Coventina Dalgleish

I have noticed poor performance lately lag has increased and random crashes occur more frequently most of these problems began when pathfinding was implemented just another assumed benefit released before the bugs had been killed but then we are a beta game if I am not mistaken )) The crash on edit bug seems to have survived from earlier pest control measures

This is not a new phenomenon in SL but it has taken on new characteristics lately plus the crash rate seems to have increased dramatically recently. On my Island with plenty of excess prims items were returned to my lost folder except every item that was of my creation remained in place only the no copy items truly returned More bizarre behavior for the coders of the lab I suppose since it is such an old bug they consider it a benefit ))

Open the task manager and see how much proc time MacAfee is using while you are in the game. I am not familiar with the current MacAfee it should have an area to exclude programs from scanning. I noticed with several other virus scanners they over work when SL is active slowing the system and eating resources If you have multiple cores assign it to a single core.

Thet did a rolling restart over the last few days. After several weeks of good fps and performance I saw this problem today when re logging. I use ATI graphics and know all the tricks seems suspect that the viewers were working well one minute then having massive problems or a re log. The same condition exists on my Nividia cards also nothing quite like a rolling restart to make your day ))

I noticed this problem today log in and get the blue screen with super fps and very high bandwidth happens with the LL viewer, Firestorm, and Phoenix. When I do get into my Island the FPS are not where they are supposed to be. After all they did a rolling restart 2 days ago I was going to give it a little time before making a statement but it is obvious that they have again added to the pleasure of the game by giving us another challange

Running an old worthless system according to most )) but recently Kwak turned me onto ram disk for cache on her million dollar power house it makes little difference on my enslaved older system it improves everything right down to the fps I can only recommend using a ram drive cache for SL it works nicely use at least a 1 gig cache it does save on a reboot and seems to be very reliable for info I use data ram for the cache a free utility for individual users

Uh HUH guess what another rolling restart and all of a effn sudden some brain whiz flipped a flag and mesh now rezzes my oh my system one might think they would hire some individuals who could monitor the releases before slapping them on the population. Sorry this is just sloppy programming I am sure none of them have ever tried to qualify a product for the FDA not that they are settler performers but this type of lack luster performance could and would not be acceptable. Please, after almost 10 years. pay attention. Maybe they do not really care I do not know but it has been like this since version 6, amateur hour, and all of you old folks what happened then (W-HAT). I hate to say it before the last rolling the LL viewer was giving me the best performance now it ranks third again but I can live with it even though it liked to drop partial mesh constructions. Seems to me they have a conflict of some type it either works exceptionally well or just gets assigned to a third level viewer. It is really a shame because even with all the grade school graphics and heavily nested menus it was working well. When the viewers were simple and easy to use they were a pleasure now I have to grind my mind wondering where did some rock scientist hide the most important tools for builders, my mind is growing old and does not like Easter egg hunts for simple tools. Ah yes where did the tools menu go )) duh how simple was it. How about another roll and fix all the nit picking problems LL turn on all the important flags and impress us for a change make it work as intended without all the hiding behind the excuse it is your Pile of S system. It does show flashes of brilliance over shadowed by total incompetence on a continuing basis It is the finest of of creations I do love it when it works and I do despise it when it does not

I see everyone saying get the latest drivers for the ATI card I use both Nvid and ATI SL definetly works much easier with Nvid and tends to be buggy with ATI. I have had little success with their latest drivers so I rolled back to the 12.1 catalyst drivers which were released in January of this year. After they are installed go into catalyst 3D and turn off the A.I. sometimes it works much of the time it gives problems with SL. Hope this helps

Yes well I again went in and changed all the triple buffering and vsync settings to correct the problem seems I have to do this when someone forgets to flip a switch it has happened before sometimes it works well with it off then again other times with it all turned on. I do know they have a lot of flags that have to be set properly for the system to work properly and it is easy to miss one

I notice that you are running an I5 2500k and the upgrade to the 660 card but you did not mention what mother board or chip set you are using. The 660 is a PCI-E 3.0 architecture if your mother board is the 2.0 spec you will not acheive the results you desire. The game (or as I have been told its not a game )) ) also likes fast core memory and gpu memory. The 660 certainly has the memory required. I have a friend who has the 660 except 16 GB of memory and a 3770k processor on the new ASRock MB. She has to limit the 660 to 60 fps under Ultra with all options on or it will run between 100 and 120 fps and heat up like an oven. She also had 3 avatars on all running ultra at 60 fps. So your bottleneck is not your video card unless you got a lemon, and no one ever gets a lemon in the computer industry ))

Semantics Is not the focus of this discussion call it what you like to me it falls in the catagory of a game with a lot of 3D social networking. I dispute the fact that 5 year old hardware does not cut it as it out performs an Intel Duo Core with Nvidia 9600 graphics. This comparison is based on a long association with another who had that set up we experienced the same conditions in most situations The point I was attempting to make was that the server upgrades appear to include small mistakes that affect the quality of experience, game , social interaction. The V1 viewer has a finite life span especially with the addition of normal and specular mapping slated for the near future. The logic of the server upgrades is simple. The day before everything is working well, the day after it is like I have a 20 MHZ 8080 processor rather than a 3.6 gig ex running at 4.0. Perhaps I also did not explain the items that disappear they are physically there the texture becomes alpha and can be re triggered on edit but then returns to the alpha state. For example on a mesh body upload the head will go alpha with nice round floating eyeballs ) this occurs in the latest LL viewer , Firestorm, and Cool VL so it indicate that it has not been created on the viewer side.

Well I knew there would be some support and some interesting cons to my post but 1. Prospective upgrades and new features are in beta ON the beta grid. Imagine that. Yes I have been on the beta grid where a viewer should stay until ready for prime time 2. Upcoming LL Viewer changes are available to try out; they're called Development Viewers and anyone can try them. LL also has beta viewers and project viewers anyone can try out. Have used many of them in the last 7 years most have interesting features but they are normally advanced to the main grid before their time You're running Windows XP, a Pentium 4 cpu, and a video card just as old...... Xp is still supported the ATI 3850 is still supported yes the processor is old in relative terms but certainly out performs many of the laptops sold today as state of the art and I said nothing about being paid LL never does that but there are perks that could be offered. Intel and Microsoft do pay beta testers this is obviously never offered to the general public but then LL compares poorly to either of the afore mentioned organizations. as far as a connection problem that another person mentioned I am on the East coast US ping, jitter, bandwidth, and speed test from Kansas city east reflect very good times using most of the capability of my connection. Tests to California and Texas show much slower times most of the time. I suppose you could call me a techie as I made my living from this area for 30 years and I am very familier with the construction of this thing we call computers as I began on an IBM 1603 with Fortran. Data in game last night when I was again experiencing problems 0 packet loss and a ping to the server of 83ms no excessive bandwith problems since I am on a private estate with no neighbors. It is also interesting that my problems will and have gone away many times a week or so after a new upgrade is released. When things are working properly I can use the latest V3 Linden viewer on high settings with acceptable FPS and little lag so while the equipment is not state of the art it is certainly within the guide lines for successful use. The use of the cache is also another area of concern as it does not efficiently utilize the data and it is very subject to defragmentation thus it lives on its own fast 120 gig drive in my case so that it is easy to repair. Bugs in this game when not affecting the main game play are very slow to be addressed. After 6 years finally LL has researched the default hand animations over riding priority 4 animations. This is a subject I originally put in the JIRA in 2006 and finally enough individuals made enough noise and a fix was implemented Do not take this wrong I do enjoy the game a lot and I realize that it is a business and it does cost money to keep the programmers running in their hamster wheels but it does become frustrating when one day everything is just fine and the next (after updates) everything goes to hell in a handcart only to magically return after a period of time. Gee maybe my old processor is getting smarter hehe thats it

Yes they did something wait 2 weeks it will magically be fixed every update they manage to do something ( not sure what) but it will return to proper operation normally just before the next update. There is no BETA program you are it still after almost 10 years

Oh joy another server upgrade, or is it down grade, one would think after almost 10 years this thing would be out of beta. Last time I posted I was having horrible fps when accessing search everyone wanted to know what my system is and was that actually makes little difference as it works before the upgrade then fails after. Search began to function properly after 2 weeks wonder of wonders. This last entry into the ever ongoing , we think we know how to code and we think all the switches are set properly has resulted in an old problem again raising its head objects disappear on rez and also in previously constructed items this happens in the cool viewer the firestorm viewer and the official Linden viewer. This is not a problem with my hardware, my cache, my video card, or my 40 mbps connection this is another case of throwing slop out the door and waiting to see who complains. The last truely stable viewer was ver 6.0 after this time coding was delegated to those who had an idea how to do it but lacked the technical expertise to effectivly apply the knowledge. W-HAT??? LL it is time to work the bugs from your releases before you again force me to take a sabatical from the game. I have been here since 2005 and have seen many great inovations the only problem is they never work on the primary release it seems to take several weeks before what we wanted to do becomes what what actually functions. Maybe this is why Phillip went off on other tangents I really do not know but lately, as in the past, chaos reigns. I noticed also after the last update that mesh loads as it wishes if I get a calculation it might upload but then again it might just sit there trying to hatch a granite egg but then again it might calculate or give me a mav block error but then on a recalc success with identical settings. This is just sloppy but then.... I am on old tech equipment but the fastests p4's and video made for that platform with the maximum memory allowed under XP I normally attain 30 to 45 fps under the cool viewer , 20 to 30 on Firestorm and 15 to 25 on the Official LL viewer cache cleaned several time a week because it defaults to a 50% load of my inventory I do feel like my platform is being phased out but in all honesty the game no longer warrants the expense of upgrading equipment. Perhaps if the economy was on a level of 3 or 4 years ago it would make sense but in the last two years it has been a question of consolidation to remain viable rather than expansion. This of course reflects the world economy but SL has returned to the status of an enjoyable past time not a profit center. Thus it would be nice if the game would function properly from update to update and stop being a true PITA LL you do know there are plenty of out here that would BETA the new upgrades if you asked and granted some renumiration for the effort. As long as you use the general population for your BETA releases this situation will not improve. So for now I am off for a week or so to wait for the programmers to figure out which switch they forgot to set properly

Something you might want to check is the graphic memory allocation I was having all kinds of problems with fps and graphics cycling in and out and very slow rezzing. Seems the game though that 80 meg was a nice number for my graphics card. Turned it back up where it should be to 512 problem solved. Preferences /graphics/harware SL is not wierd just severley introverted at times

If you are using an ATI video card Second Life does not seem to like them at all I suppose it is just to difficult to code for anyone else than Nvidia. I use both Nvidia never or seldom has problems My 3850 ATI is always doing something that is not normal )). I use the catylst driver 12.1 which was released in January of this year they have had several upgrades since then. I downgraded the driver from the one the spewed in June because it was unstable In SL. Another thing that works from time to time with ATI is enter the catylst 3d setting and turn off the AI it has known problems with SL also

Well by golly gee whiz I had not opened the search window in several weeks did tonight and guess what all is well makes one wonder just what the gremlins do in their spare time at the lab only thing tht is different is all my equipment is 10 feet lower now )) maybe that fixed it. ( moved everything from the second floor to the first ).

The default hand animations has theoretically been solved and will appear soon, time will tell. This was first submitted in 2005 and they just got around to the fix. There is a rather large read in the JIRA https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/STORM-1899?page=com.atlassian.jira.plugin.system.issuetabpanels%3Acomment-tabpanel&focusedCommentId=339862 Hopefully soon it will be another bug put to rest

Sitting on my rear end with a reasonable good frame rate (32fps) I open search and instant freeze well not quite an immediate drop to 1 fps and it remains until the close registers for the search window then right back to 30 FPS. Just curious if others are seeing this.

You did not mention which OS you are using I still hang on to XP (a die hard) This has happened to me several times over the last 7 years and the only solution I have found that works every time is to un install SL in the normal way either through the program group or through the control panel. This is just the start. Open regedit in run then search for second life and delete all the keys be careful when doing this as you can damage the OS if you get delete happy and hit something incorrect. Then do a search for Linden research and kill it. This is the 2/3 point of removing LL completely from your system. In XP there are several persistent folders that remain after an un install they are located in the root drive in DOcuments and settings machine name local settings application data delete the second life folder. There is a second folder located in docs and settings machine name application data. By removing these 2 folders you will have no presets logs or other data remaining. Manually delete your cache. Run an error check on your drives check the fragmentation and drfrag as needed. It is also not a bad idea to run something like registry mechanic to clean up the loose ends. Now you are ready to re install SL. If you are using WIN7 I believe the folders are stored under your user location. When the folders in the application data area become corrupted SL will not load and it can happen in a single session.

Trouble shooting To be done one at a time Remove your router from the chain and direct connect to the net. Routers do develop problems over time Move your cache from the root drive Defrag the drive that contains the cache SL seems to fragment a lot un install second life totally from your machine this will require the use of regedit to remove all the registry components do a search for second life and linden in regedit be careful you can destroy the operating system look at each entry before you hit the delete key find all second life folders through the search option and remove them once cleaned re install SL but not on the root drive Oh it also helps a lot to run the error check on any drive that has been touched by LL )) run a speed test to dallas and SanFransisco and observe the results I normally get bad times from the east coast on a 20 meg line (4 to 8) where new york . chigago, and DC get 20 to 25 MBPS check your bandwidth setting it should be set around 80% of the bandwidth reading you get from dallas and SF SL uses KBPS vs MBPS used by the speed tests if you get a reading form the speed tests of 15 to 20 MBPS set the bandwidth at 1200 to 1800 I have never seen a performance difference setting it higher but it could be a problem area if the data is over running your connection Do these one at a time and observe any changes there are many other areas in the game settings and the video setup that can also affect FPS Find an empty sim with no load and observe the FPS Another thing I have noticed lately depending on the viewer at the log in the fps is very low I do not do anything until everything has stabalized this sometimes takes up to 3 minutes especially with the LL and FS viewers, way too much eye candy to load Try a 3rd party viewer such as Cool I do get the fastest stabalization and highest FPS from it you will have to put up with its quirk though )) it never quite remembers what you were wearing and likes to stuff you with lots of extra items )) Hope this helps

SL has problems with the new drivers for ATI the last valid driver thats seems to work well is 12.1 also turn off the Ai for the catalyst driver as it does from time to time cause problems. Firestorm and the LL viewer do stress the video quite a lot and it is possible that the load is taxing your power suppy I occasionally get wierd pop ups with a new 650 watt power supply, LL killed another 500 watt supply its one a year now for 7 years or perhaps the cheap sleeve bearing fans they just seem to love to put in power supplys these days.

Well I am still on old tech )) ( that means I do not have even a duo core) I am sure some of my problems have to do with the old 3.6 extreme , XP, 4 gigs of mammery, and my ATI 3850 which btw out performs Nvid 9600 by a ton. Yes It also has to do with the massive increase in my inventory size lately because of a lot of mesh work (52k) but even on alts with inventory's of 3500 the asset server seems dead slow and its not my connection, well perhaps to the west coast servers as my pings are horrible to the. As I noted before anything west of Chicago seems dead slow these days. If you run an I3770k 16 gigs of ddr3 and a Nvid 670 with 1350 cuda cores maybe you have no problems )) but many of us who have been here for years have watched the slow decline in performance because of many useless added features. Honestly I still prefer the old V1 format with it's uncluttered look and easy to use menus. LL needs to consider several options, one at least one east coast server, two a stripped down viewer that is at least sees mesh. I use the current LL viewer to upload mesh and that's about it. I use the cool viewer but it does not have the LL quality behind it. It has its own weird set of minor problems i.e. it never remembers what you had on the last time you logged in and wears random items sometimes items pop from weeks ago )) but it does have a great fps compared to LL or FS. FS has its own set of minor problems especially where mesh uploads are concerned. It calculates them very well but then refuses to upload on the other hand the LL viewer calcs and uploads 99% of the time LL needs a nice stripped down efficient viewer for the many users who have out of date systems many do not have 2K bucks for the upgrade to the current technology while we would love to have a new system food, lodging, and life seems to take precedence at this time I get between 25 and 30 FPS from the cool viewer while both the LL and FS viewers crank out 15 to 20 and as we all know its choppy below 25 fps Just some thoughts from the department of old tech ))

This set up will run SL you will not be happy with your FPS though it makes a good base to build on As far as the ATI graphics SL is not friendly towards ATI I have no idea why. The first thing you will need to save for is a middle range Nvidia card. I changed from Nvid to ATI on my ancient system )) because they made the fastest AGP setup with the 3850. One thing you will need to do is back out the drivers to 12.1 as it is the last set that functions well with SL. The 12.1 drivers are not that old (January 2012) so its not a big deal but the new ones will give you many problems. Mid range Nvidia cards are becoming a lot cheaper now that they have released the 6 series cards also you can find a good used mid range card on ebay for less than 80 dollars these days.

um no idea )) I seem to be a magnet for this type of problem it might work like a charm for you but looking at some of the other comments do not bet any money on it )) It also might have to do with the poor asset server performance lately also I now can now open a second inventory window move things that SL never seems to remember where they came from but I can't close it it just freezes the game requiring a relog The more bugs they kill many more seem to hatch