[Issues with Firestorm after Windows Update - Freezing/Crashing]

Weirdly, after posting this, I was able to log on for another hour without issue. Still, new info is appeciated.

[Issues with Firestorm after Windows Update - Freezing/Crashing]

Hello all! I posted here about a five weeks ago when I couldn't use Firestorm for days and days.  See my post called:

After lots of advice, I determined I needed to whitelist not only Firestorm browser in my Avast software, but follow the Wiki instructions on whitelisting the cache/settings folders, too.

In spite of naysayers who thought my computer couldn't handle SL or Firestorm, I've had very few issues ever since. I can even handle large crowds (not able to render the heavy hitters.) I also use advanced lighting with no issues. Was thrilled!

Untiiiilll - last night.

24 hours ago, Windows 10 had a pretty long update. Took about an hour to install and load. I went from OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 18363.1316) to OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 19042.867.)

Afterward, I froze and/or crashed repeatedly. I did a clean install with folder backup, made sure my Avast still had all the whitelisting setup - and then realized that the Windows Defender Firewall was on. I disabled this (as I believe Avast is a fairly strong shield), rebooted my computer and all went well for about 12 hours. I even managed to handle a VERY busy sim with lots of scripts.

And then, tonight. Wham. Out of no where, SL on Firestorm started freezing and crashing again. Defender was still off - but the grid was busy and I know some changes are happening with SL and the cloud. Has anyone heard of issues with this new Windows update? I saw some articles online from years ago but am curious about this version now. I thought I better go ahead and post here as I feel a dark portent in all my crashes. I'm only able to log in about 5-10 minutes, if that.

Hope  it makes sense! Thanks in advance for all answers. - Clara 🦊

 

 

 

[Hair Cutting into/Clitching Eyebrows - Lelutka Evolution Head & BOM]

1 hour ago, Nalates Urriah said:

As to your computer may be not being good for rendering a 3D world... no, that isn't it. This alpha layer conflict is a common problem in 3D worlds. Even the hottest computer with the most advanced graphics is likely to have the same problem. It is not you hardware. It is the render engine trying to solve a confusing mathematical algorithm and not getting it right.

Okay, I am glad this is just an in-world thing. I can add that to my mental notes. Thank you so much!

[Hair Cutting into/Clitching Eyebrows - Lelutka Evolution Head & BOM]

7 hours ago, Laurel Aurelia said:

What you are describing is what happens when two alphas clash - it creates a transparency. Your best best like Marianne said is to wear shorter lashes and bakes on mesh brows in order limit your issues with your alpha hair. 

There are some  other alpha texture caveats as well:

1.  Applier makeup including HD make up are effected by the alpha glitch. Like your applier brows, hud-based make up with also have issues with your lashes and hair.

2. See-thru or thin-looking clothing often glitch with hair. The only way I've been able to work around this is to make sure my hair is either in an updo or arranged in a certain way where it is not laying across my chest or back. Magika , a really great hair brand also has refined their hair to work a lot better with this type of clothing.

3.  Alphas glow under projected lighting! It sounds cooler than it often looks. And I don't think you can see it unless you are a running advanced lighting, but others  who do will. The glowing often discolors your make up and looks out of place as the rest your avatar responds to the lighting correctly.  For this very reason, I save my hd makeup for pictures and wear mostly BOM make up at public events. BOM makeup/layers do not experience glitches with alphas or unnatural glow under projected lights as far as I am aware.

 

This is all very useful. I was a creator on IMVU for many years and "masking" issues (what we called opacity map issues) were common. You could see the maps cutting into lights are anything else that used the same sort of blending. Sometimes, if you had on all sheer things, you could look eyebrow-less and almost naked through a window.

I think I'll go look for some BOM eyeshadow and brows. And thanks for the hair creator suggestion, too! I'll need it.

[Hair Cutting into/Clitching Eyebrows - Lelutka Evolution Head & BOM]

12 hours ago, Marianne Little said:

Your avatar is very pretty and unique. Yes, BOM eyebrows is the only way to fix that. I use some from Simple Bloom. https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/215211

The lashes is worse to do something about. You can use the mask option in the HUD, but then the lashes look like they have mascara clumps. The only thing I do, is using shorter lashes. If the hair was modify, it could be set to masking. But I know these hairs are not modify. The hair will also lose the fine, delicate hairs with masking.

I have seen worse images than yours. It is a bit jagged in the edges, but as long as you can move free around in SL and don't experience lag or that textures do not load, but stay grey, you should do fine. You can always increase the graphics to high when you take pictures.

Thanks you for both the eyebrow info and the Marketplace suggestion! I'll shop it out when I'm next on. C 🦊

[Hair Cutting into/Clitching Eyebrows - Lelutka Evolution Head & BOM]

Hello. A new resident still learning SL. I am trying to use all BOM as this appears to be more user friendly to those of us who haven't lived that applier life.

I have a Lelutka Lake 2.5 Evolution Head - BOM is on. My skin for head and body are all BOM with a no eyebrow option (Eudora Beauty, I think.) Right now, I'm using the eyebrows in my Lelutka HUD.

I use high quality Stealthic and Doux hairs and my eyebrows (and sometimes my lashes, depending on length) cut into my hair. I understand items hair, eyebrows, and lashes use opacity maps and blending that can make one another cancel out or sections disappear. Is there anyway with my BOM system to fix this or do I have to live with it? Perhaps I should buy BOM brows seperately? I have done a forum search but it seems like most questions are applier questions on older heads on non-BOM skins.

FYI: I've recently learned my computer is not ideal for every aspect of SL graphics, so I suppose this could be a rendering issue as well? Not sure. Pretty ignorant so far.

Please see the image below. Any clarification would be helpful. Thanks so much - C 🦊

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

13 hours ago, Nalates Urriah said:

Something that will help is to white list the SL install and cache folders in your anti-virus program. SL content is uploaded and scanned by the Lab. It is very difficult to get a virus past the scans and formatting that SL uses. So, on a practical level there is no need to virus scan the SL folders.

Windows program folder: C:\Program Files\Firestorm-Releasex64

In Firestorm look in Preferences->Network & Files->Directories You'll see where the cache and log files live.

Those folders can be white listed to improve SL's performance.

Thank you. I did do that as mentioned on Feb. 7th's post update. It seems to be what has helped me so far.

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

On 2/9/2021 at 6:27 PM, Nalates Urriah said:

@Clarapatra That your CPU runs at only 1Ghz puts it at half the recommended speed. System Requirements.

Since you computer uses on-board graphics all the CPU and GPU tasks are sharing the same engine. The graphics are set to dedicate 1GB to graphics. That is pretty limited.

While SL Viewers can run using the UHD graphics you have, it will not run well. I am surprised you ran well for a few days.

Thank you for sharing that. I made my SL account online and hit download, never seeing the reccomendations.  I assume it's on Firestorm's recommendations somewhere, too, but I would have probably skimmed it over with the assumption that I had it.  When you're not computer saavy, you get a new laptop, you have Windows 10, make a note of the RAM, and just assume you have what you need. All goes back to my computer being great for my current tasks (and then some) but maybe not SL.

I have been too busy to log on every day - but I have spent several hours online, twice since my last post - including tonight - with only the occasional issue of slight lag so fingers do stay crossed. No freezing or crashing or seizure screen since the updates to my Avast. Finally have a proper head and all. Still a fresh out of the clueless box as newbie and if I start siezing up again, I'll post here. -C 🦊

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

On 2/8/2021 at 5:43 AM, Tonk Tomcat said:

Sadly you even can have a high end computer and sl will not run smooth on it. That's because the majority of the so called creators upload mesh objects in here that would never exist in any game. And because we have nearly no limits while uploading something, this will not change, because uploading those unoptimized meshes is easier and most of the users still buy it, so it's quick profit with costs of good performance for everybody. 

I am not familiar with meshes here or what is optimal or not. I was a creator for years at IMVU and we did have limits to how many... kbs... and MBs a product would use. We couldn't upload it if it crossed over. It was a pain a lot of the time but I think I get a very basic knowledge of what you mean.

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

An update....

I did some research to understand what GPUs are vs APU. I am not a gamer and have never had a reason to run a laptop with exceptional graphics. @Solar Legion is right... I will never be able to experience all the potential eye-candy SL has without investing in another computer. However, my laptop is pretty new and meets all my professional / personal needs and then some - so not being able to be on SL is not a reason to spend bones on a new computer. But at least now I know my limitations.

@RowanMinx is right. I did mention that I had whitelisted Firestorm in the OP. However, it's good that @Aishagain mentioned and linked me to Wiki as I had not gone through the full process of several restarts AND exceptioning the viewer and cache files specifically.

So, I did that earlier today. I have been on SL twice now using Firestorm. I loaded in some shops, updated my avatar, explored a huge park, and rode a hot air balloon over several regions. While it takes some time to render everything in heavier areas and I had some occasional lag, I never froze. Not once.

I may freeze up tomorrow but I'm optimistic that Avast was doing its job too well. If anything changes, I will post here. I appreciate @Alwin Alcott, @KjartanEno, and @Jackson Redstar for the viewer suggestions. I will whitelist and download those if Firestorm buckles again.

I am impressed with the generous information. I wanted to post earlier but I was at my daily limit, being a newbie and all. I have learned very quickly that a lot of SL folks are willing to offer advice and that's truly awesome. Thanks so much! -C 🦊

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

3 hours ago, KjartanEno said:

While it's not the style of viewer that LL and most 3rd party viewers use these days, I have found that Singularity runs fine on Intel integrated graphics (on Linux, since I have not tested on Windows or Mac, ymmv...), even allowing advanced lighting and a 1GB texture setting. Do not use the main release version. I had some rendering bug with the water (again, ymmv). Personally, I prefer nightly build 8193 since it does not suffer from an issue that newer versions have with attachments and offline IMs, but you're welcome to try any of the available builds for your system.

http://www.singularityviewer.org/kb/nightly-builds

Eventually, these versions will become outdated, so don't get too attached to using them. Keep trying other viewers that get updated with the current LL standards.

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll try it. I know nothing about the attachments and offline IMs but I'll take your word for it! Will just try it out.

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

9 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

no it's onboard
 

Thank you. I will try other viewers. Do you think my Video Card being onboard is an issue? And if so, should/could I change that in the future?

I'll update here after I try some other viewers.

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

2 minutes ago, Xeneroso said:

I am actually having the EXACT SAME ISSUE...

I will. Another friend has tried to help me but to no avail. It's super frustrating - especially when trying to learn SL to begin with.

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

39 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

please post your specs .. to find in the help/about menu of the viewer. Preferably when logged in.

 

I froze on my first few attempts to log but finally nabbed this before freezing again:

 

Firestorm 6.4.12 (62831) Dec  3 2020 22:34:49 (64bit / SSE2) (Firestorm-Releasex64) with Havok support
Release Notes

You are at 240.8, 145.5, 21.3 in Oritz located at ec2-54-202-167-85.us-west-2.compute.amazonaws.com
SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Oritz/241/146/21
(global coordinates 463,089.0, 306,322.0, 21.3)
Second Life Server 2021-01-08.554811
Release Notes

CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz (1190.4 MHz)
Memory: 12052 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit (Build 18363.1316)
Graphics Card Vendor: Intel
Graphics Card: Intel(R) UHD Graphics
Graphics Card Memory: 1024 MB

Windows Graphics Driver Version: 26.20.100.8141
OpenGL Version: 4.6.0 - Build 26.20.100.8141

RestrainedLove API: (disabled)
libcurl Version: libcurl/7.54.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2l zlib/1.2.8 nghttp2/1.40.0
J2C Decoder Version: KDU v8.0.6
Audio Driver Version: FMOD Studio 2.01.05
Dullahan: 1.8.0.202007261348
  CEF: 81.3.10+gb223419+chromium-81.0.4044.138
  Chromium: 81.0.4044.138
LibVLC Version: 2.2.8
Voice Server Version: Not Connected
Settings mode: Firestorm
Viewer Skin: Firestorm (Grey)
Window size: 1920x1051 px
Font Used: Deja Vu (96 dpi)
Font Size Adjustment: 0 pt
UI Scaling: 1
Draw distance: 128 m
Bandwidth: 500 kbit/s
LOD factor: 2
Render quality: Medium-High (4/7)
Advanced Lighting Model: No
Texture memory: 768 MB (1)
VFS (cache) creation time (UTC): 2021-2-3T17:23:14
Built with MSVC version 1916
Packets Lost: 0/3,884 (0.0%)
February 05 2021 23:12:39 SLT

[New User about to Give Up on SL - Firestorm Viewer has started Freezing/Glitching Constantly]

I just joined SL about 3 weeks ago. It seems like a world chock full of potential adventure, but I am having such severe issues that I may delete my account. It's a shame because I have bought Lindens and invested some in my avatar. 😔

A friend told me to use the Firestorm Viewer as it is more user friendly. I downloaded it about 3 weeks ago and other than the occasional lag, it seemed fine. I loaded in busy stores and rendered everyone almost without fail.

Then, about four days ago, it began to malfunction badly. I was in a shop when it froze and I got the spinning wheel of doom. I tried again and got the same thing within a minute of logging in. Then, I started getting it right away. I would have to force close every time as it froze and said "Not responding."

I tried loading in a different region. Same thing. I gave up that night and tried again in the morning. The freezing happened almost instantly. I finally uninstalled Firestorm and reviewed how to do a clean install. I followed the instructions, redownloaded Firestorm, and got the same result.

I did searches, read forums, and took a day off. Today, I restarted/recycled my modem via my Internet provider. I downloaded Firestorm and it worked for a little while. I managed to buy a head at Lelutka (which was not letting me in AT ALL at one point) and was working on updating my avatar when the screen started blacking out. It would flash black - on - black - on - black - on. Like it was having a seizure. I logged out, logged back in. This time, I froze. Each log in produced the freezing issue or the black out/screen on issue again.

That's a summary. Let me tell you everything else I have done to try and get SL to work and some info about my computer.

• I have Windows 10 and have downloaded the latest viewer for Windows.
• My computer is a Dell Inspiron 15 5501 Laptop purchased last year. I have 12 GB of ram. I was on IMVU before SL - and while IMVU does not require the same graphics rendering, I have always been able to use it and run multiple apps at once with little issue. I THINK my video card is dedicated. I am not a tech genius so I am not 100% sure.
• I just checked my download speed on my wifi and it's 381.10 mbps.
• Other things I have done to try and resolve: I have whitelisted Firestorm on my Avast firewall/security, done a clean install three times, cleaned my computer, checked for viruses, looked for and completed driver updates, rebooted/shutdown my laptop, loaded in quieter regions (which sometime allow me to hang on a few minutes but eventually, same result), and checked my processes to see if any unknown background application was dragging me down.

I am completely lost. While I wanted to have a "Second Life," I have no desire to take days from my ACTUAL life to get the platform to work. Any suggestions aside from what I have already done would be so appreciated. If not, I will just call my small investment a loss and move on. Thank you so much in advance! -Clara 🦊

 

[Always freezing (Not Responding) no matter what I do]

Did anyone find a fix for this? I had the same problem. I did the same things - clean install, restarting/shutting down computer. I checked my drivers. I checked Avast and made sure on the whitelisting. I have a good internet provider and got my laptop last year. This didn't start happening until the last 2 days.

I finally got tired of wasting time troubleshooting, uninstalled, and sold my Lindens.

Only been with SL for 2 weeks. I was finally learning my way around a bit. It's a shame.