Feedback Re: MAC SL Client For Us and Linden Labs

In a positive effort to provide Linden Labs with Mac Community Feedback re: the SL Mac Beta Client -

How well are you able to navigate inWorld - especially regarding screen refresh rates and how smoothly, zippy, etc. the visual experience of SL is.

If things are working well, could you detail which Mac System, clock speed and Video Card you have?


Thanks

I am using a slower than recomended computer
g4 867, 512mb Ram, Nvidia Twin View 64mb graphics card.(64mb x 2 monitors). My framerates are usually around 6fps in crowded areas such as chat, and around 17 in an area wehre I"m over there. It is slower than most users may want to deal with, but my computer still works, with minimal lag, and very frew crashes.

navigation is fine except for at events when 'm with many avatars or scripts.

So little feedback - all must be well...

Im running an iMac 1GHZ 512ram nVidia GF4MX32mb and it runs not to bad im guessing. I usually get around same frame rates and results as quicksilver said when im in a really crowed area (6-7fps) and it can get kinda of choppy. Just depends where im at, I play bingo and im getting 12-13fps, where theres usually about 8-10 players, i have draw distance turned down, particles turned off (with particle turned off i gain about 5-6 fps), Now in the new sims where theres nothing there im getting 28-38fps, but theres nothing there. i seen your post other day merwan and it sounded like u had the same set up as i,except i think u have 256 more ram, but u said u had a GF4MX 64mb? is that rite.

If I run with the broken graphics acceleration options turned on, it's not too bad framerate/choppiness wise.

The problem is that there's lots of "corruption" with those on.

With them off, it's sub par (6-10fps, vs 10-20fps).

PowerBook G4 1.33ghz, Radeon 9600 64mb, 512mb ram.

I'm on a powerbook 800. It's slooooow. maybe 4 fps in teal, maybe more like 2fps in the welcome areas and stage 4. One big thing that would probably help me feel like things are moving faster is if I could turn off (not down, OFF) all those moving trees, yikes. Maybe it enhances your experience on a faster machine, but jeesh, they're killing me.

Machine Model: Power Mac G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.2)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz

Yep i have the 64mb video ram.

Anyone know about clearing the video ram? or did i dream that?

G4 dual 1.25 GF
1 g of ram

runs so nice....ty so much for making a mac client.

I've used the Mac client on my iMac G4 800Mhz with a GeForce 2MX (32MB) graphics card and my Dual 2Ghz PowerMac G5 with an ATI Radeon 9600 PRO (64MB). Of course the G5 is faster (smoother) than the iMac, but both are usable. The G5 actually isn't that much faster than the iMac for some reason -- is the framerate tied to the speed of the network connection like some other online games I've tried? If so, that would explain it.

The client's been rock solid for me. Very nice port I must say. Congratulations!

Jared, a happy Mac user

I've been playing almost nonstop over the last 3 days. I'm hooked!

I did notice that the client locks up when I'm in fullscreen mode and I hit the tilde key (which makes a screenshot). I don't have this problem when playing in windowed mode.

Also, is there any reason why SL won't work on OS 10.2? I tried to put it on a computer running 10.2 and the client refuses to start up.

Interesting Marcos - i never play in full screen that way i retain my link with RL.

I would say framerate is tied to the network connection, seeing as all content is streamed to your desktop.

I get okay results on my G4-867, but I'm not expecting it to match up with my P4-2.26 desktop either.

As for the Panther/10.3 requirement, it is due to the Xcode tools LL is using not being able to put out code for Jaguar/10.2. I believe this should be fixed in a future release to Xcode. LL is in contact with Apple about it.

However, the upgrade to Panther was worth it to me, at least for Expose and the upgraded Preview and the little tweaks here and there. Although, i can't say I wouldn't have reconsidered had I not been able to get it for $69, as I was only needing it for SL at the time.

i have a 1 ghz pb g4 (titanium) and the performance is pretty bad, even with every graphic option turned down as far as it can go. i usually get 4-5 fps in most areas but it can drop to less than 1 fps in very crowded areas. the choppiness takes away from the gameplay IMO. i would get on more frequently if the performance could be improved...

I've done some more experimenting with the Mac client vs. the PC client, and I've come to the conclusion that the framerate on the Mac is much slower on average than the PC. My Dual G5 has a better video card and is a far better performer than my 2.5GHz P4, yet the P4 at the same graphic settings is smoother. I imagine LL still has some optimization to do on the Mac. (Other graphically intense games, such as RealMyst for example, run wonderfully on the G5 -- FAR better than on my PC.)

Jared

Yep Jared, Phil Linden in last week's Town Meeting mentioned that the Mac Client when released will be faster, better, etc. etc.

If i understand what he said - the beta version of SL 1.3 will be released for testing in a few weeks, and am assuming that includes the Mac Client 1.3, but don't know for sure.

Yeah!

I have a Aluminum Powerbook G4 15" 1GHZ with 768 MB RAM and ATI Mobility Radeon 9600 with 64 MB VRAM. I rarely have problems except when zipping around in the Jeep I bought (frame rates DIE while driving LOL). I have noticed something I haven't seen talked about here tho -- About once a session my Av will stop responding to forward/back and fly commands, but can still rotate. I'm still able to zoom in and out, pan and orbit. Chat also stops responding, tho I can hear other people chatting. Lag isn't indicated so I don't think it's that. Sometimes putting the window in the dock will help, sometimes not. Not sure if this is a Mac-related problem or a game bug.

One thing to add, since I'm on a Powerbook my Page Up key is actually my up arrow, just with the Fn key pressed to make it a Page Up key. The Jeep I bought says to use the Page Up key to climb, which I was told was a system-wide setting. Why not use the flying keys (E, C) to climb/descend? I would think this might be more intuitive within the SL UI. Another option would be make a mapping adjustment option for people with notebooks (I think PC notebooks may have the same problem, not sure). I would assume it would be easy to set up in Preferences, or in the Debug menu.

Taun Patel

Hi Taun -

I have the same problem also - and I've concluding it's a partal crash and i just log when it happens.

We'll have to see what happens when the update arrives.

How fast does your screen display inWorld when you first long in?

I've noticed the same thing with the stuck av but am still able to rotate like you said, seem to of just starting happening tho, it never did this before that i remember.

LOL ... when i FIRST log in?! OMG it takes FOREVER for the world to load -- again, those trees in Morris hehe. A lot of times people will be talking to me and I'll say "hold on, waiting for the world to load". Av's will be gray and load slowly too. Overall my experience with SL has been great, despite the performance issues. Luckily I have land on the volcano and there are no trees to sway and cause the load up to take a month . I'm on a wireless network (Airport Extreme 56 MBPS/Sec) which is still faster than the cable modem can spit it out to me, so I don't think that's the problem. I might try to test it at home with the Ethernet cable plugged directly in. Anyone else using an Airport to connect to SL?

I'm gonna reset my crash.log and see if anything pops up, and also run with Console open (well, minimized ). I suggest ya'll do that too since if we can find a matching error we'll have something to bring to LL's attention and be one step closer to a solution.

Taun Patel

LoL - im on an airpot also.

We have similair machines, although mine is an iMac.

iMac 17 inc monitor, 1 ghz, 768 mgs, 64 mgs. vram (due to size of monitor), have a nVIDIA GeForce4 MX card.

Hi all... I currently play SL on my PC, but would love to be able to play on my mac. I have a dual-800 G4 with 1.5 gigs of ram and the ATI Twin display card. Has anyone had success with a dual-processor machine that's under 1ghz?

OOOOh. AGP acceleration is the bomb!

I turned on AGP for the first time (ooh a check box!) and after a restart SL runs almost flawlessly (cept for random (maybe 1 every few days) crashes that I was told are a result of the uber-kewl AGP option doh). I've also found that in Pomponio where I live there is some serious lag -- but in some of the other sims it's wicked fast. I've been clocking 17 FPS in some sims, while like 8 in Cordova and Pomponio.

Has anyone else been experiencing slow or nonexistant avatar updates after changing appearance or putting a piece of cloting on ? I swore I was nekkid yesterday (error, i didn't WANT to be nekkid!) since all I saw was a gray body after putting on a new shirt, but everyone said I had clothes on, albeit of the emporer's variety ... seriously tho, I was clothed but on my screen I looked all gray. Is this a Mac bug or a worldwide thing?

Have ya'll tried the 1.3 Mac version yet?! It's great! Barely any lag, very fast response. I haven't check FPS yet but will report back. The client also autoconfigures to your system for the best performance! /clap for LL!

If you haven't grabbed it yet, check out http://www.secondlife.com/preview

Taun Patel

I want to try it, but they always seem to run previews when I'm at work.