What is the Statistics Bar?

The Statistics bar presents a detailed list of information about the performance of your computer and the Second Life world. While the sheer amount of information can be confusing, knowing what to look for can tell you a lot about what's going on in Second Life.

To view the Statistics Bar, choose View > Statistics Bar.

Basic

Displays basic information about your Second Life performance. Click on the word Basic to hide or display this panel.

FPS: The number of times per second your computer is updating (or refreshing) what's on the screen. Higher numbers are better. A frame rate between 15-30 frames per second (FPS) is about as smooth as broadcast television. This is different than the Sim FPS displayed under the Simulator window; here, the FPS number refers only to what your computer is displaying, not what everyone in the region is experiencing.

Bandwidth: How much data is being transferred between your computer and the Second Life world. This number varies wildly depending on what bandwidth settings you've used, where you are inworld, what's going on, and whether you're still loading some things (objects/textures/etc) that are in your field of view. If bandwidth is 0kbps, something may be wrong (you may be partially disconnected).

Packet Loss: The amount of data being lost as it travels between your computer and the server. Any nonzero packet loss is undesirable; packet loss above 10% can cause serious problems. Packet loss might be caused by a bad connection between you and Second Life (possibly a bad router between your ISP and Second Life, or congestion at your ISP), server problems (in which case everyone in the region would be experiencing it), or problems on your local network (wireless networking, or internet security or firewall software on your computer). Bad packet loss is like a phone call with lots of static that makes it hard to hear the other person, and it can cause the Second Life viewer to get confused about things like your inventory list or whether or not you're still connected.

Ping Sim: How long it takes data to go from your computer to the region you're currently in. This is largely dependent on your connection to the Internet. If Ping Sim is high but Ping User is not, the server might be having problems.

Advanced

Displays lots of nitty-gritty details about your Second Life performance. Most of these details are less useful than Basic or Simulator. Click on the word Advanced to hide or display this panel.

Render

Displays information related to drawing the Second Life world.

KTris Drawn: (per frame) Computer-generated 3D objects are built out of triangles (the basic geometric shape). This is a count of the number of triangles, or "tris", in each frame of the current scene.

KTris Drawn: (per second) This is a count of the number of triangles ("tris") drawn every second.

Total Objs: The number of objects currently in view, which includes:

• Prims
• Avatars
• Terrain patches
• Trees
• Particle groups
• Water patches

New Objs: The number of objects being downloaded per second.

Texture

Detailed information on the textures currently in use. Click on the word Texture to hide or display this panel.

Count: The number of unique textures loaded by the viewer.

Raw Count: The number of textures loaded by the viewer that have been paged out (exist in application memory and not driver memory).

GL Mem: The amount of driver memory consumed by textures.

Formatted Mem: Specific memory allotted for final rendering of images.

Raw Mem: The amount of application memory consumed by textures.

Bound Mem: The memory size of all textures bound for rendering per frame.

Network

In general, this section reports information about the network traffic that your viewer is using while connected to Second Life. Most online environments, like MMO games, download regions and areas in advance, usually by a patch or by the game's installer. Second Life is a live environment that changes all the time, meaning that it's constantly uploading and downloading information. You might notice more activity in the Network section of the statistics bar the first time you visit a new location inworld, as the viewer requests and downloads information like textures, objects, and more.

The various subsections of this category roughly break down what sort of information is being downloaded at any given moment, ie, textures, object information, et cetera.

Simulator

Displays statistics for the region (simulator) you're currently in. Click on the word Simulator to hide or display this panel.

NOTE: an "agent" is either a user in a given region (a "main agent") or a user in a neighboring region (a "child agent"). Any user who can see objects inside a simulator region increases the load on that simulator. The nominal values below are for simulators running on a single simulator per CPU. On other simulators (such as water simulators), these number will be different.

• Time Dilation - The physics simulation rate relative to realtime. 1.0 means that the simulator is running at full speed; 0.5 means that physics are running at half-speed.
• Sim FPS - The simulator frame rate. This should now always be the same as the physics frame rate -- 45.0 when things are running well.
• Physics FPS - The frame rate at which the physics engine is running. This should normally be at or near 45.0.
• Physics Details - Provides more information about physics calculations, including memory allocated. Every region has a memory budget specifically for physics calculations. Terraforming and terraformer objects can particularly impact this memory budget, for example.
• Agent Updates/Sec - The rate at which agents on this simulator are being updated. 
• Main Agents - The number of agents (users) who are on this simulator.
• Child Agents - The number of agents who are not on this simulator, but can see it. Also includes people who may be teleporting in or who have very recently teleported out of the region.
• Objects - The total land impact in use on the simulator. 
• Active Objects - The number of objects containing active scripts on the simulator. This value does not include scripts inside attachments, unless the attachment wearer is sitting on a scripted object.
• Active Scripts - The number of running scripts that are currently on the simulator, including scripts attached to agents and objects.
• Scripts Run (%) - A percentage of scripts that successfully finish running during one simulator frame; ideally, the simulator runs 22 frames in a millisecond. Complicated scripts may take longer than a single frame to complete due to resource management, which is normal behavior that will lower this percentage. This number is a general indicator of the resources scripts are currently attempting to utilize in a region, and a low percentage does not necessarily indicate a performance problem.
• Pathfinding - Information about pathfinding characters and their performance in the region.
• Packets In - UDP packets being received by the simulator.
• Packets Out - UDP packets being sent by the simulator.
• Pending Downloads - Number of asset downloads to the simulator that are pending. Objects that have been requested to rez, textures with a large file size, or other complex items being added to a region can cause this number to go up. Generally, it's 0.
• Pending Uploads - Number of current uploads of asset data pending. Most commonly seen when rezzed objects are being returned to the inventory server from the region by parcel or region return. If the Pending Uploads count is not 0, it may be best to wait before picking up or returning further objects to help avoid potential problems.
• Total Unacked Bytes - The size of the reliable packet data sitting on the server waiting to be acknowledged. A large number may indicate a thin pipe or other possible problems between the viewer and the sim.

Time

The following are the different times listed in the Time section of the Statistics bar. Click Time to hide or display this panel.

• Total Frame Time - Generally, this number should be around 22ms. Keeping the simulator functioning at 22ms allows for steady, predictable performance; the simulator will automatically adjust itself to handle the different types of requests made based on its resources. If the region is having performance problems due to low resources, this number may go above 22ms. The higher the number is above 22ms, the more the simulator is struggling. The subcategories like Net Time and Physics Time contribute to the overall simulator time.
• Net Time - The amount of time spent responding to incoming network data.
• Physics Time - The amount of time that frame spent running physics simulations. In general, this should be less than 5 milliseconds; the lower, the better.
• Simulation Time - The amount of time that frame spent running other simulations (agent movement, weather simulation, pathfinding calculations, etc.)
• Agent Time - The amount of time spent updating and transmitting object data to the agents.
• Images Time - The amount of time spent updating and transmitting image data to the agents.
• Script Time - The amount of time spent running scripts.
• Spare Time - This metric relates to how the simulator adapts to the resource demands of the other categories, ensuring smooth simulator performance. It's normal to see it anywhere between 0ms and 21ms, depending on the current resource usage.