Persistant bug SL Viewer & 3rd Party Viewer on AMD Cards.

[Dorientje Woller]

Most AMD graphical card owners are aware of the persistant bug aka sparkling line that crosses through the screen when advanced lighting is enabled. See picture below:

Now, this bug is visible on all recognized 3rd party viewers I can find in the list of Second Life and no solution is not yet available or in sight. Reverting graphical card to nVidia isn't a solution at all, that is tyrany from some hardware freaks that think they know better. Reverting to older drivers from AMD isn't a solution either as it would dismiss the benefits of the newest AMD drivers. Plus, it isn't an AMD driver issue at all. Tested the OpenGL state of those drivers with OpenGL Extention Viewer from Realtech VR and all tests of the different OpenGL versions passed with glory. To prove that it's a bug in the viewer rather a bug in the drivers, see picture made with the Cool VL Viewer (same graphical settings):

No sparkling line accross the screen and most important: the view is much sharper and clearer in this viewer. My question to Linden Labs is simple: When do we get a serious bug fix from your side and when are you going to stop with treating AMD users stephmotherly, as a loner is able to fix the bug without performance loss.

[Chic Aeon]

LOL. Had to smile at this. I vaguely remember a similar line from long ago. LL has never liked AMD. Hence most of us oldtimers are on "the other card" .   

 

It really IS OK to support a third party viewer. So sticking with the one that works with your card is a very viable plan. Do'nt expect any changes from The Lab.

 

[Terrorclaw]

The problem is that most 3rd party viewers haven't fixed the problem in their own viewers because LL hasn't pushed an official fix into their source. It's sad that LL is willing to sit back and collect everyones money, but not willing to investigate and fix a pretty serious bug affecting a large portion of their customers.... I didn't even realize this bug existed until I'd upgraded from a 750 TI to an RX 480.... and it turns out it's been known about for several years and LL just sits on their hands doing nothing. extremely sad and pathetic.

Very tempted to demand a refund on the money I've wasted in this game since they don't seem to care about their customers satisfaction, or even their ability to use the product in a reasonable manor at all!

[Alwin Alcott]

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Terrorclaw wrote:

 

Very tempted to demand a refund on the money I've wasted in this game

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oh please let us know the result....( not a chance )

[Terrorclaw]

Demanding a refund doesn't mean I'd expect one, but It would atleast allow me the opportunity to vent my disatisfaction with a company that literally couldn't give a crap about its customers.

[Alwin Alcott]

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Terrorclaw wrote:

Demanding a refund doesn't mean I'd expect one, but It would atleast allow me the opportunity to vent my disatisfaction with a company that literally couldn't give a crap about its customers.

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by using SL, and with that accepting the TOS you agreed to give away most of your rights you try to claim now

[Dorientje Woller]

By using SL or one of their official 3rd party viewers doesn't mean that we, customers, have to have a crippled experience based on the fact that we, customers, choose the hardware that we want to use. Refering to the minimal and recommended system requirements, it's clearly stated that AMD graphical cards are fully supported (minus those that are excluded).

[Freya Mokusei]

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Alwin Alcott wrote:

you agreed to give away most of your rights

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Yeah I don't think that's how terms of service work. A service provider might be able to attempt to dodge liability, but that dodge only gets tested once it goes to court. There's plenty of rights that no Terms of Service claims can reduce, no matter how strongly they word themselves.

I don't see the purpose in this line of argumentation, it's not our job to protect LL from criticism or legal challenges.

But there's also no reason for anyone to keep posting rants. Dissatisfied users can go and play games with Support, it's not possible to effect change by posting here.

 Good luck.

[Dorientje Woller]

Worth to mention that this bug has been reported on April 30th 2015. Don't tell me that even AMD would linger issues with OpenGL that long. Driver issues are very quickly tackled by Radeon Technologies Group (correct name of the brand now) in a fast pace. You can't no longer point the finger to them as it seems they have solved their biggest problem of all aka a weak driver support.

[LinuxGod4u]

I used to be an AMD fanboy for using SL, but Linux AMD drivers affect distro stability & have mesh rezzing issues too. I have in the past referred Windows users to try the latest Singularity viewers since these tend to work best for AMD GPU owners. I switched to the green team (Nvidia) GPUs and they seem to overall perform best in SL. 

Singularity Windows Build 6915:

http://alpha.singularityviewer.org/alpha/

I am anxiously awaiting the new AMD Ryzen CPUs. Their release date is rumored to be approx. 3/1/17.... After I see several 3rd party benchmark tests on the new AMD CPUs & IF they are actually on par with current Intel processors I plan on purchasing one. FYI I discovered the SL Singularity Viewer Group to be very helpful when I asked questions about their 2017 viewers!

"I Love Simplicity"

 

[YGxBaNNgxEm]

is it bento complaint?

[SappadilliDallagio]

Singularity is not Bento aware at this time. I have no idea if or when it ever will be as the viewer project seems a bit dormant of late.

[LinuxGod4u]

If I undedrstand you correctly you are asking are there 3rd party viewers that are bento compliant. Yes and if you are using an AMD graphics card your best bet is the latest Singularity (2017) viewers for both Windows & Linux (have tested the new Linux test build &  it works with bento.) AMD cards seem to work best with Singularity viewers.  I also tested the latest Phoenix Firestorm viewer although bento compatible it is a huge system RAM hog along with being sluggish compared to 2017 Singularity viewer (s). Furthermore, I discovered using the latest Singularity Linux viewer 8GB system RAM works fine; however on the latest Firestorm Linux viewer you'll need a min. 12GB system RAM, IF you spend a prolonged amount of time in SL. What happens on Windows when your system RAM is low it is replaced with Windows virtual memory, which really slows down pc performance. When a Debian Linux distro runs low of system RAM it performs a memory swap removing RAM from the program using it & adding it back into the system RAM also slowing down performance.   I want to thank SL's Singularity Viewer Group for informing me about their latest viewer(s) 

Latest Linux Singularity x64 (bento compatible) viewer select Singularity Test 1 8 7 6915 x86 64.tar.xz (link below)

http://67.170.30.149/

Latest Windows Singularity viewer Build 6915

http://alpha.singularityviewer.org/alpha/

Latest Firestorm Linux x32 & x64 viewers:

http://www.firestormviewer.org/linux/

Latest Firestorm Windows x32 & x64 viewers:

http://www.firestormviewer.org/windows/
 
Currently, if you use your  pc solely for SL it is best to use a Nvidia graphics card for best overall performance. In addition; due to technology advances/changes I will soon be re-posting/modifying previous Forum answers, which I have done above.

"I Love Simplicity"

[Derek Torvalar]

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LinuxGod4u wrote:

I must say I am flattered since this 

your only post thus far in this Forum.

Please state your purpose, intent & how it makes any positive contribution to this Forum.

I Love Simplicity

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Why does this person need to do that?

You are not the arbiter of who gets to post in these forums.

They asked a relevant question. Is the Singualrity viewer Bento compliant? They misspelled compliant. 

Your god complex is offensive.

[Dorientje Woller]

a. Singularity Viewer is not an option for those that have Bento items, me included.

b. The downsampling is a workaround that can be followed, it works, but:

- Not every monitor is supporting this feature, aka depends on your connection GPU -> Monitor.

- TBH, not adviced as in fact you are overclocking your monitor with the risk that it can go massively wrong.

- Fonts and icons on your OS become so small that it starts to hurt the eyes at least. A luck that you can adapt the font size of the viewer.

- Impact on performance.

 

To activate downsampling:

- Activate the Virtual Superresolution in the Display Settings in the Crimson Relive aka Radeon Settings

- When activated go to the display settings of your OS and select resolution 2560x1440 (advanced display settings on Windows 10). Confirm the setting.

- Launch your viewer and you will notice that the line is gone when ambient lighting is enabled.

Warning: It's at your own risk and not all monitors support this feature.