Nalates Urriah

Well... since most of us are not having those problems... that strongly suggests your decision that it can't be you and must be the SL servers is questionable. Also, the SL inventory system has changed over the last few months; how it downloads, what it contains, how we can organize it, and more. So, the idea that your continuing problems of the last 3 years remain unchanged suggests it is something on your side. You are welcome to reject that thinking and contnue to have problems. But, most of the rest of us have resolved our inventory problems. If you use the Preferences -> Setup -> RESET button to clear cache, you need to check the actual cache folder. The Reset button is changed in SLV 2.7.2 to be Default Location... because it does not clear the cache. They added a Clear Cache buttonto actually clear the cache. Different versions handle the RESET process differently, so one has to look in the folder to see if it cleared. The new Clear Cache button is in the Prefernces Advanced tab. I use several viewers. Long ago I recognized the problems created by sharing a cache between SLV2 and SLV1 style viewers. Phoneix, Imprudence, and all the third party viewers (TPV) need their own caches. More and more of the TPV's now create their own cache when installed. If you are mixing/sharing caches, that could be the source of your problems. Inventory download is suspectable to region problems. Downloading inventory in deserted empty areas usually gets one a good download. Attempting to tp while downloading forces the download stream to change route, which can cause problems. That is supposed to be changing, but the best recommendations advise one remain in region until the download completes. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are a bad time to try and correct inventory problems. New server software is rolled out then. Inventory organization is a problem in some cases. The older system would allow one to place any number of items in a folder. Experince revealed that having more than 250+/- items in a folder could cause problems. The SL system has been changed to allow 10,000 items per folder. Depending on your viewer and whether you are using series 1 and 2 viewers the organization can be causing problems. More information can be found here: Lost Inventory and Missing Inventory Fix – Help

You haven't said which viewer you are using. Phoenix and Imprudence use the older in-world profile as do many others. Depending on which version of which viewer there may be a mix of old and new profile in use. The SLV2 style viewers are using new web profiles in and out of world. If you update using a viewer connecting to the old profiles you won't see the changes on the web profile. Changing the web profile via the web may not update the in-world profile. If you are going to spend time on your profile use an SLV2 viewer or edit it via the web. We are going to deal with this issue until all the viewers update to the Viewer 2 code base.

In the group meetings this has been discussed several times. The Lindens are NOT looking to add 'flexi' to mesh. However, they are looking at other ways to get the same result. Using mesh to build cloth and hair with movement is some where on their roadmap. I doubt we'll see much work on it until mesh is working well.

June 2 on the ADITI grid a load test is being tried of the new? changed? text system. Thursday, the 2nd of June, 2011 @ 4PM PT see: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/GroupChatTest The Lab was working on a change over to XMPP Chat. Unfortunately testing revealed that it did not solve the chat problems. The pre-roll out code for XMPP was actually rolled to the main grid some weeks ago. The XMPP chat code was even added to the KirstenLee Viewer and in use on ADITI. Those working on the problem obviously misunderstood the problem. I suspect they underestimated the problem or had unrealistic expectation for XMPP. That embarrassment has made them re-access the SL chat system. Changes were made to the servers and possibly the viewers to collect more data on what is actually happening that causes the slow downs. I believe this June load testing may be proof of theory testing. So, if things go as they expect, they can move ahead on fixing chat. If not, they'll remain in research mode and figure out what is happening and we'll hear little if anything. Whatever the case, the load test is an indication work is ongoing to solve the chat problem. I suspect the plan remains simple and unchanged, fix chat. There may be parts of the plan we have yet to hear of. Those that have worked with XMPP Chat were expecting lots of new chat possibilities and possible ties into Twitter, Plurk, and Facebook. Those interconnections could be part of the plan. We just don't know.

Here is the long answer: I Can’t Login There is a thing called Ghosted. Because of a timing problem in SL known as the Time Warp, people get logged out. The Lab is working on finding the cause of Time Warp. Crashes and viewer problems can also log one out improperly. The result is the region still thinks you are logged in. Until the region restarts or the region owner kicks the avatar out the ghost causes problems logging in. In most cases, you can log into a diffferent region and make it in. Then track down your ghost and touch him. He will evaporate and the problem is solved. Regions typicall restart Tuesday or Wednesday mornings, but not every, just most. There is a faster way to get logged in than waiting on a trouble ticket or Tuesday restarts. Ghosts take a one minute break every 15 minutes. During that one minute window you can login. The trick is catching the 1 minute window. Read the long answer for details.

Assuming you are using SL Viewer 2 (now the default viewer), right click on your avater and select Edit Shape. This only works in Advanced Mode. Look at the top of the side bar panel that opens. You will see ♂♀ symbols. Click the one you want. It changes how the settings work for female/male breasts, hips, etc. as well as male package. You will still need to change skin and tweak shape. Depending on what you want to do with name, you can just change the Display Name. You don't have to create a new account. But, you can. Most stuff in inventory is No Transfer, so you can't give it to your other self, which is a bit of a pain.

Since you are using Phoenix, that suggests you use more than one viewer. To get more information on fixing avatar render problems while using multiple viewers read: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth It is also possible, depending on where you are, that the new server roll outs to the Release Channels may be causing you problems. Check http://status.secondlifegrid.net/ every so often to see if they roll back a release.

Peter gave a very good answer. I have a little to add. The in viewer browser is Webkit and open source browser foundation. You can compare it to you favorite browser and see which is faster. I'm one that thinks Google's Chrome is the fastest. Firefox, except for start time, is also fast. IE8 is slow. I haven't use IE9 enough to say how it is. As to viewer speed... You have a choice to run SL as full screen or in a Window. SL in Full Screen and larger windows puts more of a load on the computer. There are more pixels to draw in larger windows. If you are lagging, you can try a smaller window. If lag is from a crowd at an event, windows size won't make much difference. You can use Ctrl-Shift-1 to toggle in and out of viewer stats. If you have low FPS (frames per second) and all other values are good, down size the window and think about a better video card. If Time Dialation, Sim or Physics FPS is low, it doesn't matter as the lag is server side. If PING or Packet Loss is high, window size won't matter because the connection is bad. Visit SpeedTest.net and check that you are getting the Internet connection you are paying for.

In the merchants profile there should be information on contacting him with instructions for what they want to confirm the sale. Usually transaction information is needed. You can get it from your account in Transaction History. For things that are Transfer OK, many merchants will not send a replacement. SL has delivery problems. Some stuff is just never delivered because something in the SL servers fails. Also some stuff is miss delivered. Look through your Trash and Lost and Found. If they never login again... yeah you've lost it. About all you can do is resend the the information every so often. Send Note Cards as they will arrive even if messages are capped.

The Lab has not yet given us an ETA. Someone asks this question every week in the Mesh Group Office Hour. Oz Linden in one of the office hours meetings announced that by the end of this month we would have some announcement and time line. Tateru broke that news on Dwell On It last week. Depending on who you talk to we'll see mesh on the main grid by the end of June (me) or the end of the year. But, all of that is speculation.

Viewer skins are few and far between right now. The basic user interface is changing so fast it is hard for skin makers to make one that lasts for more than a couple of weeks. If there is a problem with a folder... visit a deserted and empty region. Pooley is a Linden owned region that is mostly empty. Depending on the time of day it is also deserted. If it isn't, one of the adjacent regions will be. In Preferences clear your cache. Log off. Log into your Last Location. Open your inventory and type something into the search box (it can speed up inventory loading in some cases). Stay in the region until your inventory is loaded. You'll see an incrementing number at the top of the inventory panel. It stops when intentory is loaded. Then try to remove the folder. If you are using Third Party Viewers, there are some SL folders they cannot delete and some viewer specific folders they insist on having. The basic SL system folders cannot be deleted. The library folder can be turned off but not deleted.

The Test Avatar is a last restort fix. The RenderUnloadedAvatar is not a fix. It is about forcing a render even if the information needed to render an avatar has not downloaded. So, you won't see what others see and there is a good chance they won't see you as you see your self. You don't which viewer you are using. Your operating system, viewer & version, and whether you use more than one viewer are all important for getting specific information for any SL problem, ...provided it does not involve a guy. Avatar render problems in SL Viewer 1.23 are being caused by the new Enhanced Avatar Physics. If someone is wearing a physics layer the SLV 1.23 will mis-render it. If you put on a physics layer in an SLV2 and switch back to a series 1 viewer you will look funny. Internet connections can cause AV render problems. Check your connection at SpeedTest.net. Also, after logging in (Advanced Mode Only - not possible in Basic) press Ctrl-Shift-1 to open stats. Look at packet loss and ping. Anything over 2 or 3% packet loss can cause problems. Ping over 250 is a problem and things will timeout and cuse problems. One can get by with higher ping but performance degrades and problems increase. A corrupted texture can be a problem. Third Party Viewers (TPV) use OpenJPEG to decompress images. About 1% of the images present a problem for OpenJPEG. The fix is to clear you viewer's cache. Me -> Preferences -> Setup -> Reset. For a full list of fixes and causes see: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth

It really depends on where you are and what the objects are. In some areas clear things get between your camera and the object you want to click on. Trees with transparent textures, night club lights, and loads of other stuff can interfer with you clicks. Use the arrow keys or WASD keys to turn you av and swing the camera 90 degrees then try again. Sometimes you'll need to swing around 180 degrees and right click around your avatar to find what may be getting in your way. Zooming out or in may help resolve the problem. Try zoomin in on the object you want to sit on. If the camer goes wonky there is something between your camera and it. Move to another place and try again.

Your having several odd problems. The environment and clothes are not related parts of the viewer. The first thing to try is rebooting your computer and DSL/cable modem. Clear the viewer cache and then try logging in. If that fails to solve the problem... As suggested, remove your Phoenix Viewer. Run the unisntall program. Then manually clear the cache and settings. You will find Phoenix folders in C:\Program Files\ and C:\users\[user_name]\AppData\Local\. The need to be deleted. The file C:\users\[user_name]\AppData\Roaming\SecondLife\user_settings\settings_phoenix.xml needs to be deleted too. In the Roaming folder are chat logs and other stuff. Several viewers place files in this folder path. Pay attention to what you delete. The Roaming folder has the settings file, which is often a source of problems. Sometimes just deleting it and restarting can solve problems. All the files in the Phoenix folders need to be deleted. Before installing Phoenix, reinstall an SL Viewer 2. This will place any missing files into your system. Then install Phoenix. If your Phoenix is still not working, you may need to do a clean install. Read through Second Life Clean Install and see if you have done all the steps to fix the problems without a clean install. If you have then there is nothing left but to go for a clean install. The article gives detailed steps for mult-viewer uses that SL and Phoenix leave out. You will likely have better luck if you reboot the computer each time you run into viewer problems. Then start the next fix and retry in a fresh computer. Good Luck.

As suggested we need to know more about what you are using. Click Help -> About in the viewer and copy paste the information here. Read through these fixes and explanations to see if you have missed any: Avatar Render Problems: Ghost Cloud Smoke Ball Ruth

You don't say which viewer you are using. If you are using a series 1 viewer you are likely to have more and more problems as time passes. Both Tateru and I have blogged about those isses and quoted what the Lindens are saying in regard to series 1 viewers. SL is undergoing a massive upgrade. For years people have complained about bugs that have lasted for years. In 2010 Phillip shifted that. Each day more and more of those bugs are fixed. Many reveal flaws in the foundation of SL software. Those flaws can be bugs or design concepts. Those that are design concept problems are being fixed too. Changing them to fix the problem and improve performance reveals other places where the changed concept has an effect and then those areas of the software have to be changed too. Some simply cannot be anticipated because the older SL software was not that well documented. Four years ago they knew the related issues would surface and create problems. So, rather than fix them they tended to create work arounds. Now, they tackle the problem and create real fixes. So, in some ways things are worse and some things are better. Region crossings and rez time along with general lag are being address. If you haven't noticed it getting better, get yourself a series 2 viewer and check it out. I've only been here a little over 3 years. But, things work better now... most days. The last two weeks have seen unusal problems and the roll back of server updates. Some complex issues are on the verge of being fixed. Each attempt moves the process farther along. With any luck some of those fixes will roll to the main grid next week. Click the link to my blog in my signature and read up.

If you didn't save the previous downloaded install file, which is a good idea just for cases like yours, you can get an earlier version on the Download page: Second Life Download Then look down the page to MORE VIEWERS. That takes you to the wiki and more options. It is hard to find older versions of the standard viewer. It is easier to move farther forward. There is a Beta version, Development version and Mesh Project version. I suggest you try any of those. But, when you get to some of the actual download pages they have lists of previous versions.

If one thinks Linden Lab (LL) is holding mesh back they’re not keeping up with events in Second Life. The ideas that content creators will wait for adoption of mesh viewer are certainly out of touch with the creative community. Just to get some numbers into the discussion, viewer stats showed far less than half of the viewers in use were the SLV 1.23 version. Just post Emerald Scandal stats (Sept 2010 New World Notes): Imprudence = 27% Non-TPV Directory Viewer = 18% Kirsten = 6% SLV 1.23 = 14% (At poll time the standard viewer) Snowglobe = 6% RLV = 2% --- End poll. Guesstimate: Emerald 27% (at poll time many were abandoning Emerald) The recent increase in new signups leads to even more users using SLV2. Third Party Viewers (TPV) use by the 2010 numbers was around 75%. Over the past 6 months that has been turning around. Last I heard Lindens say TPV and SLV’s were about 50/50. SLV 1.23 use has steadily decreased. SLV2 has steadily increased. I suspect between 50 to 75% of residents are using mesh render capable viewers now. The mesh upload menu items hide in Mesh-Off regions. It isn’t the mesh that is the big problem in series 1 viewers. It is clothes, outfits, and the failure of series 1 viewers to correctly render avatars wearing physics layers. Seeing a lot of Ruth’s lately? That Linden Lab has not updated 1.23 for clothes and physics problems I think shows it is near the end of its life. Releasing mesh will likely push a huge number of people to update to SLV2 tech. It will likely move people off series 1 viewers to series 2. If a TPV is not supporting mesh, users will change to those that are or the SLViewer. It’s in LL interest, on several levels, to release mesh as soon as possible. We are supposed to hear by the end of this month about mesh specs, costs, and roll out date. Then we can stop speculating. Then we’ll find out which of us have it backward. As to resident creators not supporting mesh until a majority adopt SLV2 tech… clueless. Visit the ADITI grid where mesh is live. Most creators have a warehouse full of mesh waiting for release. Creators are begging for a release date. The Lab is not holding mesh back. There are performance and technical issues that are delaying things. A lot of work is going into a Mesh Import Wizard so that novice modelers have a chance to learn how to use mesh. That Wizard is not a simple deal and appears to be part of the must-have-requirement for the initial release of mesh. Many have not noticed the massive upgrade SL is undergoing. I can easily write 2k to 3k words per week on the week to week changes to SL. I am amazed that the Lab has allowed SLV 1.23 to remain on the grid this long. However, the discontent with SLV2 is massive, so they are trying to allow series 1 user to change over on their own (and that is happening). It is costing them time as they have to support the new stuff and legacy stuff (UDP Texture Get vs HTTP Texture Get). Still, the foundations of SL are rapidly changing. Lots of these tidbits of information come from office hours meetings and the mailing list exchanges of the various project teams. One can read Daniel Voyager’s and my Nalates blogs and keep up on developments in SL without having to wade through the chat logs and geeky boring emails. Plus both blogs update you more often than the Lindens do.

We've been promised more information and a mesh eta by the end of the month.

I suppose it depends on what you mean by nothing... How you fix it depends on whether you are in Basic or Advanced Mode. Most of these problems will need to be fixed in Advanced Mode. You can choose mode when you are about to login. Unfortunately, the changes to the setting only take effect on the next start of the viewer. So, change and restart the viewer then login. Arrow keys can be used for movement only or for movement and chat string editing. In Preferences you will find settings for controlling the behavior to have it work the way you prefer. Preferences (Ctrl-P) -> Move & View ... look for Arrow Keys Always Move Me. I'm using the SL Viewer 2.6.9 Development (229908) May 13 2011. Many of the setting that used to be in Preferences are now hidden away in Second Life Debug Settings (toggle menu item on/off: Ctrl-Alt-Q). The SL Wiki explains what most of the settings do. When you use the arrow keys to help edit chat, it is not unusual to see the cursor stuck in the chat window. There is a setting that allows one to have Enter/Return open and close chat. Debug: CloseChatOnReturn Also there is a control that determines how your number pad behaves. So, if you do not have separate arrow keys, common on laptops, you need to consider that setting. Debug Settings: NumpadControl - 0 = Like the normal arrow keys, 1 = Numpad moves avatar when numlock is off, 2 = Numpad moves avatar regardless of numlock (use this if you have no numlock) In the future you can get more precise answers by letting us know which viewer you are using and whether you are on Windows or Mac.

SL has been having problems with products not being deleivered. Deleivery can be complicated if the recepient is not online. They may find the product in their Lost & Found folder. Or they may just not have received it. THe fix is to go into your account, by going to your Dashboard. There is a link in the viewer from in-world. Otherwise, log into the SecondLife.com site. Either way, once logged in you should be on your Dashboard page. On the left are links. One is ACCOUNT and within it is TRANSACTION HISTORY. Open the T.H. and set it to show transactions over the period when you made the purchase. You will see the transactions, provided they completed. If Linden $ was transferred there will be a record. Copy that information and then send it in a note card to the merchant you purchased the items from. Explain what has happened. Request a resend. Tuesday and Wednesday mornings are NOT good days to buy and send gifts. The Grid Status page advises one not be making purchases during this time, or the specific times for the current update process. The simulators are being restarted with updated software on those days. Usually by 9 or 10 AM PST/SLT the roll outs are complete and the grid is running as well as possible. If you are going to be transferring substantial sums of L$ in-world, whatever substantial is for you, it is a good idea to check the grid status.

Chat has problems and group chat is especially problematic. I too am so tired of getting chats bounced back because they can't connect or arrive out of order when they do arrive. Linden Lab knows about it. A whole new chat system based on XMPP was built. The system was rolled out for testing on the ADITI grid. Support for it has even been rolled onto the main grid. Some TPV's even have support for it (Kirsten's S21(7a). The problem is the more it was tested the more it was obvious it was not going to fix SL's chat problems. So... the whole thing is a huge disappointment... to us and to the Lindens. Rather than give us something that doesn't work, they went back to the drawing board. However, it is not a total loss. The Lindens learned a lot about the chat bottle necks and accumulated lots of stats. A new plan is in process. The Lindens aren't saying much about chat, which in my experience means they are not confident they have a solid solution. Everyone knows it is a problem. Linden Lab sees it as a priority. I suspect that since chat is such a common computer task the Linden's may have underestimated the problem. Or may be not. Whatever the case is, SL chat is a more complex creature than any of the other social net chats I use. I suspect they have a number of people figuring out a system based on the new knowledge.

The word from the Linden PR machine is that we will have an answer by the end of this month. We will have more details on mesh and a roll out date. Several people here have made good speculations. But, they are speculations. I predicted in my blog that we might see mesh this or next month, another speculation. But, this week they are changing the mesh object's data format. The reason given is performance. As they can study and analyze mesh on the ADITI grid, they find performance bottle necks. Apparently they found some that could only be fixed if they changed the format. So, they are doing that. The format change is like moving from a round peg to a square one. All the holes it must fit in have to change. So, there is a lot to change. Hopefully by the end of next week those changes will be complete and modelers will be testing the changes in ADITI. If you have not been to ADITI, it is worth a trip to see the new mesh stuff. If you want to follow Mesh Devlopement, read http://blog.nalates.net/

Good point Void.

Placing a request in the forum to have the Lab roll back an update is non-productive. Filing a trouble ticket is more likely to have an effect. However, the response here shows that the problem is wide spread. To see if the Lab knows what is going on check: Second Life Grid Status Reports » In this case the problem was found and has since been fixed. See: RESOLVED] Asset and Region Issues