Rhys Goode

I usually use wi-fi at home, and I aslo use wi-fi in hotel rooms. At home, my laptop sits about midway between two wi-fi routers. One is built into the cable modem from our ISP, and it is totally unusable for SL. While the ISP provided wi-fi runs web browser OK, and steams video and music OK, when I use it with SL, I get unacceptable packet loss when using SL. That modem typically gives 10 -20 % packet loss in SL, and that much packet loss leads to terrible lag and avatars that never load, and can even freeze my laptop so that I have to reboot. I have a second wi-fi router, connected by an ethernet cable to the first. It gives me a very clean SL connection, very low packet loss, I usually run SL on high graphics setting, and turn shadows on or off depending on the scene, not connection performance. Usually (better than 90% of the time). But on odd days, undoubtedly due to outside RF interference, packet loss rears its ugly head, and I start to see a lot of lag and poor performance. I have an ethernet cable, I can plug into either router, it makes the problem go away on bad days. On the road, wi-fi usually (about 2 nights out of 3) works without a problem. I pay attention to packet loss. When it gets over about 1%, things begin to get increasingly laggy. If I have to use such a connection, it does help a bit to go to low graphics, pull in the draw distance, and crank down the maximum browser bandwidth to 300 kbps. Oh, and turn off http texture transport, that seems to be particularly sensitive to packet loss. From my experience, I associate most of the ills of wi-fi with packet loss. And there seems to be something about the SL software that makes it particularly sensative to something. I've heard techies say something about problems with the basic protocol, I really dont know. Interestinly enough, even a wi-fi connection that gives 10 - 30% packet loss in SL almost always tests OK for packet loss using speedtest.net. That site seems to be useless for predicting SL packet loss. In SL, you can get info on packet loss by choosing Help>About. Along with a system summary, you get an average packet loss number, near the end of the report. You can also see packet loss in real time using the statistics tab, ctrl-shift-1. I usually use Firestorm, and it has a little "lag meter" that distplays both packet loss and bandwidth in the upper right corner of the browser. That display is one of the main reasons I use FS. If I see packet loss begin to flicker, I know its time to plug in my ethernet cable, or if I am on the road, to take what measures I can (HTTP off, low maximum browser bandwidth, low graphics, short draw distance, move to the other side of the hotel room)

RLV works by sending LSL script messages from an object which you own to your RLV endabled viewer. Here I am using "own" in the sense of LL permisions, not in the sense of BDSM "ownership". A collar is a scripted device that you wear as an attachment (and therefore you own in the LL permission sense), which contains scripts to allow another Avatar (typically the BDSM owner) to commumincate with the collar and have it issue RLV scripted messages to your browser. A relay is a scriptied device that you wear as an attachment, but it is built to communicate with other scripted objects, rather than directly with another avatar. Relays can usually be configured by you to ask your permission the first time any object tries to contol them, or more dangerously, configured to automatically accept any attempt by any object trying to contol it.

I read with interest the recent threads about execss data use and possible server bugs. I was on the road two weeks ago, and had to use my wireless 4-G USB modem to run SL. And I had noticed, that I was using nearly 1 GB/session, where in the past I had only been using about 400 or 500 Meg. (Typically 2 or 3 hours of SL in a "session") Since I have a monthly limit of 5 GB on the data plan, I decided I need to understand things a bit better. So, I set about making some measurements. I have a network monitor that tracks the amount of data downloaded to my computer. It has about 5 minutes worth of scrolling history of data rate, and a stopwatch. For my measuements, I could settle down in place, and wait till I reached a nice stable data rate, then use the stopwatch. Randomly TP'ing around, I found lots of places with a nice flat graph of data rate vs time, and lots of places that were quite "noisey", with lots of data spikes. Eventually, I figured out that some of those spikes were AV's TPing into the region. And that different music streams have different signatures, mostly very spikey, sending data in bursts every 0.1 to a few secs, depending on the stream. The monitor measures data in bits (and kilo bits and mega bits), so I had to convert to Bytes. To make sure I was getting it right, I looked at a couple of 128 kbps music streams, which calculate out to 0.055 GB/hr. I measured 0.057 GB/h, close enough for government work. For my measurements I turned the music and media off. My goal here to understand how to manage *my* data use, not to understand the mysteries of SL. I used the default graphics settings for "high". Each time I moved, I waited for a stable data rate, and did not change my camera during a set of measurement. Changing the view always creates a transient increase in the data rate. I hang out in my own house. And I have a platform, currently empty, 3000 m above it. And I have a friend with an isolated shop on a 512^m skybox in a different sim. I went to each, waited for the data rate to stabilize, then started adjusting the draw distance. I rather suspected that I would see data rate smoothly increase with draw distance, at least for my living room, on the ground in a mainland sim. Neither my own skybox, nor my friends shop, have anything as closer than about 500 m, so I expected them to be very dull. Well, I was wrong. Home was nice and low, ~0.02 GB/hr, up to a draw distance of about 175. Then it abruptly jumped to about 0.12, a factor of 6 jump! .Increasing the draw distance over 250 m, there is another abrupt jump, up to about 0.3 GB/hr (alarmingly high on a 5 GB per month budget). These are abrubt, reproduceable steps. On the plot, the points at 96, 200, and 300 were taken twice, after tuning up and down in draw distance several times The empty sky box, over my home? Very low data rate, ~ 0.01 GB/hr, but only for small draw distance. There is an abrupt jump, up to around 0.10 GB/hr, similar to the one seen in my living room, but at a lower draw distance. My friend's shop also has a big, abrupt step in data rate at higher draw distance. The shop is relatively consistant for small draw ditances, about 0.05 GB/hr. This is quite a bit higher than for low draw distances in my living room, but then there is a lot of stuff in the shop. The abrupt step at around 275 m is even worse here. From .05 up to over 0.3, another factor of six for a small change in settings. I spend a fair amount of time in clubs. So I looked at 3 of them. Two were in active use, one was completely empty. The empty sim had about the lowest data rate I saw, less than 0.01 GB/hr And it showed only a moderate bump in data rate, even when the draw distance reached the shops, about 150 m away. The two active clubs, surprised me. I really expected to see much higher data rates than for my home or an empty shop. It was harder to take data, there were a lot more transient events, avatars coming and going. One of the clubs was fairly level out the 300 m, the other had a big jump in data rate for draw distance ~225 m. Finally, I decided to try moving around. I got fascinated by the huge jump in data rate as I move across the sim boundry, right near my front door. Starting at the southeast corner of my home sim (Solway), 0.06 GB/hr, step acroos the boundry and it jumps to 0.41! Stepping back and forth acrossthe sim boundry 111 m to the north, essentially the same jump. But continuing north along the western edge Lanercost, the data rate drops abruptly at 125 m, down to about the same level as in the adjacent sim. No more jump in data rate crossing the boundry east/west. As I walk north to south and back along the border in Solway, nothin happens to the data rate. In the lanercost sim, there is this huge step in data rate near 120 m. Then, since I was in a 4-corner area, I looked at the sims just to the north of Solway and Lanercost. The southeast corner of Pernit shows high data rate, with an abbrupt, reversable step crossing back and forth from there to Pernith, or from there to Solway. (Solway was running LeTigre 12.08.17.263666, all others SL server 12.08.14.263480) So what did I learn from the execise? Well, I learned that factor of 5 changes in data rate are not uncommon in SL, with big jumps coming both with position and draw distance. There is nothing gradual about these steps, they are sharp. It turns out, I had my draw distance set to 300 m while I was on my road trip. When I am on the road next time, I will keep my draw distance down to 96 m, and I will keep an eye on the network monitor to make sure than one of my favorite places has not changed into a data hog.

Sounds an awful lot like a connection issue. I was in a hotel last week, with a 10mbps download wifi link that worked just great for web browsing, streaming music and video, but it gave me high packet loss (10-20%) when I tried to use it for SL. Got most of the symptoms you talk about in your post, plus a few more. Ever see what happens when your boots end up attached to your HUD? So check your browser, under help, about. THere will be a packet loss summary, and if its >~1%, the connection could be a lot of your problem. Also, when I had an XP computer, and was trying to nurse SL along on it, it helped a lot if I closed all background programs, and reduced the size of my cache from 512 to 256 M. With only aboout 3.6 M of RAM, SL could easily get into a lot of read/write to disk with the larger cache size, causing fps to plummet.

I usually use WiFi, and have experimented with several routers, I also travel a bit, and use hotel WiFi when I am on the road. In my experience, WiFi works fine, as long as SL can talk to the router with low packet loss. And some WiFi routers experience really bad packet loss when used with SL. I have yet to see a 2WIRE router that I can use with SL, my link-sys router works fine (most of the time, it gets messed up when the garage door is opening/closing). I think packet loss must be related to the SL software in some deep way. If I test my connections with speedtest.net, I hardly ever see packet loss, even for links that perform poorly with SL. Two ways to see packet loss in SL: First, from the help, about menu. THis will tell you all about your SL link, and has packet loss figure down near the problem. If that number is greater than about 0.1%, you will have problems. Aslo, you can watch in real time, using the statistics window. (ctrl-shift-1). And Firestrorm a third way is the little bandwidht/packet loss meter that sits up in the upper right hand corner. If you have moderate packet loss, two things I know can help. One is turning off http texture transfers. This can be done by setting the debug setting ImagePipelineUseHTTP to FALSE. Or in Firestorm, a check box on preferences>graphics>rendering. The second is to throttle back the maximum bandwith setting for the viewer. Sometimes I can turn this down to 300 kbps, and salvage an otherwise unusable hotel connection.

Yes, radar works fine with people not on you list. Just highlight the names in question ( Ctrl-left click), then right click and choose IM from the context menu.

Rayse, you mention in passing the notion of a tattoo for one arm. I am pretty sure that can't be done in SL My understanding is that this a basic limitation on SL avatars, the UV maps force the arms to be mirror images.

Body Canvas has a nice selection. They do custom work too, so if you dont see what you like ... http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Baba%20Yaga/80/67/47

Yes, looks like you need an alpha layer. Be aware that unchecking "Lighting and Shadows" on your viewer will make the shoes look fine to you, but not to anyone else using this graphics option. The shoes will look fine to all viewers using, "Lighting and Shadows" or not, if you have the right alpha layer. I make my own, to get the best result for each of my old shoes, but free sets are available. A quick marketplace search turned up a set of free alpha layers: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Lindaline-shoemasks/2367149

I don't know anything about the new system and automatic refunds if not delivered in a certain time. But over the years, I have purchased a lot of stuff using marketplace, and every now and then I have had a problem. Failure to deliver, wrong item delivered, wrong color. In every case, I have IM'd (and sent a notecard) to the owner of the shop, explaining that I had a problem, and asking for their help in resolving it. Sometimes it took a few days, once a whole week, but eventually, all my problems were resolved. So, if the automatic system fails, go ahead and contact the creator, let them know about the problem. Not everyone who has a shop is on-line 24/7, so it might take a while. Oh, and it will help a LOT if you do not start the interaction by accusing them of stealing. SL is a bit buggy, get used to it.

Standard sizing is a whole lot more specific than small, medium and large. THere are 5 "standard sizes", and they have very specific values for a set of about 15 sliders on the body shape. So, if you have a modifiable shape, you can make a "standard size" version of your own shape. A great concept. Only problem is, it does not seem to work very well in practice. I've only found one designer who makes stuff that consistently works with my "standard size" shape, At least when I go to a club and dance, one of my big SL activities. Sometimes, I can fix it up with a custom alpha mask, but not often. Overall, a big disappointment for me. But then, I only know a few designers that make prim/scultp/flexy clothes that look really good when dancing.

I think OP is unhappy with the fact that many (most? All?) of the library skins come with underware permantently attached to the skin. The "character test" AV's certainly come with underware baked right on the skin, and not very attractive underwear at that. If this is the case, then OP needs to find a new skin, one that has the appropriate anatomical detail built in. Skins and shapes are a bit different than shirts and pants, by the way. You can take off clothing layers, but since all AV's must have a skin and shape, you can only take off an old one by changing into a new one.

Standard sizes have been a disappointment to me, they are no magic bullet. Even with the included alpha masks, and using a standard size avatar, very few designers make clothes that look good other than in static poses. Before I buy something in mesh from a designer I dont have experience with, I take the demo home, and have a close look while my avatar is dancing. Sometimes I can fix things up by making a custom alpha mask, or by wearing the next larger standard size, but most of the time, they just dont work with my dances. Not all that much different than prim clothes really. there are lots of designers who can make something that looks great in the static pose they use on thier box (and no I am not talking about photoshoping the promo pics), but dont look good at all when the avatar is in motion. Only a few can consistantly make clothes that look good when you move.

I hate the transparent view myself. Some makers have a dark inside layer to thier dresses, giving a fade to black effect which is a big improvement, but I don't like that very much either. So, before I buy a mesh dress, I have a close look at the demo, and see if it will lends itself to a custom alpha layer that does not mask out the crotch or inner thighs. I also have a close look at how well the dress follows my "standard shape" AV when I move, especially dancing. If I can fix the crotch, and patch up the alpha mask so I can dance and stay mostly within the dress, then I can enjoy my mesh and my undies, and not look like a hollow ghost if I happen to kick my leg up while dancing.

I've seen the same thing happen with the Firestorm viewer. Pretty rare, rebooting always fixes it for me, unless I am using a connection with a lot of packet loss. Its happened often enough that I will immediatly relog, if the viewer his hung up at that task, it can almost never TP. At least for me.

An interesting article from Reuters, about how Facebook, among others, uses software and employees to watch for, and even help catch, sexual predators. The software automatically scans all the posts and messages, flagging suspicious content for follow up by real people. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/12/us-usa-internet-predators-idUSBRE86B05G20120712 In the middle of the article, they interview the VP of Metaverse Mod Squad, a monitoring service. "Metaverse uses hundreds of employees and contractors to monitor websites for clients including virtual world Second Life, Time Warner's Warner Brothers and the PBS public television service." (my emphasis added to the quote) So my first reaction was to sneer a bit at the naiveté of the OP. Now I wonder if I am not the one who is a bit naive.

In my experience, its not so much that the promo pics have been doctored, its that some things that look great in the right static pose look terrible when you move. Consider the prim part of a dress; It simply can't match the clothing layer perfectly, not when the AV is moving around. Now there are some clothing designers that do a very good job of working with the limitations of the medium, and coming up with clothes that work well on a moving avatar, and a whole lot more who just dont have that skill.

"Adding" is a fine solution for wearing both items. Another is to attach the mesh item to any other attachment point. Its far from intuitive, but you can attach a rigged mesh clothing item to any attachment point, and it will always fit exactly the same way. To attach to a different point, right click the item in inventory, choose "attach to", and you will get a list of possible choices.

I've been using Sandbox Goguen of late.

This thread started when mesh was much newer, fewer poeple were using mesh capable viewers. I read recently in the Technology forum that more than 90% of users currently use mesh viewers. So, I would not jump the the conclusion that your problem is mesh, at least not based on 6 month old post from the "early days" of mesh. I have been booted from several clubs for appearing to be naked to others, but while I was wearing (at least in my own viewer) perfectly conventional system clothes. It happens from time to time, but has never been a persistant problem for me.

I haven't noticed any particular change in lag, but its been nearly a week since I've had a TP fail. Very, very odd.

Sorry I can't help with your FPS issue, but here is an explanation of the bridge, which is used for the Phoenix and the Firestrom viewers. I've not heard of it being associated with excess lag. But if you suspect that it is a problem, just go ahead and take it off. It provides some important auxilliary functions, but the basic viewer works fine without it. http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_bridge

Wow, thanks for a clear explanation, it is so helpful. Filling the bounding box with simple prims did the trick!

Yes, using a pose ball, or a script in the chair, would solve the problem of how to sit. But my frustration is that I cant seem to make the uploader accept a nice simple physics model without changing it's scale.

I made myself a nice simple chair, using blender. Not very fancy, 4 legs, a seat, a chair back. But I am having a real hard time sitting on my chair. If specify high detail for the physics model, I can upload and sit in it, but the physics upload cost is quite high, since the system generated physics model includes all the rungs on the chair, and chair back. If I go to low detail for the physics model, the upload cost is reduced (still higher than I would like), but now I have strange trianglular shapes generated by the system, if I sit on the chair, I float in the air. So, I made a separate mesh for the physics: A simple cube, with appropriate dimensions, it fits right under the seat of the chair mesh. If I upload the dae file for my "physics cube" separately, it has just the dimensions that I set for it back in blender, just matching the dimensions and height of my seat. But upload the chair mesh, and try to use my "physics cube" for the physics model, I always seem to get the bounding box for the chair as the physics model. I've even tried making several different sizes of "physics cube", exporting to different dae files. They work fine on thier own: I can export any cube I want from blender, and upload it as mesh, preservings its size. But if I use any of them as the input mesh for the physics when uploading my chair, I seem to get the bounding box for the chair as the physics model in the upload, no matter what size I make my physics cube. I thought I was doing something that was too simple to fail. Evidently not. Any suggestions for what to do next would be greatly appreciated.