Cooler video card work hard . . .

[Hernesto Kayo]

When I open SL , the cooler of my video card start to work hard, with other games like Elder Scrolls Skyrim don´t make as much noise, why? I have a second life in the lowest resolution and still not slowing down the cooler, is too heavy this OpenGL?

Tks :smileyhappy:

[Ceera Murakami]

Second life makes video cards work harder than almost any other program or game out there.

The reason is that the content of the virtual world is primarily user-created, and isn't optimized for maximum graphics efficency, as it would be in a game. Since the content changes continuously, SL can't pre-cache most fo what you see, the way a game can. The content creators are not, for the most part, professional game designers, and so they don't focus on making their content so it displays efficiently. Even for those content creators that try hard to make their own stuff perform well, the rest of the world around you probably doesn't.

[Cinnamon Lohner]

Yes SL uses alot more GPU resources than other games.  But without knowing what kind of graphics card and system you are running, not sure anyone can answer if its "too heavy" for your computer.  You can add your computer specs to your post using Options - Edit and then perhaps someone here can make recommendations about your system in relation to SL.

--Cinn

[Peggy Paperdoll]

OpenGL and DirectX are just rendering standards.  One is propriatory (DirectX) and one is open source (OpenGL).  DirectX is platform specific (Microsoft) so it only works on Windows (or Microsoft machines).  OpenGL works with any operating system platform.  That's the reason Linden Lab (besides having to pay Microsoft for the rights to DirectX) chose OpenGL.........it works on Macs and Linux platforms.  One rendering engine will not make your computer or graphics card work any harder than the other.  The program that has the graphics will though.  Second Life is unique in that almost all the content in it is user created.  Most of the users who create the content are amateurs with no formal training in the creation of graphics or object content for graphic dependant programs (most of us learn by doing.......whatever works is what we do to make whatever it is we want to make for SL).  Practically nothing in SL is optimized for performance.  And because of that, the graphics put all that load on, mostly, your graphics card.  It works the cards substainally harder than professionally created content that is optimized for performance.......and the harder the card is working the more heat it produces.  You're cooling fan should be spinning faster to keep it cool...........if it is not, then there's a good possibility that you are headed for trouble down the road.  Faster running fans when using SL is a good thing.