Improving Responsiveness/Performance and Getting Rid of Annoyances at your Linden Home

[Trinity Blakewell]

Since we have folks new to Linden Homes frequently coming into the forums, I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate information on how to improve responsiveness/performance (ie, reducing lag) and getting rid of annoyances.

So, here are the type of situations that this thread will address:

• You arrive at a a new-to-you Linden Home and notice the signs of lag/bad performance: your frame rate is low, your avatar is difficult to control, you have difficulty moving the camera view into the desired position
• There's unwanted sounds coming into your parcel from somewhere - music, a short rock/jazz sound loop, the sound of a video, etc.
• You can hear the conversations people are having on their own parcels.
• Your neighbor has something really annoying on the outside portion of their property - how to determine if it is allowable or not, what to do if it's allowed but annoying.
• Breedables, commercial activity, and other types of restricted assets...and what to do if a nearby resident is violating the covenant.

[Coffee Pancake]

Violating covenant is easy - Just report the offending items and someone will be over to fix it.

Sounds entering is a design flaw in SL. You can prevent sounds escaping a parcel, but you can't prevent them from entering. This needs LL to do something and the only way that happens is if you file a JIRA and can convince them to spend developer time on it. You can try asking your neighbors to tick the box in about land (Sound > Restrict gesture and objects sounds to this parcel).

If your performance is poor, lower your draw distance. The amount of stuff the viewer has to load in can drop dramatically with only a small change.

Annoying content that isn't against the covenant is just something we have to deal with .. much like my RL neighbors car that sounds like an angry hornets nest in a thunder storm.

You shouldn't be able to hear conversations from people on there own Linden home parcels, there should be sufficient separation between parcels to prevent that .. however if you can. Asking them to open about land and tick Sounds > Restrict Voice to this parcel, and Options > Avatars on other parcels can see and chat with avatars on this parcel will make the problem go away.

Just pointing out you can hear everything should be sufficient motivation for them to tick the boxes

Edited April 14, 2022 by Coffee Pancake

[Trinity Blakewell]

If you are seeing one or more of the following at your Linden Home, you are having performance issues:

• Textures are not loading
• You are unable to easily control your avatar (turning, walking direction, etc.)
• You have difficulty moving the camera view.

The level of performance you can achieve depends on your computer, your network speed and other factors. Generally, no matter what the frame rate, the minimum acceptable performance would include being able to control your avatar without difficulty and textures loading quickly.

If you arrive at a new-to-you Linden Home and you're seeing some clear performance/lag issues, here are some steps to help you improve the situation.

• Check your frame rate. In Firestorm, it's in the upper right corner of your viewer window.  If you are seeing frame rates in the teens, or worse yet, single digits, there is clearly some kind of issue going on.You can visit other Linden Homes regions and compare the frame rate in your Linden Homes region. Or, compare to other types of regions like premium sandboxes.
• Check your internet speed, and possibly reset your router.
• Try the following settings changes in your viewer to see if they have a positive impact: reduce draw distance, turn off shadows, turn off ambient occlusion.

If you are still having performance issues, and you are seeing better frame rates in other Linden Homes regions, it is possible that a nearby resident or residents is/are affecting region performance. To help improve performance, you can Derender/Blacklist assets that are impacting performance when using the Firestorm viewer. Blacklisting only affects the individual instance of the object. If another neighbor has rezzed the object from their own inventory, their instance of the object will not be affected. Objects blacklisted in the Area Search results will remain blacklisted till they are removed from your block list.

• Go to World > Area Search in the menu
• Don't fill out any field, just click the Search button*
• In the search results, adjust the width so you can read most object names, then sort by Owner.
• Ignore the stuff the Moles own.*
• Look for the following:
  • Scripted/animated plants and other exterior objects (like complex holiday decorations)
  • Kitty Cats, other breedables, Zoooby baby stuff, and anything that may be related to some kind of complex scripting such as games, temp rezzers, auto-rezzers, etc.
  • A large amount of roaming pets.
  • Security orbs other than the LH one
  • Very large objects that are not a linked set of static furnishings.
  • Stuff that would be more typically at a commercial or event venue, like group dance HUD givers, dance poles, etc.
  • There are likely more but these are the ones that come to mind.
• When you find an object that you want to derender/blacklist, right click on the object name and select "Blacklist"
• After you've done this for a few objects, check to see if your frame rate has improved. You should see moderate to significant improvement after you have worked through the search results.

* There is likely a RegEdit expression that one can include in search that will ignore results owned by Moles, but I am not including that in this post.

 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by Trinity1776

[Trinity Blakewell]

50 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Sounds entering is a design flaw in SL. You can prevent sounds escaping a parcel, but you can't prevent them from entering. This needs LL to do something and the only way that happens is if you file a JIRA and can convince them to spend developer time on it. You can try asking your neighbors to tick the box in about land (Sound > Restrict gesture and objects sounds to this parcel).

 

We had a discussion on the forums a while back about sound or media attached to objects in other resident's parcels, which can be rather tricky to resolve if you want to still enjoy the ambient sounds the Moles have placed in the regions. It's a topic that a later post can address...

[Nika Talaj]

53 minutes ago, Coffee Pancake said:

Sounds entering is a design flaw in SL. You can prevent sounds escaping a parcel, but you can't prevent them from entering. This needs LL to do something and the only way that happens is if you file a JIRA and can convince them to spend developer time on it. You can try asking your neighbors to tick the box in about land (Sound > Restrict gesture and objects sounds to this parcel).

Let's be clear: if you click said box, you DO block any sounds from entering your parcel.

[Coffee Pancake]

10 minutes ago, Nika Talaj said:

Let's be clear: if you click said box, you DO block any sounds from entering your parcel.

That's new !! It had always been explicitly blocking sounds leaving but not entering.

\o/

Finally !

 

[diamond Marchant]

2 hours ago, Trinity1776 said:

I thought it would be a good idea to consolidate information on how to improve responsiveness/performance (ie, reducing lag) and getting rid of annoyances.

These are the usual issues in Second Life with the usual remedies. However, the covenant makes more things "illegal" and it is not obvious how to get things resolved. For example, suppose your neighbor has built a 30m tower and you politely communicate that they are violating the 15m height restriction (or a "theme" restriction). They say "mind your own bees wax" so you start to file an Abuse Report. But what category? There isn't one that seems to match this offense. You are confused. What to do?

For the record, I have personally requested the addition of a "Linden Home Covenant Violation" to the AR category list.

Another unique thing about Bellisseria is that we have moles present inworld who are occasionally  "support back channels". They may monitor Bellisseria Citizen group chat and may respond to incidents. Or you may actually speak with a mole in IM about an issue. However, my understanding is that their primary purpose is construction and there is no guarantee that they will be doing support/governance things.

Abnor Mole has urged Bellisseria residents to politely communicate with their neighbors as a first step. Often, people are simply unaware of the covenant and are happy to comply.

p.s. When I am ARing an illegal orb, I always use "Harassment > Targeted behavior intended to disrupt"

Edited April 14, 2022 by diamond Marchant

[LittleMe Jewell]

17 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

you start to file an Abuse Report. But what category?

For things like rezzing higher than the allowed height, skybox between 400 & 2000 m high, etc...  I use the category of "Disturbing the peace > Object littering"  and make sure I put "Bellisseria" in the Subject line, providing further detail in the descpription.

ETA:   I actually ensure that I have "Bellisseria" in the Subject for all ARs related to the new Linden Homes.

Edited April 14, 2022 by LittleMe Jewell

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

1 hour ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

For things like rezzing higher than the allowed height, skybox between 400 & 2000 m high, etc...  I use the category of "Disturbing the peace > Object littering"  and make sure I put "Bellisseria" in the Subject line, providing further detail in the descpription.

ETA:   I actually ensure that I have "Bellisseria" in the Subject for all ARs related to the new Linden Homes.

This is exactly what I do, especially the part about being sure to mention Bellisseria in the subject line. 

[Trinity Blakewell]

So, regarding the sounds...here's some info based on personal experience and what we discussed here in an earlier thread.

Blacklisting/Derendering will usually not get rid of sounds/media emitted by objects like TV's, radios and musical instruments.

If you hear a long looping instrumental musical piece, it's likely a musical instrument.

If you hear different music or what sounds like a radio station, it's likely a streamer/radio.

If you hear what sounds like a TV show or movie, it's likely a TV. TV's that are turned on and/or selected, but not playing a title might also do a shorter repeating loop that includes a few measures of rock music followed by an announcer speaking.

It is not unusual to have a neighbor who has left a piano playing or a  video running, not realizing that the sound is playing beyond their parcel. 

You can restrict sounds to your parcel, but as it was hinted above, you will loose the ambient sounds that the Moles have thoughtfully placed in the environment. 

Your can try and contact the neighbor but if they are offline, it may take time to resolve.

Your quickest resolution would likely be to go into the Area Search, the likely object in the results screen, right click on the item in Results, and select "Zoom In." Then when you are zoomed in on the object, right-click on it and select "Annoyance > Block"

 

[Prokofy Neva]

6 hours ago, Trinity1776 said:

So, regarding the sounds...here's some info based on personal experience and what we discussed here in an earlier thread.

Blacklisting/Derendering will usually not get rid of sounds/media emitted by objects like TV's, radios and musical instruments.

If you hear a long looping instrumental musical piece, it's likely a musical instrument.

If you hear different music or what sounds like a radio station, it's likely a streamer/radio.

If you hear what sounds like a TV show or movie, it's likely a TV. TV's that are turned on and/or selected, but not playing a title might also do a shorter repeating loop that includes a few measures of rock music followed by an announcer speaking.

It is not unusual to have a neighbor who has left a piano playing or a  video running, not realizing that the sound is playing beyond their parcel. 

You can restrict sounds to your parcel, but as it was hinted above, you will loose the ambient sounds that the Moles have thoughtfully placed in the environment. 

Your can try and contact the neighbor but if they are offline, it may take time to resolve.

Your quickest resolution would likely be to go into the Area Search, the likely object in the results screen, right click on the item in Results, and select "Zoom In." Then when you are zoomed in on the object, right-click on it and select "Annoyance > Block"

 

I've never understood why the Lindens don't make media-on-a-prim or any media device follow the rule of restricting sounds on the parcel. The regularly SL viewer doesn't have that term "annoyance," but it works the same way: right click/block. Then it mercifully stops. Of course it can sometimes take a long time even to find a TV. I found one deep inside a boat once.

[Marianne Little]

I never have sound on. It is because I would not let my kids come over and pester me to try it and play themselves. I was of course keeping it all PG when they were up and around me, but still annoying because I wanted to enjoy myself. And they were never allowed to try, but it was best to not let them hear I was playing.

Without sound and without headset they thought I was reading news or other boring things. I could shop or set up a new house in peace. I am so used to have no sound on that it is unnatural to turn it on.

Now I feel guilty, because maybe the piano or the radio I used as decor was playing music and disturbing my neighbors. I know that I can turn on sound briefly to control if it is some noise from my stuff, but the truth is that I forget it until I am reminded by a thread like this. I must try harder to remember it.

😪

[Tary Allen]

I always have sound restricted on my land, I like to listen to my radio, and I do my soundscape, that way don't annoy my neighbours. Also won't hear noises from others.

I always also have the box about other people seeing into my place unchecked, mostly because  I like to see people that pass by, some cool ships I've seen passing by my stilt. Mainland we are very few around so no need to bother.

[Trinity Blakewell]

I forgot yesterday about one other kind of "phantom" media. I don't know why this happens but for some reason I have had media streams attach to a parcel without me actually doing it. So, just in case, check your own parcel settings.

[LittleMe Jewell]

19 minutes ago, Trinity1776 said:

I forgot yesterday about one other kind of "phantom" media. I don't know why this happens but for some reason I have had media streams attach to a parcel without me actually doing it. So, just in case, check your own parcel settings.

I think I remember Abnor or someone saying that the music stream is one thing that does NOT get reset when the home is abandoned.

[Nika Talaj]

Parcel media texture and settings do NOT get reset when parcels change hands, I always check the media tab and set the texture to "none" before I abandon.  Music streams never used to get reset, altho lately I think this may have changed. 

One potential annoyance is that parcel EEP settings (the last tab on the Land menu) also do NOT get reset, so newbies might find themselves really puzzled when the sky is always purple on their parcel.  I always check this tab and reset to region default before abandoning. 

Other things that do not get reset are the parcel picture, as well as the TP landing point, on the Options tab.

[Marisa Starbrook]

3 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

I think I remember Abnor or someone saying that the music stream is one thing that does NOT get reset when the home is abandoned.

I always delete the music stream before I abandon. They remain from owner to owner. Like some people  open all the windows to air the place out for the next owner, I like giving people a clean slate. No picture under Options, no music stream, blank walls.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Marisa Starbrook
the usual typos

[Persephone Emerald]

When I hear water like a shower running or a musical instrument playing too loudly, I find where the sound is coming from. If no one is around to be using said shower or musical instrument, I will often cam in and turn it off or turn down the sound. I don't know if other people think that's rude, but I think leaving the water running is just adding to server load for no reason. Same thing with pose balls sitting out when no one is around, although I only once saw those outside in the Linden Home regions.

[Trinity Blakewell]

I've never been good at figuring out where the sound is coming from without using area search.

And LOL, recently, I had a first. Cammed into block a TV (that was on), and nearby was a couple....um...coupling. I don't know how I've managed to avoid it before now. I'm no longer in that region (for overall lag and just so-so parcel reasons), so I don't feel too weird mentioning the experience.

[LittleMe Jewell]

1 hour ago, Trinity1776 said:

And LOL, recently, I had a first. Cammed into block a TV (that was on), and nearby was a couple....um...coupling. I don't know how I've managed to avoid it before now. I'm no longer in that region (for overall lag and just so-so parcel reasons), so I don't feel too weird mentioning the experience.

In my experience, most of the folks in the Linden Homes have ticked the box to prevent people from outside the parcel seeing people inside the parcel, which is likely why you've not had this happen before.

[Aethelwine]

Rather than using area search to find sounds, it can be better in Firestom at least to go to the World Menu and Select Sound explorer. You see a list of sounds that have been played recently. You can check to see ones from objects or avatars, sort by owner, or by time played, you can replay the sound and look at it. You have a blacklist option there too. 

Edited April 16, 2022 by Aethelwine

[Trinity Blakewell]

This is the regex that you can use to eliminate items from the Moles in area search. Place this in the owner box and make sure you have the regex option enabled.

^((?!Mole).)*$

Edited May 3, 2022 by Trinity1776