suddenly Viewer 2 will not focus for me....

[Bhakta Thor]

I have always been able to use the Ultra graphics setting on my computer. I have an i5 processor, 4 gb ram, and nvidia 275 card. Now, if I turn on ultra. my screen becomes a level darker and there are some weird motion artifacts with my cursor.

I deleted the viewer and reloaded, now, nothing comes into good focus. My textures are our ot whack and what use to be small even tiles on my floor, are now tiles of various sizes. Basically, I can't use Viewer 2 anymore. I have tried both the beta and the regular version and neither works.

So, I switched to Phoenix and everything is normal again. Except that I don't particullary care for the Phonix interface.

I have filled out a help request to SL along with 3 updated comments with details of what has happened, but after 4 days, there is still no response. 

I noticed in the latest beta viewer that there were new graphics features and I suspected this to be the problem, maybe pushing my grahphics card past some threshold, but going back to the regular viewer did not fix the peoblem.

I am also receivine warnings from Norton that Second Life is taxking my processor with high cpu usage.

I think I am having some system resources screwed up with too many instances of SVHOST, but so far everything else seems to be in working order.

This is very depressing to me, and after having a good visual in SL for so long, I can't use it any more with an ugly picture.

Does anyone have any suggestions for improving my computer's performance with the SL viewer?

 

Thx,

BT

[LoveAngeL Lyre]

Hello Bhakta. I use also Ultra graphics with a nvidia GT240 in my main computer but i clear my cache often. Did you clear your cache recently? If not, try that at first under your Preferences, Setup, Reset and relog, although it is better for me to clear your cache manually. Check out if it makes any difference.

[SinfulPrince]

I prefer the interface on Viewer2 also and like BT have had out of focus for the last day. I've cleared the cache so many times its sickening and even rebaked the textures. All I can hope is its a SL problem and will clear itself as mysteriously as it came.

[Kasya Sciavo]

I wish I had your problems, but I don't use viewer2......phew.   Perhaps, you can now understand why an awful lot of us don't? :smileytongue:

[Bhakta Thor]

Yes, thanks. I cleared the cache enough that the cows came home...BT

[Nalates Urriah]

For the type of problem you are having we need to know more about your computer and OS. You can click HELP while logged in and then ABOUT. Copy paste the information there into any request for technical help.

When you say it won't focus, that sounds like Depth of Field (DoF). The idea is to have the viewer render an image more like what our eyes and cameras see. If we look at something close then distance objects are out of focus. I find it annoying.

When you turn your graphics up to Ultra DoF is enabled. Go to Me -> Preferences -> Graphics then look through the left column of check boxes and near the end is the DoF check box. Uncheck it. That should clear up your focus problems. There are settings in Debug Settings to control how DoF renders. In the SL Wiki is a list of the settings and what they do.

Darker... when you enable Lighting & Shadows you shift to a different rendering process for lighting. The over all light level may seem to decrease depending on where you are. The advantage is that rather than only seeing 8 or so lights render the number of lights jumps up to over 200. In general you have better image contrast.

I doubt you are pushing an nVidia 275 past its limits. Technically it is not possible to push a card past its limits unless you use overclocking software or tweaks. There are free monitor programs for nVidia cards. So, you can actually see what your card is doing. Plus nVidia has some monitoring in the basic software. Google for 'how to'. If you have the CPU setting on the floor (way bad idea) you may have sucked the fans and airways full of dust. That can lead to over heating and shows up as graphics glitches. If you are comfortable opening the case, blow out the dust with canned air. DO NOT spin the fans with the compressed air. It is way easy to over rev the fans and damage the bearings leading to early fan failure, which usually kills a graphic card.

You should be able to open a task manager and see how much of your computer's CPU you are using.

ATI cards are known to have graphics artifacts, but nVidia should be fine. Make sure you have the latest drivers from nVidia. They seem to release one or more updates per month.

Improving Performance

There are lots of tweaks and things one can do to improve performance. I have an article on generalized tweaks. Graphics Tweaking for Second Life If you are not framiler with what various graphics features do then you should find it educational. The information is there so you will know which settings you can turn down to gain performance with minimal loss of image quality.

There are specialized tweaks for specific viewers, which you will find in the viewer's wiki. Phoenix has an excellent wiki. There information applies to other viewers just as my article does. But they have the path to the settings for Phoenix.

If you want the best render image possible, I suggest you look at KirstenLee's S21 Viewer. This is a bleeding edge viewer using a custom render pipeline and the newest code from the Lab. It is the choice viewer for photography and machinima in SL. It even has a FILM item in the menu that has most of the settings one needs when filming or taking snapshots.

Now the bad news... Norton is a huge CPU hog. If you want to see a major boost in your computer's performance, switch over to ESET - NOD32. I've used Norton, AVG, and Kaspersky (sp?). I settled on ESET because it did not slow my computer as the others did. But, check the reviews before deciding.

[Mayalily]

lol to your post there.

 

Yes, I have noticed textures look kind of wrapped, fuzzy or just weird on SL viewer 2 for about the past 4 days or so.  I don't know what it is either.  But I did crash and crash report was sent, so LL may be working on it.

We might need a forum for V2.  I don't know if I want to switch viewers 'cuz I bought some stuff that says for viewer 2.

Anyhow, I still had fun with half rezzed textures or blurry textures, and I figure they will get it fixed asap.

[Bhakta Thor]

Thank you. I have read lots of your suggestions already. I also downloaded the latest beta and the focus is ok now. It is still dark, but if I turn of the lowest light and shadow button, it helps. I followed several of the suggestions for tweaking my nvida card. I am not sure if it helps or not, but I will keep trying some of these recommendations.

BT

[Mayalily]

Oh lord, I may have to try to clear my cache manually and see if the cows come home or not.

It's weird when SL works for say months and then all of a sudden doesn't work like it used too.

Happy to hear yours is getting better.  I haven't logged on to SL today, so I don't know if (some) textures are still a bit "fuzzy".  It's the big textures for me for some reason out of the blue that went a bit fuzzy or not fully rezzed, but not the avi's. 

I'm also kind of just waiting for the next update 'cuz they update the viewer so often and most of the time that solves my issues.

 

[Luc Starsider]

Turning on Lighting and shadows are going to make your card work a lot harder than when they are off. Ultra settings for SL is already making it work hard, and any bells and whistles on top of that is going to make it work even harder. You could try to turn off shadows, and you could try to lower the graphics settings to high or medium to lessen the load on the card. At least you find out if textures are affected by any of these settings.

The issue you have - you say it improved by using the latest beta viewer - could be an issue with the latest production viewer from LL. There have been a lot of questions regarding blurred textures in the Answers section lately, so it may very well be something with the viewer causing the problem. If the beta viewer works - stay with it. It should work with not too many issues.

@Mayalily: When things say they are for viewer 2, it really only mean it require the viewer to have either alpha layers or tattoo layers. It has simply become the standard way of specifying that one (or both) of these features are required for the product. Pretty much all the viewers - apart from LL's viewer 1.23 - have support for these now, so if you want to try another viewer, go right ahead.

- Luc -

[Bhakta Thor]

WIth the latest beta release, my problem is no longer critical. However, it is still not as good as it was a few days ago before this started. I am losing some detail that I could see in the past. WHat kind of specs to I need to have ultra work for me all the time. i have a very good Fios internet connection and I am getting fps up to 80 at times, but it fluctuates down to 50 or so.

[Luc Starsider]

I' not sure actually. I don't know the graphics card you have, but from the frame rates you quot, I'd say you should be able to run on ultra. It was just a general thought I had before that perhaps does not apply in this case.

 

- Luc -