FPS ?

[DaishaLynn]

What is the best way to maximize my FPS?

The highest I have ever seen mine was about 6.2 fps and most of the time its 3.3 fps or lower in crowded places & people have told me that those numbers are BEYOND low.

From what I have heard, higher FPS gives me a greater performance on secondlife, for example, not making it as slow. And trust me, when I say that its slow, I mean S L O W.  Half the time it would take me about 30 minutes just to explore a new place because of how long it takes me to walk around.

Please someone help me with this. I'm willing to learn, so Preferences suggestions or anything would help.  Not really familiar with my computer specs, or even how to find them at that (Kind of a noob when it comes to that stuff). So detailed instructions would be really helpful.

I've had this problem for quite some time, and I would enjoy Secondlife so much more if I could find a solution.

I use windows Vista if that helps any.

[Amethyst Neiro]

Yeah 3.3 - 6.2 FPS is pretty aweful. I average 20 fps on Second Life if I'm moving,  and around 12 FPS if there's not much movement at all. Usually in other games I get around 60-100 FPS. Second Life isn't know for high FPS, and I'm not sure there's much you can do other than lower your graphics settings (if not on the lowest setting alread). Your best bet at increasing FPS would be to upgrade your computer, or rather your video card itself. It's really easy to install a new Video Card, just consult google.

Other then that, if you're using Viewer 2.0, you may have better luck with a third party viewer. (Of course I'd recommend a one based of Viewer 2.0 since you're already use it it).

I hope that helps.

[Ishtara Rothschild]

Some people get a slightly better performance with v1.2 based third party viewers like Phoenix or Imprudence. But you can do a few things to improve your fps in all SL viewers:

 

1. Open the Graphics tab in your preferences and click the "Custom" checkbox.
2. Set the Quality & Performance slider to "High". This is only necessary to unlock the Sky slider.
3. Set the sliders for Sky, Terrain, Avatars, Trees, Flexiprims, and post process quality to "low". You might want to keep the Objects slider at High or at least Mid, because SL looks very ugly otherwise.
4. Set the Draw Distance to 100 and the Max. Particle Count to 500 - 1000.
5. Uncheck all checkboxes except for "Avatar Impostors" and set Lighting Detail to "Sun & moon only".
6. Click the Hardware Options button and turn off Anisotropic Filtering. If you don't want to turn Antialiasing completely off (things get very ugly if you do that, although it will boost your fps), turn it down to 2.
7. If you use Phoenix, got to the Phoenix tab in your preferences and open Page 2 --> Advanced Graphics. Enable "Use Multiple Threads", "HTTP Get Textures", "Fast Alpha", and "Turn off Render > Types > Clouds by default". Disable "Water Mip Maps" and "Render Glow Effects".

I get around 140 fps this way in crowded areas, as opposed to 20-30 fps with my usual (ultra) graphics settings. Perhaps this helps to boost your fps as well.

 

[Janelle Darkstone]

In addition, in the advanced menu you might try turning off water and flexible objects.  If I'm on an older computer this seems to help immensely.

[Sassy Romano]

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DaishaLynn wrote:

What is the best way to maximize my FPS?

I use windows Vista if that helps any.

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Mine will probably be the unwanted answer but the best way to maximise?  Change your graphics card.  You can find your current graphics card from Help, About in the viewer.

If you have a laptop then you're largely stuck but here's a graph of typical frame rates:-

 

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Typical_Frame_Rate_Performance_by_Graphics_Card/GPU

[DaishaLynn]

Arg! I'm using a laptop.  Is that why no matter how much I change my preferences I still have under 10 FPS?

[DaishaLynn]

Found my Computer specs.  

 

Second Life 2.8.3 (238392) Aug 12 2011 06:01:55 (Second Life Release)Release Notes

CPU: Intel® Pentium® Dual  CPU  T2310  @ 1.46GHz (1463 MHz)

Memory: 1014 MBOS

Version: Microsoft Windows Vista 32-bit Service Pack 2 (Build 6002)

Graphics Card Vendor: Intel

Graphics Card: Intel 965/963 Graphics Media Accelerator
Windows Graphics Driver Version: 7.14.0010.1244

OpenGL Version: 1.5.0 - Build 7.14.10.1244

[Sassy Romano]

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DaishaLynn wrote:

Found my Computer specs.  

 Graphics Card Vendor: Intel

Graphics Card: Intel 965/963 Graphics Media Accelerator

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 7.14.0010.1244

 

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There's the problem, usually is.  Intel graphics are just about the worst for SL, sorry.

I have a work laptop which is otherwise high specification but has Intel grpahics that is left standing by an old laptop with nvidia when using SL.  For SL I use a desktop nearly all the time.

[DaishaLynn]

Thank you so much for helping me find the problem ;  Now I need to start using a desktop computer.

[Sassy Romano]

Make sure it's a desktop that can take a graphics card of your choice and not a small form factor desktop.

I have to say that going from a poor laptop with graphics set at low and a frame rate that you describe to SL with graphics on ultra and a good frame rate is a totally different and wholly more enjoyable experience.  In a quiet area, I get 150+ fps, in a busy area down to maybe 15 to 20 worst case.

[Marigold Devin]

/me waves at a fellow Windows Vista sufferer.

On a good day I get 15-20FPS, and feel happy with that. On the days when I get a low FPS, it's usually Friday evenings 8-10pm, and weekends, when a load more people are sharing my broadband service.  I hate having to tweak my settings, but Ishy's suggestions sound practical.

[Ashy Calcutt]

intel intergrated Graphics are very bad for Sl..  my imac used an ATI Readeon 200 express chip and it was aweful no matter what i did i never got above 7 FPS... you need a  Graphics card a good one i use Nvidia 9500gt and i get good FPS around 18-25FPS on high setting and a little lower on ultra but give that a try....... hope it works out for you

[Vladi Hazelnut]

Well for starters you are using vista with 1 gig of ram, so more ram wouldn't hurt. Second you are not going to get a lot performance out of sl with that video chip, and also consider its probably sharing memory with your ram so the 1 gig of ram you do have is also getting used for your video. And third you are on vista, upgrading to windows would most likely improve your frame rates in itself. Every test I have done with different operating systems windows 7 has always had better fps, normally double.

You can try scaling back the visual effects in vista. Shut aero off and anything else you don't need. And then you will have to scale back your graphics settings in second life. Also where you are at and how many avi's are around will greatly effect FPS. If you are on the ground on a busy sim it will be pretty low. If you are up in the air with no one around the fps will go up.

And FPS isn't a sole indicator to sl performance. It only shows how well, or how bad your computer is rendering the graphics. There are other things that effect it as well. Like internet connection, packet loss and ping. You can have a high frame rate and still lag.

[Evana Islay]

Hon -- 

While I am loathe to lay blame on Vista for your specific SL problems, there are numerous reports that show Vista to be substandard in performance in a variety of situations.  If you can, I would suggest you upgrade to Windows-7 just to avoid all the intrinsic Vista problems.  I realize this is a shotgun approach to solving your SL problems, but its a relatively easy step to take and eliminates all the known Vista bugs from your situation.

-- Evan Islay

[Paul Hexem]

Way to necrothread.