MacOS viewer Issues

[Sean Heavy]

When I login to SL from my Mac I remain an orange blob and my environment has only the terrain downloaded. I see almost nothing around me. There are also errors with my outfit like missing shapes and other missing things. I have gone to different regions all with similar results.

I have logged in with the latest SL viewer, the latest Firestorm viewer, and SingularityAlpha; all result in the same issues.

If I login with my Linux desktop computer (on much older hardware), on the same local area network and connected to the same wide area network, everything loads fine, even pretty quick. 

Is anyone else experiencing this?
Can you suggest what to look at in my system that might be causing this?
I am reasonably good with IT but this is stumping me.

Below are my specs on my Mac:

MacOS Monterey
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019)
Processor: 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5
Memory: 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Graphics: Radeon Pro 570X 4 GB

System Version:    macOS 12.0.1 (21A559)
Kernel Version:    Darwin 21.1.0
Boot Volume:    Macintosh HD
Boot Mode:    Normal
Secure Virtual Memory:    Enabled
System Integrity Protection:    Enabled
 

[Nick0678]

43 minutes ago, Sean Heavy said:

If I login with my Linux desktop computer (on much older hardware), on the same local area network and connected to the same wide area network, everything loads fine, even pretty quick. .

That's because lil Tux is your friend.

[Anicha Heartsong]

Sean, I've recently upgraded to Monterey on my M1 Mac Mini and I'm having similar issues at times: nothing will rez, no textures, missing body parts (shape; skin; eyes, brows) - and those four are essentials. You will never rez and your body will remain a cloud if they are not found. It may be an issue with Monterey, or it might be a coincidence - something on the Linden side perhaps, or simply network problems. 

I have found that doing a full system restart and then logging in again helps - in fact cures the issues, temporarily at least. It is a right royal pain, I know.

Some things worth checking in preferences (these all apply to Firestorm - it's the only viewer I use, only one that I'm familiar with):

Advanced Lighting - try turning it off and back on again

Prefs | graphics | Hardware - there's an option for "enable openGL vertex buffer object" - make sure this is checked on. (A weird one this, as I'm not sure the new macs even use OpenGL, but I've found this one significantly improves framerate)

Prefs | graphics | Hardware - "enable support for HiDPI displays" - I keep this turned off. I'm using an external monitor which is not HiDPI as far as I'm aware, and turning this option on slows things down a lot.

It might be worth asking for more help in the Firestorm support group chat. This is a very active and helpful group. There's also a group called 'Macintosh Users' which might be worth trying, although this is a much smaller group, and less active.

[Anicha Heartsong]

Sean, see also this thread, which has a possible solution at the bottom. It relates to the beta versions of Monterey but might still help:

 

[Hermes Kondor]

Greetings everybody... I'm a Mac user too. This is my machine :

 

Model Name: iMac

  Model Identifier: iMac18,3

  Processor Name: Intel Core i5

  Processor Speed: 3,8 GHz

  Number of Processors: 1

  Total Number of Cores: 4

  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB

  L3 Cache: 6 MB

  Memory: 40 GB

... It's really hard to be in Second Life with it. I read that the issue is related to OpenGL, because Apple doesn't develop it since 2018. According to Apple, OpenGL is no longer supported.  SL runs on an old graphic platform, not the best for the new Apple computers, most of all the ones with the new M1 integrated processors. 

The solution I found, to enjoy SL, and to continue my work there as an art curator, and owner of the Kondor Art Center, was to buy a Windows gaming laptop. As I have regularly events in my art galleries with more than 40 guests at the same time my new computer is the only way to support lag. While in those events with my Mac I have 2 / 3 FPS, with my Windows computer I get, with more advanced settings 12 / 15 FPS, or even more.

This is my new Windows Laptop, and I'm quite happy with it :

Asus TUF DASH F15 FX516PE-71ART5CB1 (Intel Core i7-11370H - NVIDIA GeForce Ti - RAM: 16GB - 512 GB SSD PCle -15.6"

Of course a 3060 or 3070 GPU could be much better... But this is not my working computer. My work as a professional RL photographer is all done in my IMac.

 

 

 

 

[Sean Heavy]

8 hours ago, Anicha Heartsong said:

I have found that doing a full system restart and then logging in again helps - in fact cures the issues, temporarily at least. It is a right royal pain, I know.

Restarting my system worked. Thank you Anicha.

[Anicha Heartsong]

I'm now finding that I have to restart my computer repeatedly throughout the day. On restart, everything is working again. But after a few minutes, especially if I change outfit items or teleport, then assets will no longer load / rez. For example, if I change my hair, the new hair won't show load. It would be useful for me to know how widespread this is, if many others are experiencing the same thing in Monterey, as I'm considering a roll-back to Big Sur.

The issues I'm having are the same across 3 different viewers, so I'm pretty sure it's a graphics related issue with MacOS.

[Drakeo]

Looking at SL mac downloads . Seems No reason for the dev team to do anything.  There are 10 times more Linux downloads  for  Firestorm and Kokua then any of the SL mac downloads  SL should drop mac it is a loser with M1 Mac users should just leave  like  SL asked all the linux users.  So please close this  thread. Because  macosx and the M1 cpu’s really do not play well.  So why. Even have this thread about macosx.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Drakeo

[Drakeo]

On 12/7/2021 at 10:13 AM, Sean Heavy said:

When I login to SL from my Mac I remain an orange blob and my environment has only the terrain downloaded. I see almost nothing around me. There are also errors with my outfit like missing shapes and other missing things. I have gone to different regions all with similar results.

I have logged in with the latest SL viewer, the latest Firestorm viewer, and SingularityAlpha; all result in the same issues.

If I login with my Linux desktop computer (on much older hardware), on the same local area network and connected to the same wide area network, everything loads fine, even pretty quick. 

Is anyone else experiencing this?
Can you suggest what to look at in my system that might be causing this?
I am reasonably good with IT but this is stumping me.

Below are my specs on my Mac:

MacOS Monterey
iMac (Retina 5K, 27-inch, 2019)
Processor: 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i5
Memory: 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4
Graphics: Radeon Pro 570X 4 GB

System Version:    macOS 12.0.1 (21A559)
Kernel Version:    Darwin 21.1.0
Boot Volume:    Macintosh HD
Boot Mode:    Normal
Secure Virtual Memory:    Enabled
System Integrity Protection:    Enabled
 

I compiled  the latest in Monterey. It builds it runs perfect.  The SL code is perfect. It runs on  my oldest to the newest. It is most likely  Operator error . Oz Linden explained this to me a long time ago.  Just not smart enough to use it. I was hurt.

[Drakeo]

That is you GPU setting  that is environmental setting  just like Franks Elite the dude set it to his GPU and uses older firestorm that is way broke  Franks Elite is all blue yours is orange. environment settings. See operator error just like Oz Linden told me not smart enough to use the viewer, I was hurt.

[Drakeo]

Test these  builds, but I  doubt  that it may help. Because this is a GPU issue. Not an OS issue.

https://bitbucket.org/Drakeo/viewer/downloads/

 

[Anicha Heartsong]

nope, not opening your link Drakeo, and I suggest no one else does either. Oh, and btw, the M1 doesn't have a trad GPU, the whole infrastructure is different.

And if I want to use a mac, I can. Don't need your permission. Others too, don't need your permission to use macs if we want. And we're allowed to start threads, even without your permission. If you don't like it, go away. I'll be happy.

[Anicha Heartsong]

Sean - I think I might - MIGHT - have a solution for our problems. It's early days, but looking good so far.

I'm quite privacy conscious, so use a VPN. And when I upgraded to Monterey, I also turned on the new feature "virtual private relay' which is in Beta, and which applies VPN type protection to your Safari browser. I found something online to say that the new feature can interfere with the proper working of your VPN. This is likely just a bug which may get sorted in time. However, this might be what's causing my issues - and maybe yours too. So I turned off 'virtual private relay' and so far, so good. I've been able to teleport around and change outfits and stuff, without the issue of assets refusing to load.

You can check for this in System Preferences - up at the top click right on your 'Apple ID'. It's one of the options on the right. If it's checked, try turning it off. If this works, please come back here and let and others know.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Anicha Heartsong
edited to remove typos and rambling sentence construction

[Sean Heavy]

On 12/11/2021 at 4:59 AM, Anicha Heartsong said:

And when I upgraded to Monterey, I also turned on the new feature "virtual private relay' which is in Beta

...

So I turned off 'virtual private relay' and so far, so good.

I did the same thing. Turning off 'virtual private relay' is working great. No rebooting needed. Everything loads correctly. Thanks for discovering this and letting us know!

 

[Ardy Lay]

So, Apple's anonymization service they automatically opt-in Apple users to is breaking stuff?  Who-da-thunk-it?  Please let Apple know!

Edited December 13, 2021 by Ardy Lay

[Lyssa Greymoon]

13 minutes ago, Ardy Lay said:

So, Apple's anonymization service they automatically opt-in Apple users to is breaking stuff?

Apple doesn't automatically opt-in users.

[Ardy Lay]

6 minutes ago, Lyssa Greymoon said:

Apple doesn't automatically opt-in users.

They did me, on my iPhone.  But I suppose that's different and "okay".

[Anicha Heartsong]

On my Mac, Apple did not automatically opt me in. I was aware of the new feature, and that it was in beta, and chose to try it out. But it took me a while to work out that that is what was causing my SL problems.

[WereBeast Alpha]

I have Catalina on my MacBook Pro this is why I don't upgrade until the 3rd party viewers can verify that it will work with that upgrade. 

[Ema Nova]

On 12/7/2021 at 4:13 PM, Sean Heavy said:

When I login to SL from my Mac I remain an orange blob and my environment has only the terrain downloaded. I see almost nothing around me. There are also errors with my outfit like missing shapes and other missing things. I have gone to different regions all with similar results.

I have logged in with the latest SL viewer, the latest Firestorm viewer, and SingularityAlpha; all result in the same issues.

Hi. I am having the same problem I think. SL was working fine on my computer until a few weeks ago and now it stopped.

It seems like no mesh models will load, and no textures will load. My HUDs appear as blank grey rectangles. All I see of myself is a white or red cloud (depending on the viewer) or sometimes a pair of eyes. I cannot view my outfits and no textures will load when viewing in my inventory.

I can see only the ground without textures and water and some prims (without textures) but no mesh objects. After some time after logging in I get some errors that lots of gestures cannot be loaded.

I have cleared all of my cache, deleted everything and installed the viewer again. And it is the same in Firestorm and the SL Viewer.

I have this system:

• macOS Monterey 12.2.1
• iMac Apple M1 (2021)
• Memory 16GB

Where do I turn off this virtual private relay ? Is it 'Limit IP address tracking'? That is already off.

Is there anything else I can try?

 

[Ema Nova]

5 minutes ago, Ema Nova said:

Where do I turn off this virtual private relay ? Is it 'Limit IP address tracking'? That is already off.

Ignore me - I just saw the instructions from @Anicha Heartsong and after restarting it works. 

Thank you so much!!

[anitabush]

On 12/10/2021 at 8:57 PM, Drakeo said:

Looking at SL mac downloads . Seems No reason for the dev team to do anything.  There are 10 times more Linux downloads  for  Firestorm and Kokua then any of the SL mac downloads  SL should drop mac it is a loser with M1 Mac users should just leave  like  SL asked all the linux users.  So please close this  thread. Because  macosx and the M1 cpu’s really do not play well.  So why. Even have this thread about macosx.

 If you aren’t interested in a thread about macs, don’t read it.

Edited March 17, 2022 by anitabush

[Remi Alpha]

On 12/10/2021 at 8:57 PM, Drakeo said:

Because  macosx and the M1 cpu’s really do not play well.

The Apple M1’s performance is actually pretty great for Second Life considering SL is developed for x86 architecture so it’s running through Rosetta 2 (application compatibility layer). I’m getting very decent frame rates with graphics set to ultra, depending on how busy the region is. Less performant than a top-end gaming PC with RTX GPU but this is just my work computer!

The (solved) problem in this thread did not relate to the M1 / ARM processor.

[Ema Nova]

I just wanted to mention that I had reported this problem to Linden Lab a long time ago. Now it is fixed (thank you everyone here!) I wanted to tell them it was solved.

Rest assured that Linden Lab knows about it and they have a fix out soon. Pic from my support ticket... ☺️