Cache issues when running viewers multiple times.

[Sorina Garrigus]

I had this issue with the standard SL viewer AND the Firestorm viewer. But sometimes after running another avatar especially at the same time when trying to run the viewer again it gets stuck on loading cache and never recovers. Is there a way to fix this or avoid this? It was not an issue in the past. I tried following some manual delete of cache to try to get it to fix but the only thing that works is a fresh reinstall

[Lindal Kidd]

Clearing your cache(s) only makes the problem worse.

When you do that, the cache needs to re-populate, and therefore your loading time is greatly increased.

Same thing when logging in multiple avatars at the same time. Now your viewers are trying to upload and/or update two sets of caches at once. Wait until your first avatar is fully logged in and everything has rezzed before logging in your alt.

 

[Odaks]

Can two instances of the viewer share the same cache? If so, is that wise or disastrous?

[Rick Nightingale]

I always thought (from researching this years ago) that only the first viewer instance has access to the cache. It certainly seems that way when I run multiple logins on the same grid.

Edited June 24, 2022 by Rick Daylight

[Conifer Dada]

Twice recently I've been frozen and so relogged to find that I'm logged in twice! I've never seen this before. I do have multiple viewers enabled but I was logged in twice on the same account. The first one, which had frozen, was still frozen but only crashed when I tried to move.

[Nalates Urriah]

@Sorina Garrigus

The viewer cache is avatar agnostic. However each brand of viewer has its own cache. So Firestorm and Black Dragon use separate caches. Windows users have separate everything. User A has data files in C:\Users\A\AppData\Local\Black Dragon, unless you put the files in a non-default location. Windows user B would have separate everything even if they used the same viewer and SL account.

I often logon two avatars using the same brand viewer. My main and alt will both be on using Firestorm. My main and alt will share the FS cache. I can see that if Main goes home and a few minutes later I tp the alt in. It will take a minute for the main to see everything rezzed. After all has rezzed I can bring the Alt in and everything rezzes very quickly. After all the stuff the Alt needs is already in the cache.

I've never run into a problem switching sequentially between avatars or running two at the same time. If I log the Alt into my Main's home everything rezzes at the same speed it does for the Main. No matter how long it has been since the Alt was on.

Generally, the only problem with the SL cache is a viewer or computer crash. All the data transfer is via an error correcting protocol so seldom any data corruption. The viewers see the cache as an indexed database and I think I recall the indexing system uses a simple file locking process to share the index. As it is mostly read-only there are seldom any lockout waits.

So initially I would suspect you of doing something out of the norm. If you log out the avatars by closing the viewers you should be OK. If you are going turn off the computer, make sure you use the system's shutdown. Pushing the power button with the viewer open and Windows running can cause problems like you describe.

To give you any more insight we need to know more. Open the viewer's HELP->About... and copy-paste the specs in here. Also, tell us more about how you use the viewer.