beauchamp]

20 hours ago, Semirans said:

This issue happens with a basic cube that I rez in game and attach to my avatar.  I've also been making some of these items for 3 years and never had this problem so I dont think my particular issue is related to badly designed products. Thank you for your input however.

It is possible that your viewer is badly configured, or that it got too little memory to rez textures at the proper level of detail. Watch the ”discard bias” number in the texture console. Ideally (when properly configured and with enough available memory), it should be 0. A higher BIAS means lower texture LODs (i.e. blurry textures) on rezzed objects.

This said, have a try with the Cool VL Viewer, and see how it fares...

[Semirans]

I am confounded about why it should suddenly start happening a week ago and why it happens on multiple computers.  I will check the discard bias. I'll try the Cool VL viewer, although I have already tried the SL, FS and Catznip on multiple machines (including one with a titanium graphics card and 16GB of ram) 

Where do I find the "texture console"? I checked my debug settings for Texture discard level and it is set to 0.

The items rez properly, it is only after I "refresh or reload" the textures that this issue happens.  If I open the "edit" window or reopen the texture, it resolves, until I refresh the texture again. 

Edited July 31, 2021 by Semirans

[Henri Beauchamp]

37 minutes ago, Semirans said:

Where do I find the ”texture console”?

It depends on the viewer... Normally somewhere in the Advanced menu (”Advanced” -> ”Consoles” -> ”Texture console” for the Cool VL Viewer). The keyboard shortcut for the toggle is usually CTRL SHIFT 3.

Quote

The items rez properly, it is only after I ”refresh or reload” the textures that this issue happens.  If I open the ”edit” window or reopen the texture, it resolves, until I refresh the texture again.

Which would indeed advocate for a lower LOD selection, maybe because of the discard BIAS. Reloading the texture or editing the face causes the best LOD to be forced, regardless of the bias... As soon as the Edit floater is closed or the importance to the camera reevaluated (as a result of a camera zoom change, for example), another LOD may get selected...

You may also use the ”LOD info” debug feature (”Advanced” -> ”Rendering” -> ”Info displays” -> ”LOD info” for my viewer) to see what is the LOD the textures are rendered at; beware, it's ”spammy”, and you'll likely have to remove all attachments you are wearing but the one you want to test to see the proper hover text without zooming (zooming would affect the LOD, see below).

Quote

I am confounded about why it should suddenly start happening a week ago and why it happens on multiple computers.

A possible explanation would be that you changed your default camera settings (the farther zoomed on your avatar, the lower the selected texture LOD)...

Edited July 31, 2021 by Henri Beauchamp

[Semirans]

1 hour ago, Henri Beauchamp said:

A possible explanation would be that you changed your default camera settings (the farther zoomed on your avatar, the lower the selected texture LOD)...

I spend most of my time zoomed in really close to my avatar (I love mesh feet) I don't recall changing camera settings since I was busy making clothing it seems an odd thing to have done.  I am pming you with my results so far.

[Semirans]

Ok, using the Cool VL Viewer allows me to make clothing and items again that function. I sent some to some residents and so far the HUD and shoes work on their machines.  I still don't understand, but as long as I can create and my stuff is usable, I am happy.  Learning a new viewer is hard, but there are some really great features on it as well.