Curious LOD Issue

[Eowyn Southmoor]

Ok firstly, apologies if this isn't in the right section, but this issue is odd and I am not sure if it's viewer related or a server issue.  The issue itself seems to coincide with the weekly rolling restarts which suggest to me that it's server related.

So, I seem to have a LOD issue relating to certain mesh parts on some vehicles I use in SL.  I use Firestorm viewer and my LOD is set to 3.0.  This setting is high enough to allow we to see all the various switches and knobs in the cockpit of the helicopters i fly.

However, after last weeks rolling re-starts, the next time I logged in, all those switches and knobs no longer looked correct with that LOD setting.  They all look deformed, the way you often see some mesh when you turn the LOD setting right down.  In order to see these switches properly, I have to turn the LOD of the viewer all the way up to 4.5, which I think is excessive.

Now, this is not the first time I've had this issue.  Several months ago, right after a round of Tuesday restarts, the exact same issue occurred.  I could not resolve it then, but it suddenly fixed itself after 3 weeks later, coincidently right after another round of rolling restarts.

So it seems to me initially, that the restarts are causing this issue in some way, therefore server related?

Adding the following:

It is not a single region issue, as it doesn't matter where in SL I am flying, this LOD issue persists. 

I don't know if it's viewer related, however, prior to typing this, I did test it with both the default LL viewer, and Catznip viewer.  With the default LL viewer, the LOD seemed fine, though I couldn't see in preferences where you set an actual value, it only had a slider - but regardless, setting the slider to Med and even Low, there was no LOD issues.  On the Catznip viewer, the issue was identical to Firestorm - in actual fact it was worse, because even at LOD value 5.0, the switches still looked deformed.

Any idea what could be causing this?

[Vicious Hollow]

I've seen what you're talking about  few times, and the only solution I can offer is do a full cache clear . That seems to help when I've seen any issues especially inside the cockpit. It might not be the highest tech solution, but it's the only one I've been able to get solve the issue (especially with this newer FS). 

[MBeatrix]

On 11/7/2022 at 2:57 AM, Eowyn Southmoor said:

Ok firstly, apologies if this isn't in the right section, but this issue is odd and I am not sure if it's viewer related or a server issue.  The issue itself seems to coincide with the weekly rolling restarts which suggest to me that it's server related.

So, I seem to have a LOD issue relating to certain mesh parts on some vehicles I use in SL.  I use Firestorm viewer and my LOD is set to 3.0.  This setting is high enough to allow we to see all the various switches and knobs in the cockpit of the helicopters i fly.

However, after last weeks rolling re-starts, the next time I logged in, all those switches and knobs no longer looked correct with that LOD setting.  They all look deformed, the way you often see some mesh when you turn the LOD setting right down.  In order to see these switches properly, I have to turn the LOD of the viewer all the way up to 4.5, which I think is excessive.

Now, this is not the first time I've had this issue.  Several months ago, right after a round of Tuesday restarts, the exact same issue occurred.  I could not resolve it then, but it suddenly fixed itself after 3 weeks later, coincidently right after another round of rolling restarts.

So it seems to me initially, that the restarts are causing this issue in some way, therefore server related?

Adding the following:

It is not a single region issue, as it doesn't matter where in SL I am flying, this LOD issue persists. 

I don't know if it's viewer related, however, prior to typing this, I did test it with both the default LL viewer, and Catznip viewer.  With the default LL viewer, the LOD seemed fine, though I couldn't see in preferences where you set an actual value, it only had a slider - but regardless, setting the slider to Med and even Low, there was no LOD issues.  On the Catznip viewer, the issue was identical to Firestorm - in actual fact it was worse, because even at LOD value 5.0, the switches still looked deformed.

Any idea what could be causing this?

The conclusion is obvious to me: it's a TPV issue, as it doesn't happen with the official viewer.
I must say that the latest Firestorm has been giving me quite some grief concerning rezzing stuff. Sometimes, entire builds disappear and I can only see them again after re-logging.

[EDIT] In the official viewer, you can change the LOD settings via debug.

Edited November 8, 2022 by MBeatrix
adding info

[Aishagain]

3 hours ago, MBeatrix said:

I must say that the latest Firestorm has been giving me quite some grief concerning rezzing stuff. Sometimes, entire builds disappear and I can only see them again after re-logging.

I have seen this phenomenon several times on the last two FS releases and wiser heads than mine point to various connection inadequacies, none of which stand up to close scrutiny.  I have not seen this on the "official" viewer but then I can't stand to use it much for various RLVa reasons!  Also the UI is abhorrent to me.  So quite what is going on I have no clue.

Edited November 8, 2022 by Aishagain

[MBeatrix]

45 minutes ago, Aishagain said:

I have seen this phenomenon several times on the last two FS releases and wiser heads than mine point to various connection inadequacies, none of which stand up to close scrutiny. [...]

It shouldn't happen with stuff that already has been cached (in the hard drive) but it does. It happens most times after a TP but I've had it happening while walking around a sim and returning to the area where I had seen a building that is then apparently gone (it's there after I re-log).

Edited November 8, 2022 by MBeatrix

[Eowyn Southmoor]

Thanks for the replies.

I found out the issue was the RenderDynamicLOD debug setting.  The default setting for this is ON but I usually set it to OFF. 

It's my understanding that the idea behind dynamic LOD is that items further away from you get rendered at a lower LOD setting than those up close, therefore placing less load.  Since, as a pilot in SL, I am often using fairly large draw distances (250-300m being normal), I prefer to see items far away rezzed properly, so I usually have this turned off.

What I don't understand is why this setting is effecting what I am seeing up close?  I'm also confused as to how one week, this setting is working fine when set to OFF, then suddenly it isn't.

Has something changed where setting this to OFF means everything is always drawn at a lower LOD value? or is this how it's supposed to work and I understood it all backwards? 

[Logan Elf]

Don't know if related (I haven't changed RenderDynamicLOD), but often get only partial rendering of things after a TP - including my avi. Toggling wireframe mode (Ctrl+Shift+R) on and off makes everything render.

Another thing I've seen is: you see some things from afar, but move/cam closer and they disappear. Almost like the higher LODs aren't available.

[Henri Beauchamp]

23 hours ago, LoganPryor said:

Don't know if related (I haven't changed RenderDynamicLOD), but often get only partial rendering of things after a TP - including my avi. Toggling wireframe mode (Ctrl+Shift+R) on and off makes everything render.

A well known race condition bug (between the receival of the interest list sent by the server, and the viewer pipeline spatial groups refreshes/rebuilds after an agent sim change)... The Cool VL Viewer got an automatic ”objects visibility refresh” feature, that gets triggered a few seconds after login, each TP and each sim border crossing, to work around that bug; you may also toggle it manually with ALT SHIFT R (sort of an ”objects rebake”).

23 hours ago, LoganPryor said:

Another thing I've seen is: you see some things from afar, but move/cam closer and they disappear. Almost like the higher LODs aren't available.

Another known bug (or rather ”odd feature”, put into place to fight griefing objects, most likely), due to the maximum node size (in number of vertices) of a spatial group: when it overshoots the maximum configured value, the whole group is skipped from the rendering pipeline; this is seen in mesh-heavy places, when too many highly detailed objects are grouped together. You may increase the ”RenderMaxNodeSize” value to fit them into the node and get them to render. Try 65536 or even 131072 KB. Of course, the Cool VL Viewer also got a workaround for this (via a ”mesh boost factor” setting).

Edited November 10, 2022 by Henri Beauchamp