Massive Lag

Noticed today that there is massive Lag just about everywhere in Second Life. Not a problem with my machine as I am getting a good FPS (Very high) and once again my friends are crashing at random.

Also they have better machines than I do and they still crash randomly.

The Lag continues and is getting worst.

Been increasing at a constant rate since maybe the end of February.

I joined in January and apart from the newbie landing site on the mainland most places were great to explore.

Not sure why but I noticed that since the 1.9 releases the cache seems to reload EVERYTHING constantly which basically means there is either too much to be loaded or it is being ignored and simply reloading the lot every time.
(large cache or small it makes no difference)

Best times for low lag are between 4.00pm and 11-12pm AUST est. While the bulk of the rest of the world are asleep.

Oh and the influx of new people sure isn't going to improve things, the bandwidth of the grid is being trashed constantly from all directions...

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Considering this is old it is still a decent machine...
Intel P43.4Ghz (PCX)
2G ram Dual Channel pairs
256mb 6600GT Video
2x 80Gb 1000rpm Sata HD's, 1x300Gb 7200 Sata (swap partition is second 1000rpm drive)
Dual 17" LCD and 1 19" Backup CRT (Benq's)
DSL 1.5Mb connection
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P.S.
oops the videocard is NEW!

I noticed that it seems that every time a new version (1.9.1 in this case) that SL suddenly is low-lag, then it slowly increases to ultra-laggy. Once the new version comes out, the server is suddenly fast again... ?

My Computer is:

Pentinum Class 2.5GHz
1Gig of Ram

eVGA Nvidia GeoForce 6600 256MB ram card

6,000K Cable Modem (56.0K Is highest Dial-Up will go compaired to 6,000.0K Cable Modem)

However Comcast could be the problem.

Had no problems with lag at all lately until tonight. What's going on tonight?

DSL 1.5Mb connection

There is your problem DSL isnt that great for sl unless your connected at 3.0 or higher!

hmm.. yes.. Unlimited sim has been close to unusable the past 2 days.. tping in takes forever..

/me sits here with her 2.0Mb DSL connection, wondering why she doesn't get much lag... except when the sim is crowded.

I don't get much lag - what I have been getting a lot more of recently is connection issues, freezing and loss of chat and other things which I am told are a result of losing connection to the server. Now, nothing much has changed over the last few days with *my* setup, so I'm thinking that it is something to do with SL.

Or it could be the internet itself.

I thought I read something last week about major backbone trouble on the internet. That alone can cause slowdowns and lost connections.

Thinking about it it could just be that I'm using BT, who are famously rubbish for everything.

It's not my choice, honest.

Exactually my point Im on 3.0 dsl and only timei get much lag is when the scripted and prim objects are in high numbers. But also at anygiven time ihave two pcs running one thats using major bandwidth by broadcasting a internet radio statiion! One othere thing ummm....guys this is a forum not in world typing /me does appear that you said it like in world! rofl

If it is exactly your point, then why do I have such a lack of lag with LESS than the connection you claimed was needed for a good SL experience?
Answer: Because you can have a nice, lag-free SL experience with just a 1Mb connection, since that's the fastest SL will DL info to your PC at.

Why did I type it in such a way? Answer: To show it was third-person. Why third person? Because there wasn't anything needed to be said to show your claim was a piece of crap...

It's bunk anyhow. I have only 700-odd at college (Yeah, sucks, I know), and SL plays just fine for me. No lag.

My POINT WAS YOU SAID "EXCEPT WHEN THE SIM IS CROWED" On my connection I very rarely get lag unless there is a lot of scritped objects ,IE clubs with stores and such on the property, any other time i get lag when it spikes for EVERYBODY! Yes 1mb is the fastest sl will download to your pc, but how come two people on the same ISP, using the exact same equipment, the person on 1.5 stays about five seconds behind?? Explain that!

Im not saying that you HAVE TO HAVE 3.0mb but if you are going to frequent the high foot traffic areas and want less lag you should have a higher connection.

You have heard of distance, haven't you? You know... that little thing that means the data takes longer to get there the more distance it has to cover?
The further the data has to travel, the more lag there is. (elementry stuff this, pay attention)

Have you heard about internet routing? That little thing that means no 2 connections are alike.
It means that the data will take a different route, even to two adjacent properties. Different routes equals different distances and one will have more lag than the other. (basic internet knowledge, keep paying attention)

Have you heard about maintainence? That little thing that, for some reason, not everyone does?
It means that even identical equipment WILL NOT perform identically. A badly maintained system will suffer more lag. (basic PC knowledge, you are listening?)


That's 3 things that will cause a shit load of lag to identical systems on identical ISP's... and a faster connection will do SFA to stop them causing lag.
So, even though you cannot DL data faster than 1Mb, and even though a connection faster that 1Mb will not stop the lag in any way, shape or form, you need a connection higher than 1Mb to stop lag in laggy areas...

Read that again, understand just how badly you contradicted yourself, then try again. Maybe you'll start making sense...

It would really help to diagnose the source of the slow down with some metrics. If you open up the STATS in SL (control+shift+1 - you may have to close your minimap), copy these metric from that box to a forum post (or support email):

(1) Your FPS (at the very top)
(2) Your packet loss (if anything above 0% - typically an ISP problem)
(3) Ping Sim & Ping User (these will help determine if the problem is the Internet as a whole or your ISP)
(4) Time Dialation (if under 0.95)
(5) Sim FPS (if under 40-45)
(6) Physics FPS (if under 40-45)
(7) Main Agents
( Active Scripts
(9) Script Perf (if you're over 20000, someone in the sim is really sucking a lot of script power down)

Just saying "I'm lagging" doesn't do anyone any good at trying to diagnose problems. The easy-to-find metric above allow tech geeks to start narrowing in on the problem, be it server side, client side, or anywhere in between.

Regards,

-Flip

i am seriously close to canceling my SL membership. i can count on one hand the times i have used SL in the past 6 months or more.i used to love SL but now my lag is seriously bad. if i get 1.5 or more fps i feel like i am in warp speed. my normal fps is 0.4-1.2 at most. that is in a sim that is not busy. i never go into high populated places anymore. i hate to leave all my friends,but so far this experience is horrible. i have copied my stats info,pc info and prefs info in hopes someone could shed some light on this for me. i'm sorry if i have unneeded info there but i'd rather give too much than too little. my internet speed is 2.5megs. can anyone tell from this where my problem exist?

pc info...

vaio computer
mobile intel
pentium 4 cpu 3.06ghz
2.11ghz, 448mb of ram

windows xp home edition

prefs...

network...
max bandwidth is 200. it seems to work better then when it was 1000
disk cache is 1000mb

graphics..
av rendering is normal
terrian detail is some
gamma is 1.00

adv graphics...
card mem is 64mb
object,tree,and av detail is mid way
draw dis is 64
fog..0.5
drop draw 0
bumpiness 1
max particle 20
outfit com 0


stats ( control,shift,1)

fps 0.5
bandwidth 33kbps
p.loss 0.0%
ping sim 12834
ping user 4899
time dialation 0.99
sim fps 45
physics fps 44.8
agent updates 20.0
main agents 2
child agents 2
objects 5177
active objects 308
active scripts 1853
script perf 15838
packets in 47
packets out 108
pending d/loads 0
pending uploads 0

HELP PLEASE!!!!!!

Let's try to figure it out first.


That's a great CPU speed for SL, and enough ram, even on a laptop. When was the last time you reformatted / wiped the entire machine? Do other programs run sluggishly? A few things to consider:

(1) Download, install and run Microsoft Windows Defender. Its an excellent spyware detection / remover (Microsoft bought it, they didn't make it themselves, heh). The problems you're describing could very well be being caused by Spyware, or a computer that just hasn't been wiped in too long. Most applications you may have installed (popular IM programs like AIM, QuickTime, just about anything) install annoying traces in the taskbar which are loaded up whenever you boot your system and take away power from applications you're actually running.

(2) Wiping the system with a fresh Windows XP install normally solves the probably. I know most VAIO computer ship, they come with about 50,000 pieces of software you'll never use on them, all with taskbar applications which seriously chew into your processing power. Doing a clean install on your machine removes these apps, which you've probably never used.

(3) Windows starts to perform worse and worse as time goes on without a fresh install due to things like Spyware, the system registry becoming bloated, and other factors. I re-install Windows at least once a year to start fresh.

(4) What kind of graphics card do you have? Is it ATI, nVidia, or Intel Extreme? If its Intel Extreme, you may be noticing degraded performances between SL versions, as its not officially support (but will still often work to some degree).


These two values seem extremely high to me. My ping sim and ping user are typically from 150-300. This is the amount of milliseconds it takes your computer to send a packet of data round trip. This would cause a lot of latency. Where are you in the world, who's your ISP, and are you on a wireless connection?

I hope these tips help - feel free to IM me if you need more details.

Regards,

-Flip

i did a reinstall of windows about 3 months ago. i did have a lot of virusus/worms. i curently use NOD32. it has been very good so far. i have heard Defender is also very good. i may try that. thanks. my graphics card is an ATI and supposidly up to date. i rarely leave my home sim Paranthrene. i am in Buenos Aires,Argentina. i don't use a wireless connection anymore. i use Fibertel. i hope i answered your questions. i so want to stay on SL.
thank you for your help
sammi

I'm not too familiar with Argentinian ISPs, however, those ping times you quoted would definitely cause "latency" problems. This would mean things like chat would be delayed, you'd get a lot of "rubber band" type effect when trying to move, and so forth. It probably also means you're getting intermittent package loss. A few recommendations: call your ISP and tell them you're getting very low ping rates to a major U.S. data center. While you can't expect ping rates to be quite as good as those of us in the U.S. will get, you should be able to improve upon what you're currently getting. If there's another option for ISP, you may want to consider that as well.

The sim itself seems to be in fine health - when you're at or near 45 under sim fps and physics fps, time dilation is close to 1.00, and script perf is under 20,000, those are the key indicators that the sim itself is running as it should.

Another thing you can do before calling your ISP:

(1) Go to START --> Programs ---> Accessories ---> Command Prompt
(2) type "tracert sim500.agni.lindenlab.com > \tracert.txt" without the quotes, and hit enter.
(3) (Nothing will happen for about a minute)

Then go to MY COMPUTER and click on your hard drive. In the root directory of your hard drive, you'll see a text file called "tracert.txt" - double click it to open. This is a list of every "hop" between your home and Linden Lab, and how many milliseconds each hop between those points took. This can be used to figure out where the "slow down" occurs, and can also be sent to your ISP as proof there's a problem for them to figure out.

I hope this helps!

Regards,

-Flip

My Sim isn't crowded and I've had the hell of a night for lag. Given up.

But then even if my Sim isn't crowded that doesn't mean the other three on the same server are not packed ...

Revolutionary idea ... guess what? I am going to sleep for a change

I have noticed a bit more lag than usual, but I'm going to chalk about half that up to the fact that my ISP is having problems since some straight line winds took a few of their boxes out, along with forcing them onto a generator just to keep the phone lines open. (My ISP is also my local phone company.) The other half? Could be anything, frankly. I've had some slugging in other online games and even the occasional DNS issue since the storms that came through my area.

They are working on it, but to get all the kinks? Takes time and I'd rather they did it right, the first time.

The video chipset in Sammi's system is an ATI Radeon™ IGP 345M and the drivers are those originally provided by Sony (which are also the latest offered on the Sony website). The ATI website does not appear to offer a working update for this chipset on a Vaio.

We also tried the Omega drivers but she said SL was "all gray" so we reverted to the Sony drivers.

~Boss