Peggy Paperdoll

I didn't mention that because laptops are becoming so popular that it simply won't make much difference to most people. Sort of like iPhone and other smart phones.........they are good but it's debatable about if they are the best. If someone wants the iPhone then it's going to be the best no matter what anyone says. Besides I'm not sure it's a complete performance level lower anymore.........the GPU manufacturers are specing stuff a little differently, I think. Like the bra makers and their sizing for cups. Disception at best.

You're more than welcome. It's a common misunderstanding for people who simply have no reason to know things like the performance of a video card. The computer makers do know yet they exploit this ignorance on the consumers' part by implying that the card is the "latest" from NVidia.........yeah it is. But it's also the lowest performing of that new series. I actually think that sort of stuff falls into the "truth in advertising" area........but, evidently, it does not. Shame on those manufacturers. Good luck with your computer purchase.

I don;t know for sure since it's brand new to the market and have heard of no reviews on that particular card. It's possible that someone here has that card and can give some first hand knowledge (again, it's brand new so that's a iffy thing). I can tell you that the way NVidia assigns model numbers to their cards (/AMD, formerly ATI, do much the same) makes it a very probable no to your question concerning "ultra" settings. NVidia's model numbering is straight forward and pretty simple. The first number says the card is a 7 series card (the latest series NVidia has released)........it tells you nothing about performance. The second (and sometimes the third) number will tell you the most about the performance of the card. 1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest. The second number in the 710 card is a 1.........the lowest performing card in the series. There are also letter designations that NVidia assigns to it's card. GT, GTS, and GTX. Those designations are relatively unimportant but they do determine minor differences within any card. A GTS is slightly "better" than a GT and a GTX is slightly "better" than a GTS. You have a GT designation.........again, at the bottom of the heap. I would feel comfortable telling you that the card will work for SL use but at ultra? No, I'm afraid it won't make the grade. Medium settings at the most for a decent experience in SL. Anything more than medium and you're going to get a lot of texture lag (even possible disconnects or crashes). Just because the card is brand new to the market does not make it a better performing card than an older series. My GTX 550 Ti card will out perform your brand new GT 710 M..........by a long shot too. For ultra settings in SL look at cards at or above mid range (5 or higher on the second number)..........the closer you are to the high level card the better the performance at ultra (a GTX 790 would be best......but that's going to cost a heap of USD's).

The specifications that Codewarrior requested are essential for much help. But, by your description of the problem mentioning "rainbow" colors on your screen is a great big red flag that your graphics adapter/card is failing. A driver update will not help (in fact, it may hasten the failure of the GPU). It has nothing to do with Windows 8. The most common cause of graphics failure is heat. Laptops are especially prone to heat issues so running any graphically intensive program (with SL is probably about as graphically intensive as anyone can run on a computer), Anyone using a laptop with SL should always use cooling pad.......and get some hardware monitoring software to keeps tabs on heat on all hardware devices in the computer (especially graphics and CPU's). The problem with heat caused issues is that by the time you get the symptoms (rainbow colors is a very common symptom) it's too late......your GPU has already sustained some damage. Typically, that damage accelerates the more you continue to use the computer. Further, using a program that uses the GPU as much as SL really shortens the time until complete failure.......your computer will not boot until the GPU is replaced. Take your computer to a repair facility now, before it fails completely.

You're probably not going to like what I have to say. You are using a computer with an operating system that is three generations removed from the current generation for Microsoft. Regardless what might be said about XP being such a solid and good OS, it is old (in the technology business, very old). XP, after some initial issues (I had many when I got the OS years ago), XP did, in fact, become one of the best OS's offered to consumers..........arguably the best. But that was years ago. MS created operating systems that were geared for what people were using their computers for.........and XP got left in the dust. It's just out dated. It doesn't have the umph required for programs like SL (program creators develop or improve their programs for OS's that are the current generation......not OS's that are 3 generations old. Yeah, I know many people use SL on XP machines....some with great success. SL hasn't changed that much to make it not work on an XP machine but LL sure hasn't taken into consideration that problems might arise for users of the XP operating system. Microsoft has announced that they will official stop support for XP in April, 2014. That's a year from now and this time I really doubt MS is going to extend that date. It's time to start saving your pennies for something more current (Vista, Win 7, or Win 8 if you plan to sticking with Microsoft). Anyone still using XP is living on borrowed time............and likely running XP on an old machine. Speaking of old machines. My bet is that you are using a computer that is probably 7 years old (judging by XP and 1 GB RAM). A 7 year old computer that was strong in it's day, is likely to be a weak computer (maybe not even as powerful as a new tablet or smart phone). SL requires a decent computer to run. It doesn't have to be particularly strong but it does need to be stronger than a "strong" computer 7 years ago. Some things you might be able to do to make it run SL (not well but, at least run) are possible. But not without more information than you have given. What video card? What type of RAM (DDR, DDR2, DDR3 *doubtful*)? XP you had the option of running it using the FAT32 or NTSF file system......which are you using? Add the information by using the "Options" and then "Edit". Please don't start a new thread.

Perrie, I wasn't intending to single you out but the conversation did appear to take a turn to some speculation (which I know is very normal when someone well liked decides to do something and not offers an explanation). I posted under your post simply because of the comments (yours and a poster immediately before you). I know you well enough to know that you would never second guess anyone's decision. It was just a good place to say what I wanted to say. Just in case you took my post the wrong way,

Of course I'm curious why 16 decided to post a "goodbye" thread (as are most of us who got to know her over the year or so that she's been one of the more active here in the forums) but I refuse to speculate on that why. Apparently she was/is serious because I haven't seen a thing posted since the initial post to this thread (and I'll say it again because I really mean it.......she will be missed by me). She had/has her reasons and if she wanted to relate those reasons, I'm sure she would have done so. It's her business.....not any of ours. I have not gone in-world to search for her to see if she merely decided to leave the forums or took it all the way to leaving SL........again, that is entirely her business and I, for one, will not violate her privacy by inquiring or asking for any explanation. She's a pretty smart person and I've never seen anything to indicate she's impulsive which leads me to believe she thought about her decision and is doing what she thinks is best for her. I hope we all would respect her decision, wish her well and hope to see her again soon. I would hate to see this thread sink to anything less than what I believe she wanted.........a quick, thoughtful goodbye to us (nothing more or nothing less).

There is nothing wrong with asking a question like this. I got started with computers at a fairly early age so, to me, it's so simple that it's hard for me to tell you (or anyone) what a graphics card is so that the person asking can understand what I'm saying. I do, however, remember when I first got interested in computers many things that were complete mysteries to me.......like what is a CPU, what is RAM, where is the motherboard?. All questions similar to yours.......very basic yet so mysterious to someone who honestly does not know (believe it or not, every single person here has had similar questions pop into their heads......even the exact same question). Don't feel silly (or worst, stupid) for asking the question here....and it absolutely does not make you "not the brightest". To keep it as simple as I can, I did a Google search using the search term "what is a graphics card?". Google is very good at finding answers when you state your search in a question.........I do it often. I found this in that search: http://www.howstuffworks.com/graphics-card.htm How Stuff Works website is designed to explain the basics, in very simple terms, of almost anything. If you can read and comprehend a language, you can get the basic answer (the starting point of learning anything) to your question. Read the entire article and watch the video. That will get you off to a good start and probably prompt more questions that you can Google............like "how do you update a graphics driver?". I bet there's a "How Stuff Works" article on that too.

You might try rebooting your computer (actually a complete shut down and leaving off for a few minutes would be better). If that doesn't solve the problem (which I'm afraid is going to be case) then it appears you've been banned. At least the computer that you are trying to access SL with has been banned. Check your email (the one you associated with SL when you signed up) for an email from LL explaining and how you may appeal the ban........check any spam or junk folder you may have for you email. Follow the instructions given in the email for appealing to the letter........then just wait. Note that you do not have to be the one who actually violated and ToS or CS rule to be banned. Someone else using the same computer might have done something that warrants a ban. You'll probably have a difficult time getting your ban reversed but it has happened in the past. LL seldom makes mistakes with their bans but when they do, they correct it right away. Also it takes a pretty blatant violation to get banned from SL.........you have an uphill climb to get this resolved to your satisfaction.,

For now and the immediate future (possibly longer than that), you'll have to settle for a laptop (even then, you'll have to settle for a higher end laptop.........and that means a more expensive one). It's all about graphics abilities..........and dynamic 3D graphics to boot (just about the hardest type of graphics for any computer to handle).

I hope this is a joke of some kind or that I'm misreading your post. I mean what European am I supposed to "argue" with if you leave? But, if this is for real then I'm going to miss you 16..........and all those jejejejeje's. Take care and be careful out there in real life.

If Alicia's suggestion is not the case (the environmental settings are the same and there's not external on either image.......which, to be honest, I don't see anything to suggest it's an external light issue), you might want check to see if any changes have occurred on your graphics card settings. Not the settings you set in preferences but the settings that are set within the graphics' card setup utility (or control panel). The reason I'm making this suggestion is that, today, I got a bunch of "Important" Windows updates (8 to be precise). I typically get my Win Updates on Wednesdays but I used to get them on Tuesdays.........probably because my ISP periodically assigns me a new IP address and I started getting the updates after my ISP changed my IP address a couple months ago. You may receive your updates on Tuesdays like I used to. Anyway, in the 8 "Important" updates Windows Update said I had one of those was driver update for my GTX 550 Ti card. Had I not taken that particular update off the list Windows would have installed the driver along with the rest of the updates. I don't do driver updates from Windows Update......I go to the driver update site for the hardware that I want to update (and I seldom update a driver just because there's a new driver. Only if I think it will help me or I think I have a driver issue do I ever update drivers). If you received those "Important" updates from Windows and did not check what was being updated and you have a recent NVidia card in your computer, you probably got a new driver (most drivers work or a very wide range of cards so even if you don't have the same card as I do, the chances are good that you got that update for your card..........the drivers for my other computer's GTX 250 card is identical to the drivers for my GTX 550 Ti card). And every time I update a video driver, I have to into the control panel and set the graphics to the way I like them.......the new driver update always seem to set things back to default for me. It's something to look at. The two images you posted are pretty much identical except for the one on the left (the one I gather you like the best) the colors and blacks and whites are a little more subdued than the one on the left which appears to me to be the default settings for my video card.

I have a highbred custom built computer with an NVidia video card. Does that tell you why I do not have problems with the viewer I choose to use? Does it matter if I use one or a dozen different viewers? It would help immensely if you could find a way to tell us what, exactly, you are dealing with in the way of both your computer you are using and the viewers you are trying to use that is producing this problem you are asking for help to make it work for you. Rolig is so much more patient than I am..........kudos to her.

The 10,000 lindens or is it 100,000 lindens you paid for licenses might be cause for LL to look at that transaction as suspicious activity. Though the 10,000 lindens isn't all that much for a single transaction (about $40 USD equivalent). If that amount is, in fact, 100,000 lindens (about $400 USD) then possibly......but I still doubt it. If you paid a single resident that amount there is the possibility that you might receive an administrative hold on your account. LL does not call that a ban though.....it's a hold until some sort of investigation is complete and they, again, will send you an email advising you of the hold (and probably requesting some information from you to help with their investigation. I still think it's bogus.

"I was just told that in 1444 minutes that i would be banned from SL.... " ------------------------------------------ The highlighted and in red part of the message you say you received is quite odd. So odd that I believe it is not an official message from LL (I'd be willing to bet on it, in fact). Linden Lab does not pre-warn anyone when they are banned or suspended.......you are simply logged out and they send you an email to the address you associated with LL when you signed up explaining what happened, a brief reason why and how you can go about appealing the ban/suspension. 1444 minutes is just over 24 hours........why would LL wait a day to ban someone? If they have reason then they ban on the spot. They are certainly not going to give you a day to raise hell with the grid. Think about it.

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Third_Party_Viewer_Directory

http://www.newegg.com/Desktop-Graphics-Cards/SubCategory/ID-48 On the left side of the page you'll see a panel to narrow your search. At the moment Newegg has 71 video cards in the $75 - $100 range. Happy shopping.

Try setting your bandwidth in preferences to 500 kbps. If that works then set it a couple hundred k higher until your problems comes back. Then set the bandwidth to a couple hundred k below the point where it works. Or you can test your download speed at: http://www.speedtest.net/ Set the bandwidth at no more than 75% of the tested download speed. SL uses a lot of bandwidth all by itself and things like streaming media (music included) use bandwidth outside of the SL usage........if SL is using all your available bandwidth there's nothing left for music and other things that require bandwidth. You have to give yourself some overhead to be able to use those features. To be as accurate as possible run several tests each to San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX.....take the average for all the tests and use 75% of that tested speed. And I suspect since you are on a laptop, you are using a wireless connection to access the Internet. Wireless is not really reliable enough for consistent SL usage. It might work for days, weeks, months or years and suddenly quit working like it used to work. The potential for outside interference is tremendous and can crop up any minute.............your neighbor just got a new garage door opener or that new cordless phone you bought. Just about anything can mess up your wireless connection to the Internet. Get a Cat 5 Ethernet cable instead.

Well stated, Codewarrior. The long and short of things like this is that people just don't take the time to think about what might be involved. It all sounds so simple. Others do it so what's the problem? It's seldom as simple as it seems. I'll use an example that is related to my real life line of work. Someone wants a door put in a room to make it easier to get to the bathroom at night......what's so hard about cutting a rectangular hole in the wall and hanging a door? Actually, that's not hard at all...........but if the building or home is going to fall down because of that rectangular hole in the wall, things get complicated and EXPENSIVE. There comes a point where it's just no worth the effort......especially when a door already exists that will lead the same bathroom. If it were easy and cost effective, LL would have already done it..........a long time ago.

"... - but at least bake fail will be a thing of the past." -------------------------------------------------- We can hope. In the world of digital processing I've learned to "believe it when I see it". In theory it should eliminate that one problem..........and you know how theory goes. :)

Run a few tests to both San Francisco, CA and Dallas, TX. You need an average of, at least 750 kbps to each location.......1000 kbps is better but 750 should work for you (with some lag). Another test to perform is a ping test. Excessive latency (the time it takes for data to be sent and returned back to your computer) will cause a bake fail and a pretty good amount of lag. http://www.speedtest.net/

I'm not a professional by anyone's definition (as Chosen can attest too from all my silly questions and arguments to and with him over the years). But I hand draw almost every texture I create. I gave up on taking photos or pictures and modifying them to suit my wants.......it's so much more fun to do it from scratch. I believe most texture artist eventually come to the same concussion as I have. I see very few textures in SL that appear to be photographs (exception is real life photos produced as portraits or other pictures of real life......sea scenes, mountains, cityscapes, etc).

I'm not a big fan of mesh and sculpties. Mostly because the vast majority of those items are poorly made which makes rezzing ridiidiculously long (and sometimes impossible). But you are absolutely correct on the impact part. I just wish more mesh creators would take the time to learn to do it right. *That's exactly why I've never even attempted mesh.......I just can't find it in myself to take the time that is required.

Do textures all start with actual photos? No. In fact few do. How does one obtain the stock to create their own textures? Many ways. You can use photos that you took or photos that you have the rights to use. But the way most texture artists do it is to create their own.....from scratch. I hope I'm wording the question appropriately. Some textures that are seen in Sl don't appear to be actual photographs that someone took. Does this mean that someone actually made them from drawings? I think you worded it fine. And yes, some textures in SL do not appear to be actual photographs because many are not. They drawn by the texture creator. Some are drawn from actual photographs, some are drawn by sketches or drawings, some are drawn for the creator's imagination contained on in his/her mind. But some are created from photographs that are "enhanced" or altered by the creator. And finally, some are actual photographs that are not altered at all (or minimally altered to fix minor flaws).

Because LL hasn't been caught and fined for IP right infringement and the content being ripped off is seldom stolen from some major producer of digital content like Sony, Paramount, Universal, Fox, Capitol Records, AMI etc. SL is very small time compared to YouTude so the owners of that content probably don't even think about SL with it comes to infringement. Disney has taken down content in SL as has Coca Cola but, in reality, those take downs were more symbolic than anything (but it did get the point across......you don't see much Disney Stuff or Coke stuff on SL anymore). Adjusting the upload software for content to check against IP rights already in place would be a massive and expensive undertaking.........LL does not have the resources that Youtube has. Ultimately it's the person uploading the stolen content responsibility to comply with IP rights of others..........not the service's responsibility. YouTube chose to monitor the uploads for convenience.........not because the law says they have to. Just because YouTube got fined by some court action does not make it YouTube's responsibility. Fines and lost lawsuits happen all the time to the people with deep pockets and those people with deep pockets often put into place practices that they do not legally have to put into place but to avoid court actions in the future they do it anyway. LL probably feels the cost verses the gain is not enough. Some day, if SL gets big enough (and LL get rich enough), some form of checking will be put into place. Until then LL is relying on the content creators to take the actions on their own.........and, I think that won't change anytime soon (if ever).