Confused about "performance issues"

Hi Mack:

I'm not trying to knock anyone or the game. All I know is that I can not play the game and am reporting it so that maybe a SL Tech will learn about it.

I am not talking about optimal performance. I am talking about not being able to play cuz of horrendous lag. I am in the newb tutorial area. Maybe the issue is just there.

It's clearly not on my end. I have logged into other games (WOW, EQ2) just to check and I am fine.

Ok

Processor
Model : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.60GHz
Speed : 2.60GHz
Performance Rating : PR3457 (estimated)
SMT Support : 2 Unit(s)
Type : Standard
L2 On-board Cache : 512kB ECC Synchronous ATC (8-way sectored, 64 byte line size)

Mainboard
Bus(es) : ISA AGP PCI IMB USB FireWire/1394 i2c/SMBus
MP Support : 1 CPU(s)
MP APIC : Yes
System BIOS : American Megatrends Inc. V2.4
Mainboard : MICRO-STAR INC. MS-6758
Total Memory : 1023MB DDR-SDRAM

Chipset 1
Model : Micro-Star International Co Ltd (MSI) 82875P Memory Controller Hub
Front Side Bus Speed : 4x 200MHz (800MHz data rate)
Total Memory : 1024MB DDR-SDRAM
Memory Bus Speed : 2x 160MHz (320MHz data rate)

Video System
Monitor/Panel : Plug and Play Monitor
Adapter : NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GT

Physical Storage Devices
Removable Drive : Floppy disk drive
Hard Disk : Maxtor 6Y120L0
Hard Disk : Maxtor 6Y120L0
Hard Disk : Maxtor 6Y120M0

Logical Storage Devices
1.44MB 3.5" (A) : N/A
Hard Disk (C) : 114.5GB (24.2GB, 21% Free) (NTFS)
Hard Disk (D) : 114.5GB (15.2GB, 13% Free) (NTFS)
Linux : 114.5GB (87.2GB, 76% Free) (NTFS)

Peripherals
Serial/Parallel Port(s) : 2 COM / 1 LPT
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : Standard Universal PCI to USB Host Controller
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : USB Root Hub
USB Controller/Hub : Generic USB Hub
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : VIA OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
FireWire/1394 Controller/Hub : OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller
Keyboard : Easy Internet Keyboard
Mouse : Logitech-compatible Mouse PS/2

MultiMedia Device(s)
Device : Creative SB Audigy 2 ZS (WDM)
Device : Creative Game Port

Printers and Faxes
Model : hp LaserJet 1005 DOS
Model : hp LaserJet 1005

Operating System(s)
Windows System : Microsoft Windows XP/2002 Home (Win32 x86) 5.01.2600 (Service Pack 2)

Network Services
Network Drivers Enabled : Yes
Adapter : Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC

Hope this is sufficient for you.

My network connection is only 1 Mbps simply because I cannot get any better at the present time; I am over 1.5 kilometers from the telephone exchange. My latest speed checks are:-

Date Speed Achieved (kbps)
06-02-2006 20:26:42 922.7
21-12-2005 10:48:35 937.9
25-08-2005 00:39:26 962.6
18-05-2005 12:46:11 949.6
10-05-2005 14:18:38 932.4

I am living in a town thirty miles from London, which might qualify as a 'bumfuck pre-industrialised township', from your point of view, I don't know.

I was getting fairly good performance in my home sim at the last upgrade. However performance seems to have deteriorated this time round. I cannot use local lighting and I have had to reduce my draw distance to 64. Only in this way can I get above 10 fps.

Oh, SL settings:-

Disk Cache Size:- 1000 Mb
Performance Options: Antistrophic Filtering Unchecked
Local Lighting Unchecked.
Shadows Unckecked
Ripple Water Checked
Disable Far Clip Checked
Shiny Objects Checked
Avatar Rendering Bump Mapped
Terrain Detail Full

AGP Graphic Acceleration Unchecked
Graphic Card Memory 256 mb (Recommended(
Obect Detail Full
Tree Detail Full
Avatar Detail 50%
Avatar Vertex Program Checked
Draw Disrance 128
Fog Distance Ratio 2.00

Current fps: 11.1


I look forward to your sorting out exactly what my problems are, Burke, and how they might be improved.

Oh, btw - my BIOS has recently been flashed, and is now the most recent version.

Margaret:

Sorry to disapoint you but the problem lies not in my attitude but in the SL server.

Hok, first of all, welcome to Second Life! I hope you stick around long enough to enjoy it as much as I do.

One thing you need to know, you started playing JUST as an update was implimented and about 99% of the time SL is very buggy/laggy for the first day or so after an update. Reason being is basically everything has been reset and has to reload...textures, objects, sounds, inventories etc...all while players are trying to log in and check out the new features or get back to business as usual. This puts a lot of extra strain on the servers (sims) and is typically the root cause of problems immediately following updates...now if after a day or two you still experience this lag then it is fair to say there is either a prob with the update or something on your end that you may have overlooked.

Also, are you attempting to play in the "welcome areas?" 'Cuz if so, that is also a problem since they generally have TONS of players in them and that reduces performance since the server must communicate back and forth between all players in the area. Try a lesser populated sim and see if you have the same issues.

and again...WELCOME!

My apologies for being unclear. My comment was intended to suggest that as a new user, information on ways to improve your experience would better serve you than being told that your assessment of SL is unfair.

Hello:

Looks like my vid card may be the culprit here. I am using an NVidia 7800GT 256 Mb=Latest Generation=High-End, which otherwise is a very good card. Another member this afternoon posted in a new thread on the Technical Forum that he had just replaced his vid card with a 7800 and the game became unplayable for him, and he had to reinstall his old card to play the game.

So unless I am willing to give up my 7800 and purchase something else I won't be joining you folks in SL. Probably just as well. Knowing myself this game probably would wind up costing me a fortune to play

Cya'll in another game.

HOK

completely uninstall your vid drivers, install the new card, reinstall your vid drivers.

Ok - just an update. Forgive me for quoting the lot again, but I still haven't heard anything from Burke, and I had hoped he might be able to assist me. I have, since the above, added a further 1Gb of RAM, so I now have 2Gb in total. It doesn't seem to have made much difference in terms of framerate, though, and I am certainly not getting anything like the framerates some people are achieving.

In Umber, with local lighting turned off and draw distance set at 128, I am still only getting about 9 - 11 fps.

I have a few computers and one of them does this exact same thing.
It's a server and plays all other games perfectly at max graphics. And online, etc.
But not for SL.
heh
Yet at one time I got an old 500mhz to squeeze two clients of sl on at once. (crap graphics thou)
My explination- It's a straaange world. Both RL and SL.

This is getting ridiculous. Do we need the air velocity of the prevailing draughts?

Ok. To add to what I posted above:-

I don't know what the arbitrary use of RAM is. Could you explain please, and tell me how I might find out this figure?
Latency is, I believe 2.5. If it's not in the detail I have already posted, I will find out.
Yes, it is dual channel, and it is not overclocked.
Please explain how I can establish the temperatures of RAM on load.
The card is, I believe AGP8x. Surely that is implicit in the model no. of the card?
I don't know what SLI cabling is. Please explain, and let me know how I can find this out.
I would have thought that the GPU architecture (if it is what it sounds like) would have been an implicit quality of the card. Is that not so?
I believe the VRAM of the 6800GT card is 256. Not sure though.
Please explain how virtual memory is allocated to each HDD.
HDD spin. Is this the speed of the drive? All mine are 7200, I believe.
Transfer cable is a serial cable in the case of the disk which has the SL software on it.
I think the processor speed and the amount of L2 cache is covered in the information I have posted.
I have set things up so that hyperthreading is turned off when sl is run.
64 or 32 bit processor is, I believe covered by what I have posted.
Additional processes running? There are 38 of them. And it would take a very long time to type them out. Could you please let us have a list of which ones are significant. Or where the significance of the other processes lies? Or, indeed, a way of obtaining a selectable list of them. Then I would be happy to post the list here.
The actual OS architecture? Don't know what this means. Please explain how this can be discovered and posted.
Defragging hasn't been done for a while, but I will defrag my disks and let you know whether that makes any difference.

I am of the opinion that nobody understands what makes nearly identical machines differ in performance by a factor of 10. This is either because there is insufficient understanding of how the client interacts with the GL level, or probably because of those silly 220V 50Hz mains you use on the island.

Don't worry, it happens to everyone once in a while. Just relax for a little bit and we can try again later.

Silly? Silly? That is a butch, hefty current - not like the effete 110 volt American version. We use that for our tens units.

We're well 'ard.

I think you need to look at the fast timers screen to find out what is making things slow. SL has some built in performance profiling tools. You'll need to open up the debug menu first though - then try taking a screenshot of the fast timers screen and posting it.

Update. I have now defragged my C drive, which is where sl resides, but it has made no difference.

URL of Fast Timers screen posted below. It appears not to be possible to attach the actual photo to the posting.

http://www.langjones.plus.com/Fast Timers.jpg

Would also appreciate hearing from Burke and Siara.

Ok. Here is another Fast Timers capture during a period of low frame rate.

http://www.langjones.plus.com/Fast Timers 3.jpg

Burke?

Siara?

Anybody?

*bump*

*sigh*

Well, in both cases it's spending a huge amount of time in the "Alpha" rendering step, which is presumably the rendering pass for semi-transparent objects. In other words, it doesn't seem to be bottlenecking on:

- Network
- RAM
- Disk speed

I don't know where you are in these screenshots, or what you're wearing, but if I were you I'd try these things:

- Fiddle with the AGP setting. If it's on switch it off and vice-versa, see if that makes any difference
- Change what you're wearing or how you look
- Go to an empty sim, see if speeds change
- Upgrade/downgrade your video drivers
- Use the debug menu to hide objects in very slow areas, to see if/when things speed up. IIRC there is an option to see invisible objects, that may be worth doing.

Also check to see what sort of video RAM usage SL thinks you have/is trying to use. One thing that can make rendering very slow is if you are experiencing texture swapping - try reducing the amount of video RAM that SL is allowed to use.

Good luck!

Agreed! And I'm getting pissed too when I hear people, who don't seem to have a life but tons of money, tell others not as fortunate: "If you can't afford better hardware then SL isn't for you".

To those folks: If everybody in SL had that snobby f'ed up attitude, then SL wouldn't be for me!

Lately it seem to be raining asshats in SL anyway.

I had recently tried to upgrade to a much faster system but ran into complications. So, I had to go back to my "old" computer (Intel P4 3GHz, 1GB RAM and nVidia 6800GT). Since I had cleaned everything off as I was going to give it to a family member, I had to re-install everything. *ugh*

Now, you would expect the system to run slightly faster being it's a clean install, smaller registry, less programs, up to date drivers, etc. But SL is definately running slower. When I teleport somewhere, some people's AVies take minutes to appear and the old change your active group trick doesn't work anymore. Plus, alpha textures don't always look right and other little glitches.

Purely anecdotal evidence mind you.