Why does my ATI X1900 card only get 30 fps!

I am just wondering why i get such a low fps which a high end system
I just installed secondlife on my freshly installed system and am using completly default settings.

Specs
windows 64bit eddition
2.4ghz AMD 64 (4000+)
x1900 512 connect 3D Radeon
2gigs Ram
800gigs space (not that you really needed to know :-3)

Well, to be honest, I wouldn't consider 30fps to be low at all!

Most users in SL get somewhere in the 10-20 range typically

Also, due to how the client works, it is generally more processor bound than it is graphics-card bound, and since it is a 32bit app, running it on a 64bit processor isn't going to do it any performance favours.

I'd _love_ to get 30fps - I usually get 15 tops!

30 fps is extremely high for Second Life. I think most of us wish we were seeing frame rates approaching that. What kind of frame rate were you expecting, and do you understand the technical differences between the way that SL is rendered, versus something like WoW?

Show off

That's kinda what I was thinkin'

Due to its streaming nature and the fact that pretty much all the content is created by amateurs (myself included!), SL tends to give the video card a much bigger workout that a 3-D game would. One big problem is that people use textures far too large for the purpose their using them (Linden Lab content creators included!). I once saw a wall with 40 "for sale" boxes, each was 0.8 meters by 0.8 meters. Each had a 1024x1024 texture on it! Video cards everywhere were crying.

SL relies a lot more on CPU power than GPU power as well.

Regards,

-Flip

30 fps is high? wow
So from what i understand you are saying that the problem is because all the content is streaming? In such a case can i max out all the quality settings and not expect too much of a decrease in fps?

Also any change LL are gona make us a shiny 64bit version

I think people may be right that you are showing off

I got 30 fps once

.. on a prim

.. 700 meters in the air

.. i was the only one there

.....

normally i am 8-10 fps.

if i can be at 12 , im happy,

Maybe OP forgot to mention they were posting from their huge yacht too on their foo foo fancy satellite connection.

Exactement, pour sûr, Flipper. Not only is it people using huge texures for small objects as you describe, it is also the overuse of scripts. Scripted objects here, there, and everywhere - including scripted objects where the owners never utulize those scripts again once they are rezzed. I have been on sims where there are over 5000 scripts running plus tons of huge textures. Then people complain to LL that something is serioiusly wrong with their sim and LL needs to fix it.

I try to utiize 128x128 and 256x56 wherever I can. Granted, some very large objects do require the larger size - like trees. I even take 512x512 textures and download to my HD, reformat to 256 or 128, Sharpen them up a little (10% - 15%), and upload back into my inventory for use. I have compared the reformatted textures with the large originals inworld... absolutely no difference in appearance or sharpness. Some of the resized textures actually look better than the larger orginal after using the Sharpen tool.

Scripts I keep to an absolute minimum, and even rip scripts out of scripted objects where I know I won't be using the script often, if at all, after the object is rezzed. You can even find Phantom scripts in many of the older tress and shrubs created in much earlier versions of SL. I have been on sims where, with the Beacon on for scripted obects, the FOV is a virtual sea of red becons - along with a FPS of 6 if lucky. At night, they remind me of large cities casting the glow of thousands of lights into the night sky.

Bottom line, you can have wonderful lag free content by exercising care and caution in creating that content. My last sim had nearly 14,000 objects used, smaller textures wherever possible and around 900 scripts. I consistantly received praise and many kind comments on the results and ambiance of the sim. Granted, there were no malls, no clubs and on a busy day had 20 AV's on the sim. But, no one ever complained of lag and/or low FPS.

My current sim is being developed with even greater care to use of textures and scripts. While only getting started, I routinely see FPS ranging from high 20's when facing large build to 30's, 40's - and even high 60's when facing the void from close to the sim edge.

Think people and vid cards are crying now? Wait until after version 10 is up and running later today.

In this case, as with others, size does also matter.

Credit: The idea and technique regarding the resizing and reformatting of large textures was shared with me by my good friend and fellow elve, Khamon Fate.

nuuu not today, I decided it was too hot and just decided to settle for my bedroom <3

*huggles his shiny system*

i want that, Wana Trade? XD

I've got a pretty high end machine, and I tend to get 30fps in most places, which is really bad. In most games anything below 45 starts to get unplayable. This game doesn't even look that good either, there just seems to be alot of it. I'm also guessing that it's not as optimised as some of the more graphic intensive games out there today.

Fiddling around with the graphical options does nothing either.

I've got an ATI a well, and my system runs like a dream up until an AV gets in my view. The second I need to render an Avatar my FPS drops to 2 or 3.

Theres a difference between sim lag and low framerates on the client viewer. Scripts are handled by the sim, and only certain events triggered by the scripts are propogated to the clients. Its true that too many scripts will have a negative effect on the sim, which will result in slow, delayed movement, poor rez times, and hinder the sim's networking to a degree as it struggles to process everything, but in no way does it directley affect client framerates. A sim also seems more likley to choke on just handling scripts before the scripts can start creating too large of a bandwidth load between the sim and clients. Scripts create lag.

Client framerates are just reflective of how well the computer is handling the rendering of everything required. Geometry, shaders, lighting, and textures. In the case of sl, the cpu is a huge bottleneck, and yes, framerates can go down if networking goes wonky, but thats not exactly normal, from what I've seen. I've been in horrid time dilation, with the sim framerate at 2, and physics framerate at .5 (a frame every two seconds!) and yet still had my client framerate the same as ever.

The distinction between general 'lag' and client framerates has been lost latley, and it's kind of annoying, actually. It leads to confusion when people see them as the same thing.. Just like when players say my hl2dm servers laggy when they actually just have a crappy framerate on the current map, yet have a great ping.