IS SL really worth it?

With the new 1.10 release, I cant seem to use SL like I could before and I assume I am not alone.

My 1.3Ghz PC ran SL just fine (for me) until this release.
I have an ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Graphics card with 128MB on board.

Needless to say, I do not have an expensive High-End Gaming machine here, but it suits me just fine, and I have had little to complain about when using SL (aside from the occasional Grid Attacks) until now.

Is it fair that LL is FORCING (yes, I said it!) us to upgrade our Video Cards &/or PC's just to "remain" in the community?

I can afford to upgrade...thats not the issue for me, but I do know alot of residents that cannot afford to...and what about future releases?...will LL force us to keep upgrading our machines every time they decide to add in some "new-and-improved" (but not neccesarily Needed-or-Wanted) feature update?

I mean...c'mon! Where do we draw the line here?

Why arent these updates allowing us to remain as-is? Let me run 1.9 (or earlier) if I choose to...and let those that want the 1.10 (or higher) choose that. win/win.

If this is truly a user-created environment, why is our hand (and wallets) being forced at every turn?

Stand with me...or against me... either way I have said my piece, and YOU know where I stand... right or wrong, I have made my statement...will you?

-Mitz

Is it really worth the $0 it costs to sign up? I'd say so.

Can you expect to have to upgrade your video card every five years to be on the cutting edge of tech? Yep. Guess what, your 1986 IBM XT with a TURBO button won't run the latest version of Microsoft Office. Is it fair that Microsoft continues to put out new versions of products with higher requirements?

Look, you can't let things stagnate, or you die. Look at how many ActiveWorlds members there are.

Video cards are insanely cheap these days. You can get an nVidia 5500 256 meg card for my site, delivery included, for just L$24000 (AGP) or a PCIe 256 meg 6600 for L$42000. That's not exactly breaking the bank.

Regards,

-Flip

No issues for me.

I've run it without lag of issue on the following with the default settings:

- Apple Powerbook 15" (PPC) (over a b-channel wireless to boot)
- WinTel 7800 GTX 512 w/4GB Ram
- WinTel ATI Radeon 9800 w/1GB Ram

True...but I can still run MS Office version 1.0 or similar on my "1986 IBM XT Turbo"...I guess you missed the point.



Thanks for "plugging" us

Of course it is. It's not like you are required to upgrade every 6 months. But you should expect a jump in technology once in a while. Otherwise, we'd be playing SL with EGA graphics and our ADLIB soundcard would provide midi sound.

Besides, with a medium end graphics card (far far from the top and those people with SLI 7900GT cards), SL runs better on my machine now than with 1.9.

Wendel

Well, if you want to get an honest poll, you'd do better to make it anonymous.

As to the question itself, if it is the overall philosophical question, "Is SL Really Worth It?", then I would be hard-pressed to honestly answer yes in my case, since it makes me less money than other endeavors, and probably isn't as valuable to my overall personhood as pursuing my other hobbies for the same amount of time, such as playing the piano, might be.

But then you add in all the reasons I am here, friendship, creativity, along with all the nebulous hard-to-pin-down feelings that add up to satisfaction, then I would have to say it is worth it.

From the technical aspect, if I come across an upgrade that requires me to put more money into my computer (so far, with a brief few minutes in game, this one doesn't appear to be it), then I will have to reconsider the question at that time, and answer it then, as all of us must do.

coco

Version 1.0?

The question "should SL be so bloody resource-heavy compared to what it actually does" is something that has been answered. The answer is "no".

The question "is it worth it" is a separate one. Since I'm still here, I'd say that the answer for me is "yes". But you'd never get a "no" answer from me, since if I thought that it wasn't worth it, I'd just leave.

SL is totally bitchin'. No lie.

And that, dear friends, is the answer to all the "I don't like SL any more" threads.

Mitz, one thing you might consider is to turn off stuff like the new local lighting. It's in the prefs. I guess one can't turn off flexiprims, or occlusion culling, but maybe that would help your performance issues (are those in the debug menu somewhere?).

With other PC games (yeah, SL isn't a game, I know), any bump in versions usually comes with a bump in system requirements, for example Half-Life to Half-Life 2. People do want the bells and whistles and eye-candy in their games, and SL is no exception. For me, flexiprims and hardware lighting are definitely on the "Needed And Wanted" list. And I seem to be getting better framerates with the new occlusion culling.

The time will come I'm sure that I'll need to upgrade my video card, and I'll be disappointed if I can't do that, and can't visit SL for a while. But will I get mad at LL for improving their product? NO.

Since the "Is SL really worth it?" question is kinda open to interpretation, I'll take your intention to be "Is staying in SL worth having to upgrade your computer?" For me, the answer is YES, for all those nebulous feelings that Coco mentioned.

my performance in SL IMPROVED in this patch, and not usually one to say such things. o.0

If I'm getting ~20 fps at the Ahern welcome area, I know something is working.

I actually found that with this update there have been performance improvements.
I recently burnt out my old video card and purchased a nvidia 6600 OC AGP 256, which is running like a dream for a mere $120 (with rebates).
To me, it's worth it for my computer, my digital art, and all my gaming, but it was also for the SL in my life.

I think it's more than SL, more like the entire gaming community. Computers are not an investment, they are nearly obsolete two years after purchase, and if you intend to participate in the latest leisurely gaming activities, you'll need to be on the ball or you'll get left behind. It's tough, but it's a hobby. Hobbies need money.

I think you may have. Yes you can run 1.0 on that old XT (if it's still running), but good luck when anyone else in the world sends you a simple document. Technology advances because people want to do more and have a better experience from their computer. As the world marches on, you have to keep up. Or you will be left out.

As it is, this latest version of SL should actually run BETTER on your system for two reasons:

Hardware Lighting. This is something that was implemented in video cards back when the GeForce 2 was out. T&L is one of the more simple functions of a video card, and it's PURPOSE is to make it easier on your system. So SL finally implementing this to a fuller extent will not only look better, but run better.

Occlusion Culling. This was implemented, driver-side, with the 3Dfx 3000 series. Yes, THAT long ago. Putting this in SL will make a HUGE impact as your computer is no longer trying to render things you cannot see.


As for the Obsolete argument, that's also an exaggeration. Obsolescence is in the eye of the owner. As long as your computer can do what you want in a manner that you feel is acceptable, then your computer is *not* obsolete. You don't need a $600 7900GTX to play the latest games. A $100 6600 will work very well for games that came out this year.

Back OT: Is SL worth it? To me it is. It's runnign better than ever, and there's even MORE that I can do now for FREE! Best deal there is.

I went from approx 10fps in a busy place to 20fps, so well worth it to me.

And I play for fun, money does not matter in SL, won't sell it anyways as that is my in game money, RL I got a job for RL money.

So SL is worth it, I get to play, talk to friend, script, build, and more. So well worth it to me.

And I fully agree with Flipper, you don't see may many 1902 vehichles out there, and in the PC world you are getting close to that. If you buy a game off the self and it runs it will run forever, if you are playing online games, they move as technology lets them, so have to update to play online games, any machine 5 years old or more will have trouble with most online games (unless you turn off every feature, and then, what is the use?)

What you say makes sense from the perspective of SL maintaining cutting edge appeal for gamers and technophiles but that is a niche market. When perfomance loses it's punch fairly quickly after dropping a chunk of change on a system, there are a lot of people not inclined to throw more money at it to get back that loving feeling. And they don't die, honest. Unless it's justified by being relevant for your work, of course. But that rather limits the market then, doesn't it?