Brent - stutter/cpu spike fix coming Wed?

Brent,

Wondering if you all have had any success in tracking down the stuttering bug I mentioned? It used to happen on all my Intel Macs, but now it only happens on my iMac with 128MB of RAM (the X1600)... on my MacBook Pro it seems ok.

Or I should correct myself and say it is much less noticable on the MBP and the game is unusable after a short time on the iMac.

I have no problems in BootCamp/Windows on the iMac. I had no problems with 1.9 on the same iMac.

Thanks!

I guess not... the problems are still there.

This is the same problem others have referred to as "pulse lag". (Incidentally, the frame info shows the huge spikes are render/geometry updates that are literally off the chart whenever I turn)

So... our new update has

a) made the game unplayable.

Soo.... OK, I am forced into crappy Windows (at least I have that option!) to play the game.

Now linden screws the inventory system so you really can't search for anything anymore. Hit search on a folder... and you can't open it. It used to be you could highlight the folder found in search, click "show all" and you would be zoomed up to it in your inventory tree.

So now my windows game is destroyed too, for different reasons.

Torley is looking into it - see current version feedback threads for more.

Getting back to topic:

Pleaseeee fix the Mac client! There should be no reason at all that:

1) a game that ran as smooth as silk in 1.9 now runs unusuable on the same machine
2) a game that is unsuable under one OS (OS X) on the same machine is usable under Windows with the same hardware.

In all the updates for the Mac over time... this latest set of series 10 updates have been the absolute worst. The new features are nice, but the QA testing is pretty bad. Especially on the Mac side.

Lots of creatives use Macs, so I think the percentage of Mac users in SL is a bit higher than the average. Why lose the creative people to bad QA and design?

Like I said... you need to make sure you have four good tires on your car before you go hitting harder on the gas. New releases must be tested better.

We're interested in figuring this one out. Can you give me locations (simname, x y z, approximate compass direction you were facing) where you see this problem? I've noticed it here and there too, but I would not say it makes Second Life unusable. Perhaps you have found somewhere with really complex geometry that's killing your framerate -- still, something we want to fix.

Since you've been having problems with the updates I'd like to welcome you to pop into the Preview grid and please submit bug reports. Our testing efforts would be bolstered by your participation!

Thanks!

We looked at this problem and it seems to be related to "Ripple Water". Turn Ripple Water off if its on (Edit > Preferences > Graphics Detail). This should make your system kinda happier. Sorta.

A fix is in the works. No timetable.

Brent, first thank you so much for getting back to us. I almost gave up. =)

I'll test this tonight. [Update: and the inventory bugs will be fixed Wed! yayy]

I will also do what you ask and pop into the preview once in a while to help give input, etc. I still push for better testing though, though this particular issue is a bit hard to track down.

I'll also give a quick update here with some coordinates so you can reproduce later tonight when I get a chance. This will confirm the bug. (I'll miss the rippled water, but I can handle it if it means not having to boot into Windows all the time.)

Thanks again..more to come.

Yep, that is what it is. Try standing on my land at Chameleon 83,68,22. Turn rippled water on and rotate in circles for a while on that spot.

You'll see the massive slowdowns/stutters/lag, which will continue even once you are -away- from Linden water.

Turn off Rippled water, and all is well again.

I do have some heavy geometry around, so there is obviously some slow down as you move around into the area of high prims, but it doesn't stutter out.

There is a a definitive negative connection between geometry loads/drawing (on already loaded content, btw) and rippled water being on.

Hopefully you'll fix this bug, but thanks for tracking it down! With Rippled Water being on by default and working on Windows, I never thought to shut it off.

For now, I can play again on the Mac and enjoy the game, just without the nice waves.

err. well, I can't until the inventory is fixed. =) Yes I need to keep mentioning it. haha

Notes:

Rippled water works much better on my MacBook Pro 2.0. I can turn on rippled water on my 256MB X1600-equipped MacBook Pro with little (but now that I have checked, some small amount of) stuttering.

Rippled water results in a quick deterioration into stuttered "frame lag" messiness anytime geometry enters and exits a frame with the 128MB video card on the intel iMacs.

On the same machine under Windows, rippled water works ok. If I want the best pictures or an especially nice beach sunset, I can log on there =)

-Beth

P.S. I filed a big report JIC

Bethanee,

When your MacBook Pro starts slowing way down and stuttering, please try the following and see if it helps as a temporary workaround. (Leave ripple water on or off, it doesn't matter for this test.)

1) Go into the Adv Graphics tab in preferences and select the radio button just below your maximum/recommended graphics memory. (i.e. if it defaults to 256MB, set it to 128MB.) Click OK.

See if that doesn't correct your stutter/sluggishness and please report back here. It seems to work well for me.

-- Joey

Joey, you're right! What a great bug hunter you are. =)

See: /164/82/109003/1.html#post1084153

(I don't know how to make this show a particular post within a thread... only the individual post?)