Graphic problem Strange shards

Hello

I'm getting a problem recently with SL after being loged in a wile I'l start to see see weird shards stretching off into infinity from some prims/avatars the shards lines and shapes are normally different colours and change like kaleidescope as I pan but they awlays seem to point to the center point of my screen toggling Anisotropic filtering on and off temporally fixes it but its happens again eventually.

Its also not spontaneous often I can be looking at the same person for an hour then without them changing clothing or attachments I'l have te effect then if I pan around it'l happen from many other things I look at randomly.

My system is pretty old 1gb ram 1.3 ghz processor and ATI radion 9600 card using catalyst 8.221.0.0 drivers.

any advice would be appreciated (other than get a new pc you cheapskate)

Get a new PC you cheapskate!!!

Seriously, the time delay for the problem to develop would sort of point at a heating problem somewhere. The easiest thing to do first is to take the sides off the box and blow all the dust out. Make sure you blow very well on the CPU fan, graphics card fan (if you have one), the power supply fan openings inside the box (try to blow the dust out through the exhaust fan), and all the case fans you might have. Also, when blowing the fans they should spin......if they don't you may have a problem with the one(s) that don't.

Try turning off the Catalyst A.I. and un-check the box for the GL textures in the preferences. That helped Me when I had that problem.

Thanks

I clear it of dust regularly but it never hearts, I'l check about the openGL textures thing, don't think I have the catalyst control center running currently so hopefully switching open gl off might work, was that in second life preferences or somewhere in catalyst?

I think that it's called OpenGL shaders, not OpenGL textures, but checking (or unchecking; changing its state, in other words) has cleared the problem you're seeing, for others. It's in the (ctrl-P) Preferences >> Graphics. You may lose the Windlight pretties. Also, check to see that "show updates" is not selected in the Advanced or Client menu (at the top of the Second Life user interface).

The Second Life preferences, it's under the "Hardware Settings" (or something) tab in the Graphics area.

Actually thats an ATI specific problem since windlight. Where the eworld turns into triangles and shoots towards your avatar. Anything cut or sculpted. I have had that happen as well. Update your ATI card, there was a recent driver suite that is so much better. Not perfect ATI isn't listed as a compatable card on the main SL site. If anything it's blacklisted really. Not compatable, not supported, sucks, but true.

I have an ATI card as well, maybe even the same one. I am constantlyu switching from low to medium render settings. And in any high traffic, high strain SIM I need to drop to low or I can't really move. So I really never use the advanced graphics, which really sucks. So it's not really your system. SL maxes on RAM anyway. These fools with 4 gigs, and such, if they read up they would know that SL won't even utilize anything more than about 1.5-2 gigs at its max.

* I didn't mean to be rude, but if you look at the specs on Secondlife, it literally says it won't utilize more that that much RAM. I didn't write this, it's a fact, hard coded into the client. I just think it's ironic when people compare systems and think that if they have half a gig of RAM it will perform better. When the truth is the main site posts all the specs on the client, and it just isn't so, sorry, but it's not.

You are suffering from this:
https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-3258
Please check the comments there and try some of the ideas!

I guess I'm only a 3/4 fool since I only have 3 gigs of RAM. And yes, I usually see (in fact almost always) my RAM usage at about 50% (or 1.5 gigs). And my CPU usage is just right at or below 20%. I, for some unexplicble reason, don't suffer from this so called memory leak that a lot of people suffer from.

My unanswered question is still the the same.......why don't I have the problems that a lot of people have? This is not the only computer I've used with SL.......it's the fourth, in fact. Never, ever suffered from those problems. My guess is getting to be that the people with these problems just either expect too much or they simply don't do the necessary things to eliminate the problems. Not sure which it is.

Yes, I do suffer problems when the servers choke or the grid grinds to a halt. Yes I do see lag in busy places with lots of scripts running and textures to render, people to render........but I guess I differentiate server side problems and client side problems. I solve my client side problems by reading here and keeping my stuff up to date. I can't fix LL's problems though. Overall, I have very few problems with SL.

Well this is my 3rd comp.. all custome built.. 1st ever memory leak within the client.. and it was fixed, and i far from expect Sl to perform at any lvl like other mmo's. Maybe things happen. problems do occur,, and possibly just not the "persons" fault. computers and software are not gonna run 100% smooth without a hitch..if so ive nvr seen one.. if it is the persons fault with problems then why are there patches? shouldnt the client be Aok to begin with then...



edit... And i suppose im a complete overkill fool then..with 8gigs...

I suppose one could expect the client to be A okay if it were not beta. And on the overkill......yeah, I'm only a 3/4 fool but you are twice the fool!!!

LOL

try re installing your graphics card it worked and it resolved my problem

In regard to the "SL won't use more than 1.5-2GB" and "SL uses 6GB on my computer", if you pay attention, you'll notice that Second Life is a 32 bit process.

32 bit processes are limited to 2GB, or 2,048MB, of RAM utilization. It's an architectural limitation, even on 64 bit OS's (even though the OS can address >128GB RAM, and 64 bit processes can address >128GB RAM, 32 bit processes are still limited to 2GB).

So for a dedicated SL computer, 3GB is the most that you'd really want. If you use your computer for other things too, 4GB or more can't hurt. SL can't use it, but there are programs that can.

Gawd, thank you, someone who knows what they are talking about. This lil fact was brought to my attention. It just bugs me when people have a serious problem and the first response is something like "Your computer sucks, go buy a new one, because mine is bigger and blah blah blah." Who knew that computer towers were so phalic?

Welcome to technical support forums. Take off your coat and stay for a while. Have a drink. There are snacks in the kitchen, help yourself.

In all seriousness, I've been a regular on several technical support forums over the past 6 years, and they're all the same in that regard.

"Help, my computer isn't doing *blahblah* right!"
"Your computer/HDD/GPU/PSU/CPU/RAM sucks, get a new one"

Sorry to say but yes it did use up to 6gigs.. say what u must to justify your answer but it did.. was a "memory leak" read some other post ,, more than one person has had this problem..was fixed to.. i wasnt refereing that sL needed that much ram to run...o.O.. And besides these post are going way offtopic.. its going to a i know this i know that thing.. im here to assist people in the best manor i can.. but if yall want to flame and try and tell people there wrong and there fools. or what not then why post at all..be helpfull not a ASS.

32 bit processes physically cannot address 6GB of memory. It's an impossibility, an architectural limitation of the CPU and the Windows memory manager (32 bit Windows has a memory divider. 2GB for user mode, 2GB for kernel mode). What you're suggesting is that SL has magically broken past that barrier. That's like saying angry Germans routinely ran through the Berlin wall, leaving a human shaped hole behind them.

Where did you get your memory usage stats from?

EDIT: Yes, it does leak memory like crazy. It always crashes at 1.8GB for me, however.

From the Task Manager under processes with the memory usage, and im far from lieing.. no point to say hey i got a problem im lieing about and want attention.. no.. i had a issure found where.. uninstalled the client, and release client, checked safe mode for any remaining sources of SL and there was so erased it.. reinstalled it on safe mode with networking and poof for some reason the prob was fixed.. how this happend i dont have any explanation why.. sorry there, but it did..ever since then no issues what so ever.. i understand the client is a 32 bit application and so on, i wont argue that no need cause your right.. but still it happend... right now sl is taking abour 1.4 gigs of ram with these and some other apps runnin at a total of just under 3.7 gigs out of 8 in total.. so what happend i dont know.. no need to argue about it..

Edit...ok maybe not argue.. but have a little heated conversation

Next time it happens take a screenshot, because unless you're using a 64 bit client, that can't happen.

I'm sure you aren't lying. You probably misread your memory usage. A lot of people have issues reading it accurately.

Heh.. damn skippy i will,, and ill send it urgent right to ya ,, well i actually hope it doesnt happen again..but if it does..we are talkin bout sl so i never know.. like any mmo or game is actually stable.