After about 3 minutes of play I keep getting disconnected

[KaraAsra]

I have checked my computers specs and they seem fine I'm sort of between the required and the recommended so not worst not best.  I have what my company says is the best internet for my area,  My computers runs games like Minecraft just fine, but every time I log into second life I can play for about three (3) Minutes before I get disconnected I have uninstalled and reinstalled the viewer and googled my second life region?  to see if there was an outage but nothing there just a lot of heavy use in London which is way far away from me.

I don't really know what else to do if anyone has any suggestions.  I know I must sound very stupid, I'm not very tech savvy, but I know I used to use second life on a much older cheaper computer back in 2010 I want to say and I never had this problem.

I would really appreciate any help.

[LittleMe Jewell]

2 hours ago, KaraAsra said:

I have checked my computers specs and they seem fine I'm sort of between the required and the recommended so not worst not best.  I have what my company says is the best internet for my area,  My computers runs games like Minecraft just fine, but every time I log into second life I can play for about three (3) Minutes before I get disconnected I have uninstalled and reinstalled the viewer and googled my second life region?  to see if there was an outage but nothing there just a lot of heavy use in London which is way far away from me.

I don't really know what else to do if anyone has any suggestions.  I know I must sound very stupid, I'm not very tech savvy, but I know I used to use second life on a much older cheaper computer back in 2010 I want to say and I never had this problem.

I would really appreciate any help.

There have been reports of a variety of issues over the last few weeks, including more disconnects.  Personally, I think that much of it is related to the Cloud move, whereas LL doesn't yet have all of the performance kinks worked out.  Just to rule out things on your side, start the viewer and click Help / About on the menu - copy all info and paste it here.  Also, if your router & modem have not been rebooted in a while, it might help to do that.  

Side Note -- you really cannot compare SL to any other game your play. Typically for those games you download the majority of the game to your computer and while playing you are only sending small bits of info back & forth.  Since all SL content is user created, everything has to always be downloaded, so there is tons of data constantly.  It doesn't really take too many hiccups in the connection for the viewer to disconnect.

Edited January 3, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[KaraAsra]

Quote

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-8400 CPU @ 2.80GHz (2808 MHz)
Memory: 8065 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 19041.685)
Graphics Card Vendor: Intel
Graphics Card: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 27.20.100.8682
OpenGL Version: 4.2.0 - Build 27.20.100.8682

Window size: 1600x837
Font Size Adjustment: 96pt
UI Scaling: 1
Draw distance: 96m
Bandwidth: 3000kbit/s
LOD factor: 1.125
Render quality: 1
Advanced Lighting Model: Disabled
Texture memory: 512MB
VFS (cache) creation time: January 03 2021 10:51:20

J2C Decoder Version: KDU v7.10.4
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Studio 2.00.11
Dullahan: 1.7.0.202008031800
  CEF: 81.3.10+gb223419+chromium-81.0.4044.138
  Chromium: 81.0.4044.138
LibVLC Version: 2.2.8
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
January 03 2021 14:26:21

I hope that's the right Info.  Of course I would choose to pick something back up while it was doing a huge change over that effects activity LOL

[Qie Niangao]

(This isn't a laptop, right?) It doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, just the integrated graphics on the motherboard? Anyway, that's what it's using, and that's not the worst integrated graphics SL is supposed to run on, but it's not gonna be great. Wise to keep draw distance tight at your 96m or even shorter, and sadly no Advanced Lighting again wisely set.

But that's nothing to do with the disconnections, and just guessing, they seem less likely to be related to one of the existing SL problems and more likely something in network configuration somewhere between you and some required SL service. That sounds difficult to track down, but I bet somebody will be along who knows how. Might help 'em some to know what exactly "disconnected" looks like: error message(s), etc. There's probably a log file that would reveal all, if only we knew what to look for and where (tail of AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs\SecondLife.log maybe).

Oh, actually, that window should also have info about the specific viewer software version you're running. That's sometimes useful info.

[Chic Aeon]

Just to add some anecdotal info -- Windows was happy to inform me that I crashed SEVEN TIMES today and that isn't counting the one at 2 AM.  So it was hellish out there.  If this persists then you likely have some issues but all the folks that "I" talked to today were having issues. If you stayed at home and didn't try to go anywhere you were pretty much OK, but venturing out you had to be extremely careful or you crashed -- sometimes repeatedly within just a very few minutes. It appears that they fixed the asset server but not the other parts of our virtual world.  

 

SO if this is mostly about this weekend, take a deep breath and wait for the devs to fix thing (fingers crossed there as this is getting very tiring and folks are getting super cranky). If this has been happening for months, then you likely DO have an issue. 

 

In a historical reference what worked a decade ago or even five years, doesn't work now. There is way too much heavy mesh and too many giant textures (a 1024 on a matchhead is still the leader there I believe).   So that is a grid issue -- and again not really you. Unless you can buy a much better computer you may continue to have issues. I am sorry about that, but it is the truth. AGAIN, if this is just recently then don't worry too much ---  we are all having problems. 

[KaraAsra]

17 hours ago, Qie Niangao said:

(This isn't a laptop, right?) It doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, just the integrated graphics on the motherboard? Anyway, that's what it's using, and that's not the worst integrated graphics SL is supposed to run on, but it's not gonna be great. Wise to keep draw distance tight at your 96m or even shorter, and sadly no Advanced Lighting again wisely set.

But that's nothing to do with the disconnections, and just guessing, they seem less likely to be related to one of the existing SL problems and more likely something in network configuration somewhere between you and some required SL service. That sounds difficult to track down, but I bet somebody will be along who knows how. Might help 'em some to know what exactly "disconnected" looks like: error message(s), etc. There's probably a log file that would reveal all, if only we knew what to look for and where (tail of AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\logs\SecondLife.log maybe).

Oh, actually, that window should also have info about the specific viewer software version you're running. That's sometimes useful info.

No It's a desktop only about a year old.    The disconnect screen doesn't really look like anything, the Second life window goes grey scale and a window pops up saying

'Darn. you've been logged out of second life.  This region may be experiencing trouble. Please check your connection to the internet.'

but My internet is fine so I'm not sure what else might be wrong

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

In Nov & Dec, during the last of the hard push to get all regions uplifted to the cloud, I experienced more disconnects that I did in all of the first 10 months of last year combined.  I know that some of it was because some regions were there and some were not.  After that the reason was that all regions were in the cloud, but not all backend processes yet.  However, all backend processes are now in the cloud, yet I'm still experiencing periodic disconnects -- though typically no more than 1-2 times a day. 

All of mine have been the type where the screen goes gray and you get the popup window saying you have disconnected and you can continue with IMs/Chat or Quit -- though I don't think the IM/Chat part really works at that point.  All but one time, it has happened during a TP attempt.

Edited January 4, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[KaraAsra]

1 minute ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

In Nov & Dec, during the last of the hard push to get all regions uplifted to the cloud, I experienced more disconnects that I did in all of the first 10 months of last year combined.  I know that some of it was because some regions were there and some were not.  After that the reason was that all regions were in the cloud, but not all backend processes yet.  However, all backend processes are now in the cloud, yet I'm still experiencing periodic disconnects -- though typically no more than 1-2 times a day. 

All of mine have been the type where the screen goes gray and you get the popup windows saying you have disconnected and you can continue with IMs/Chat or Quit -- though I don't think the IM/Chat part really works at that point.

See if it was just once or twice I wouldn't mind I'd just relog no issue and go one with play but it's every time, I tried twice on the Proper launcher then tried Firebird?  something I'd seen suggested on other threads to launch the game, same issue And I tried that about 4 times, now back to the SL viewer and after 3 tries it's still doing it,  I also deleted the Appdata logs which was recommended in another thread and that made no difference either.  I've tried running it with everything else on my computer closed Like no internet in the background that sort of thing no luck 

[LittleMe Jewell]

8 minutes ago, KaraAsra said:

See if it was just once or twice I wouldn't mind I'd just relog no issue and go one with play but it's every time, I tried twice on the Proper launcher then tried Firebird?  something I'd seen suggested on other threads to launch the game, same issue And I tried that about 4 times, now back to the SL viewer and after 3 tries it's still doing it,  I also deleted the Appdata logs which was recommended in another thread and that made no difference either.  I've tried running it with everything else on my computer closed Like no internet in the background that sort of thing no luck 

To me, that points to something going on with your connection to SL -- talking to it and/or it talking back. 

However, with them now in AWS, tracert doesn't work for the entire communication path.  Thus I'm not sure how to pin down where the problem is happening.

 

ETA:  Assuming you could even get your ISP to help, I wonder if they have any tools that might be able to pinpoint the problem area better.

I have heard that when there are issues with someone's default communication path, forcing a different path can sometimes fix the issue.  You can force a different path with VPN.  I think there are other ways also, but not sure.

Edited January 4, 2021 by LittleMe Jewell

[KaraAsra]

3 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

To me, that points to something going on with your connection to SL -- talking to it and/or it talking back. 

However, with them now in AWS, tracert doesn't work for the entire communication path.  Thus I'm not sure how to pin down where the problem is happening.

I've seen a couple thread mentioned something with ctrl shift 1 I think to check a ping?  If I got that would that help? Sorry I'm not very clever about these things I really appriciate all your help so far

 

Edit Also apparently the other veiwer I was using was called firestorm Sorry about that

Edited January 4, 2021 by KaraAsra

[LittleMe Jewell]

3 minutes ago, KaraAsra said:

I've seen a couple thread mentioned something with ctrl shift 1 I think to check a ping?  If I got that would that help? Sorry I'm not very clever about these things I really appriciate all your help so far

"Ctrl + Shift + 1" will bring up the Stats window which will show Ping.  If that is consistently high -- greater than a few hundred, I think -- that does also indicate a communication problem.  However, it still does not pinpoint what the problem actually is and where along the communication path it is happening.

There are some VPNs that you can run for free -- or at least for free for a short term to try them out.  You could try one, just to see if it makes a difference.  It will force the communication through a different path than you usually take.

 

[KaraAsra]

There are... a lot of numbers Is it Ping Sim?  Packet loss went between .9 and 1.1 for the few moments it ran before booting me but the ping sim number stayed the same

I'll try a VPN see if that helps,  Thank you for your suggestions

Edit  I tried a VPN (one of those 30 day free trials)  and unfortunately it did not make a difference but thank you for the suggestion

Edited January 5, 2021 by KaraAsra

[Nalates Urriah]

On 1/4/2021 at 12:23 PM, KaraAsra said:

No It's a desktop only about a year old.    The disconnect screen doesn't really look like anything, the Second life window goes grey scale and a window pops up saying

'Darn. you've been logged out of second life.  This region may be experiencing trouble. Please check your connection to the internet.'

but My internet is fine so I'm not sure what else might be wrong

 

This error message is one of the few that is usually pretty much on point. You will need to look at your connection.  You may have a great Internet connection but a lousy connection to the SL servers. Every website and Internet service you connect to uses a different connection path. Even while connected to a single server your data packets may be traveling different paths and passing through different hardware.

A year old desktop eliminates the possibility of many common problems. Assuming your system is updating, it should not be a problem. You can look at "windows update" (DuckDuckGo aka DDG for how to update Windows) to see if all the updates have been installed.

Next is the age of your router/gateway/modem. Over 5-years of age and it is a likely candidate as the source of a problem. Power it off for 5-minutes, let it fully reboot/reconnect then restart your computer. If it is old, replace it. Often you are renting the modem/gateway from your ISP. Then it is there responsibility to replace it.

On 1/4/2021 at 1:12 PM, KaraAsra said:

There are... a lot of numbers Is it Ping Sim?  Packet loss went between .9 and 1.1 for the few moments it ran before booting me but the ping sim number stayed the same

I'll try a VPN see if that helps,  Thank you for your suggestions

Edit  I tried a VPN (one of those 30 day free trials)  and unfortunately it did not make a difference but thank you for the suggestion

PING in the viewer is NOT the ping Windows reports in a command-line window (CMD). The viewer's ping is a combination of viewer, Internet, and SL-server time. If you have a CMD window open and ping the SL server's IP address while you can see the viewer's ping you'll see different numbers. The CMD window is reporting packet travel time from network card to network card.

In the image the 1,000ms ping sucks. With ~1% packet loss it would look like you have connection issues. But look a bit farther down at Time Dilation and Sim FPS. The simulator you are on i way lagging. Perfect Time Dilation is 1.00. This tells you the region server is shifting to longer frame times to have enough time to do everything is HAS TO DO. The servers slice time and calculate all that happened in a "frame" (slice of time) and sends that update information to your viewer so it can draw the world. The Sim FPS is ideally 44 FPS. The region you were in was at 19.6 FPS or 44% of the design speed. That tells us a significant chunk of the 1,000ms ping time is a server delay. The region is WAY under performing. Alone that lag probably shouldn't disconnect you. But once a server is lagging it gets a bit flaky. So....

You can test your connection to the SL servers, Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection. You should be able to decide if it is you, your ISP, or SL that is the problem. - The article is old. I need to update it. To get the region server's IP address for testing, use Firestorm. The Linden viewer doesn't report the IP address. It reports a server name that only means anything to the Linden engineers.

It may be a combination of packet loss and a laggy server that is popping you loose from SL.