SL on Mac OSX 10.5 (Leopard)?

It could be due to different amounts of memory available. I have 256mb to begin with, so turning it down to 128mb still leaves enough for SL. But if you only have 128mb then turning it down to 64mb doesn't leave much left for SL to use. It also depends on how many other programs you have open, since OS X uses texture memory to draw the applications. That's how it's able to draw applications that are behind other ones for expose, on XP (and in unity mode in VMware Fusion) only the visible part of the window in the background would get redrawn.

Hi.

I read though all these posts...and I'm still a little confused what to set in the preferences for my SL Client 1.18.4 on the intel macs w/ Leopard to get the best graphic performance. I know that your installed memory has an effect...but, can someone just type out a nice list of what works (generalized, of course). I would greatly appreciate...and I'm sure many reading this thread would too. Thanks.

I started with Tiger and it had the problem. So, I figured install Leopard. Still has the problem!

Now I've upgraded to the latest SL version and the problem has gotten worse.

Has no one else had this? It might be my machine?????

My very first leap into Mac and I might bring it back and return to the world of PCs.

I am so bummed but this Mac is driving me crazy.

Abbie

The amount of memory might be an issue, but I can run it with nothing else running and still feel like I'm gonna crash half the time.

You're running SL in Parallels using Windows XP? I may have to try that...

I've read on other sites that SL does some unusual UDP traffic, including sending large packets. I'm having a problem where the longer I am in SL, and especially the more I change out clothing, I believe my Mac's networking systems are being bombarded and stall out. If I'm lucky, I can quit SL, turn off Airport, turn back on Airport, relaunch SL, and I'm back again. If I'm not lucky, my computer is completely locked up requiring a hard reboot.

This is a new computer, so I shouldn't be having a lot of issues, all else being equal.

I have been using the RC 1.18.4.2 client.

Given that Parallels is another level of emulation on top of the Mac OS, I haven't tried that yet...

I've had some luck with adjusting my client settings, but I may just be rearranging chairs on the deck of the Titanic, as the saying goes.

My setup:
15" MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2g RAM
Mac OS X 10.4.10

Some things I plan to try to improve performance:

1. upgrade my wireless router to 801.11g or n -- i'm running an older router with 802.11b
2. find a way to connect by ethernet instead of airport / wireless
3. upgrade to Leopard and run Windows XP in Boot Camp

You and I are running very similar systems Denver (I have a bit more RAM). I have upgraded my wireless hub (the new Airport) and though I have noticed a huge difference in speed in all of my network communcations, no real help in SL, unfortunatly.

I am seeing the exact same type of crashes you describe: Starts fine, then eventually begins to get jittery, slows down, and if I don't log-out I have a hard crash requiring a hard shut-down (very disturbing). I'm not much of a programer (just enough to get myself into trouble) but it feels like a memory leak somewhere. I have cut down my available video ram as described in previous posts, and that seems to help a bit if I stay in one location, but the more movement I do the more problematic things are and the downward spiral begins.

Is there someone at LL who is working on some of the Mac issues that we can help support with testing or communcation? It certainly seems to me that the Mac community would be very involved with SL, at the very least on an artistic level (not to paint us with an overly-large brush) if we could resolve some of these platform specific issues. It's hard for me to believe that SL can be more demanding of my hardware than working with Maya and Final Cut while rendering in the background.

I would be very willing to work on solving our problems in any way I could if there was a point person at LL who was facilitating...sometimes a little communication goes a long way.

Hi. After messing around with LL's client for hours...I decided to give Onrez's client a try. And BOOM! Right off it was tons better, no messing with the settings. Seems Electric Sheep actually cares about MAC users...more than Linden Labs.

If you are having troubles on Leopard I suggest giving Onrez Client a try...it has a couple nice extra features that the regular LL client doesn't have...Oh, ONE NOTE, you need to setup it up so you don't see all that CSI crap Cheers.

Having tried everything that I have tried so far, my suspicion is a problem in the networking layer of the Mac OS. I've taken my router out of the loop and connected directly, and get the exact same result. If SL is sending really large UDP packets in some kind of continuous stream as I've read elsewhere, then the Mac OS may lock up / freeze when a particularly large packet hits it.

Once I upgrade to Leopard, I'm going to install Boot Camp with WinXP and say screw using the Mac OS client.

Last night I did get SL for Windows running in Parallels. SL only had 16mb video ram option available, and I got the exact same problem with running fine up to a point, followed by sluggish performance then a total lockup. This only confirmed my suspicion of the Mac OS networking, since Parallels runs XP in emulation. (I'm also assuming I don't have faulty RAM chips or other hardware issues, such as a problematic Airport Extreme card...)

My co-worker is pushing me to upgrade to Leopard, so I'll probably be trying Boot Camp this weekend.

Edit:
I did try OnRez, and while I like some of the interface refinements, I had no change in my networking / crashing issues.

I did two things this weekend in my quest to improve SL performance on my MacBook Pro. I upgraded to Leopard AND installed a new Airport Extreme wireless router. (There was also a new SL client released, which I am using.) While these seemed to help somewhat, I still have the same problem with SL's client performance and my Mac locking up.

So I installed Boot Camp and Windows XP.

As much as it pains me to do so, I have to say the Mac SL client is *unusable* while the Windoze version is lightning fast on my laptop. Night and day, no comparison. I ran SL for HOURS under Boot Camp / WinXP and had minimal problems. In MacOS, I run for only a few minutes before a total lockup requiring a hard reboot.

I would love to get involved with beta testing the MacOS client -- noone wants to see the Mac SL client on par with the Windoze client more than I do. But for the forseeable future, I'll be dual booting just to run SL. And that's sad.

Just as a followup even though no one else seems to have this issue. After having too many issues with the Leopard upgrade I did a clean install. Just for kicks I installed SL first and it ran as well as it ever does.

After I installed the Final Cut Studio the problem of the the SL Voice Client crashing returned.

Does LL read this or should I post it somewhere they will see?

I have this problem also. I used DiskWarrior and my voice worked one time after that, but then it started immidiately crashing after that. I tried the Onrez viewer, and my voice doesn't work in that either. I do not feel like doing a clean install as that is a PITA, I will wait for either LL or Apple to fix it.

Machine specs:

Model Name: MacBook Pro 15"
Model Identifier: MacBookPro1,1
Processor Name: Intel Core Duo
Processor Speed: 2.16 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 2 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP11.0055.B08
SMC Version: 1.2f10

My voice now works if I use the latest release candidate, just downloaded it and tested it and it works fine.

Just re-logged and now it doesnt work again.

MacPro 2.66ghz with 6GB Ram. 16Mbps DSL. OS X 10.5.1.

I get a lot of beach ball lockups and jumpiness in SL. Typically the beach ball lasts upto 60 seconds then everything is ok again.

I also get a strange event from time to time where my avatar flys off on its own through solid objects until it hits the edge of a region, then the client bombs out. I have discovered that in this situation the only thing to do is teleport away....anywhere even in the same region.