Oh God! I'm gonna be obsolete!

Well if a Machine can do it better, let it. People can learn, expand their mind, and study for a more meaningful job than McDonalds or Wal-Mart

You've got it all figured out, Magnum, m'man. Such an *edited* to these boards!

When you say "we" do you mean LL or those of us that have no control over this at all?

I've always taken the position that PC gaming is an expensive hobby, period. To play SL I had to go and pick up a $175 graphics card. My monthly land fees (that I choose to pay) have ranged from $25 to $75/month. Of course, I first had to have a computer - $800.

I don't expect this $800 PC that I got in 2003 to last me forever. I'm good at basic upgrading (like vid cards and memory) but sooner or later I'm going to have to cash this puppy in for a new one - especially if I want to continue to play the cutting edge games. That's just how it is.

If it gets to be too expensive, either I'll cut something else out of my budget, or I'll dust off the PS2 and play Final Fantasy again.

No matter what else SL can be, its still primarily entertainment. You are the only person that can decide how much entertainment you can afford. It isn't the game company's responsibility to ensure that you can play SL on your $500 PC with Windows ME and the graphics card that came on your motherboard. (sorry for the bold, but we had the Windows ME complaints when LL cut the cord at 1.6, I think.)

The system requirements that LL gives out are to try and ensure everyone has the best SL experience. If you can't afford it or don't want to pay the money to get that experience, then that's hardly LL's fault.

WTF? ok they need to get a grip not eveyone can afford the best hardware. Booo big ass thumbs down on this one!

I don't think it's advancement to handle a bunch of cool features.

After all, I didn't have any of these problems on the preview grid! In fact, I uploaded textures with a rapidity I could only dream about on the regular grid, at any time since I started playing.

Seems to me it might be more like, "Well, we aren't managing to succeed in fixing this, and we're having a hell of a time figuring it out and may NEVER figure it out. But we do know it runs well on X/Y/Z specs, so maybe we should just make those our new specs. That will come in handy for future stuff, anyway."

coco

There does reach a point ultimately where it is not feasible for them to maintain backward compatibility forever. For example, we are now into the 7th series of Geforce cards - is it still reasonable to expect SL to run on a Geforce 2 card? As improvements are made, it does sometimes become necessary to increase the minimum system requirements. This is a reality of technology, and is not unreasonable.

That said, I don't think the current problems have anything to do with increased system requirements.

enabran is my alt.

I do not appreciate your verbal abuse.

Yes, I agree that point always does have to be reached, and we can either rise to the occasion, or not.

But . . . I don't think the evidence points to these problems being caused by all of a sudden our computers just won't hack it. Or, if it does, then I bet that is a surprise to the Lindens, too.

I'm hoping they will be able to fix the problems within the next week or so, and that we can put off for a while longer trying to make our computers match the specs. I fear that, because so many people have told me how their computers DO match the specs, and yet SL won't work. (Prior to this mess.)

So I get the idea that even if I tried operating on my computer, or bought a whole new one (definitely not an option), then I could still be goofed up. I get the idea that just matching the specs doesn't necessarily always cut it. In fact, I've put off operating on the machine at least until web-on-a-prim comes out, because I'm afraid any change which would supposedly improve things could just put me out of commission altogether.

coco

It is a valid concern, Cocoanut. It's true that the performance is far from optimal on even the highest end of machines, and now with 1.7, it's even worse. It will all get sorted out, though I don't think we will see dramatic improvements until the new rendering engine comes out. If the new rendering engine is true to what they are saying, it will hopefully address both the underpowered high end by taking advantage of the latest technology available in recent video cards, while also scaling for lower end, older cards to provide an acceptable experience. The main problem with the current engine is it does neither - I am not sure what it was designed for, but it is not ideal even on newer machines.

The big mystery is why these problems did not exist in preview, yet are so rampant now.

When is a newer rendering engine coming out? Is that the Havoc 2? If so, then there is no timeline on that, right?

coco

Actually..it's very easy to disable built-in video cards these days. If anyone needs help doing so, feel free to IM me. It's just a couple of simple clicks.

I love good deals, and I don't like to see a virtual environment cost alot of cash. However, SL, or any online game, is not a neccesity of life. You don't have to use it or pay for it. You don't even have to have a PC (at least for now). It's all optional stuff, so folks are free to make the choice of whether to pay or not to pay. To me, if the value of the service doesn't justify the costs, or if I am on a tight budget, I'd just make the choice to not partake of them.

Hell, it's all heading in an unhealthy direction anyway. We are becoming a nation of the self-absorbed. A nation of shut-ins and xenophobes. Many of us don't know our neighbors anymore, and many of our neighbors certainly don't want to know us. Technology has advanced at a near miraculous rate, yet mankind's morals and values and our understanding and compassion have fallen far behind. Technology makes us able to reach out and talk to those across the world, but also cuts us off from those close to us. It is an intriguing paradox, and a dangerous one in the long run.

I love PCs, and have been an avid user since the early days of the C=64, but I'm positive all my time used on such pursuits would have been better spent elsewhere. But alas, we live by our choices.

Huh? I was paying you a compliment.

I don't get it.

OMFG HOW DARE YOU ACCUSE ME OF BEING AN ALT

shit, I wasn't going to out this alt. why do i play my games?

I want to know my neighbors! The ones on SL!

coco

Let them eat cake?


Rox

The rendering engine is something different from Havok 2 (which is the physics engine). I would not even hedge a guess at this point when it would be out, except sometime next year. Version 2.0 is supposed to contain the new rendering engine. Whether there will be a 1.8 and 1.9 and beyond is unclear. We used to be on 3 month cycles or so on updates, but that has changed. I do know that they are changing the development model from large multi-feature upgrades to smaller, more frequent upgrades. One way or another, it will arrive, when it is ready (and actually probably before it is ready ).

Didn't bother reading the entire thread, but I wanted to add a comment that I'm runnign SL on a GeForce 2 Ti with 64MB VRAM, and it's running just fine. Shiny/Local is off though, and draw distance is 64, but it doesn't hurt me any, and I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

Yup wait on the new rendering engine. I wish I had thought of that! lol

Mar

And his very cunning plan has even been proven by experiment!

In SL, you can make anything you want for free (minus the texture upload fees, but those can be amortized across many objects until the instance cost is near 0). And we have clearly seen that nobody pays for land, buys clothing or avs or vehicles or buildings, or pays for strippers. Nobody has to do any work at all to get anything they want in the post-scarcity future that we live daily in SL.

Well, the obvious response to this is that the pollution of a "conservative work ethic" or some other such nonsense is to blame for the lack of a land of milk and honey in SL.

And lest all of you think I'm joking about this...



Very real ideas, here, folks. Pay very close attention. We're going to be scratching our heads in thirty years wondering why we didn't think of all these amazing innovations.

Now, to just get that army of robots to build everyone new high-end rigs.

I have had a couple friends make an account to try SL thinking their systems met requirements only to find their card insufficient ): and with every patch and update I hold my breath that my own system will still be sufficient

Um...Ok, so is this supose to be easy?

Anyways, Im pretty sure even if I knew how to, I somehow don't think I would be changing a tire anyways

I still say "with specs that are higher than 'average'" is a huge mistake and will cost LL customers in the end. How can it not. I just do not understand any company making a product like this for a specific audience. Perhaps that is the intention. No LL decision would suprize me anymore. In recent weeks its more than apparent that they are now suprizing each other. "not a game" "gamers rejoice" LOL I would howver ever love to read a detailed plan of what is coming down the road because honestly, right now; I feel like they are all over the place trying to please everyone yet really only pleasing themselves in the end.

It would be hysterical if it weren't so damn sad.

*disclaimer this is my personal opinion, not worth a hill of beans really.

Have a most excellent Tuesday.

Mar