A True Crime Against Second Life

The client's default settings.

Let me explain: during the past few days I met new residents who were discovering Second Life, and an old friend of mine who had almost entirely moved to There. And all of them were not really enjoying SL because, simply put, it was a grey slideshow to them, and they didn't know it even could be otherwise.

The first thing I did in SL back then was going to the Preferences window and reduce almost everything to the minimum until it became playable, becase it's the usual thing to do with new software, but not everyone has the computer knowledge or experience to know that 300 kbps as "max bandwidth" setting means that despite your fat DSL or cable connection you'll still see people in grey wherever you go. And this is just one example... Why such a dense fog, for one ? I quickly set the fog ratio above 3 so SL wouldn't look like London in Winter.

So, how many new players in SL went away because of extremely poor performance ? How much of this poor performance is due to the over-optimistic settings that SL comes with ?

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!

No doubt thousands have left due to this. I almost did, until Barney (since I was lucky enough to already know him) explained how to lower my settings. And I'm not one to leave something lightly, or not to persist in trying something I really want to do, and I really wanted to do this. No one I was with knew what to do. Barney didn't give me the help immediately, but after a day or so, so you can see I was persisting mightily to last that long. I was okay on orientation island, but not in the game, at the welcome areas, or at Yadni's Junkyard, which is where people told me to go first.

Others - who don't already have friends in the game or want to play it badly doubtless would have been gone upon their first visit.

I still don't understand the settings or how to lower them, but I generally fumble through what I do know with new players. I still don't understand fog ratio. And I still don't know why some numbers are better higher and some lower, or what they mean by the confusing "faster/slower" thing it says beside some of them.

It was said that help with settings would be on the new "Help Island" - in the form of some sort of notecard or something. Is there?

coco

Jes, what are you saying the default bandwidth throttle should be?

When I was having problems when I first started with performance. I asked for help from other residents and Lindens. It seemed like the logical thing to do. It was by doing this that I received help with my settings. I'm still confused as to why other new people can't ask for help instead of just giving up and leaving.

MJ

P.S.

How much more babysitting do these people need....seriously, all this wasn't available when i started in july, 2004 and I managed just fine. **frustrated**

Here's why, MJ. Other people may not even KNOW there is such a thing as settings that will improve the experience. I didn't!

I'm used to going into games and just having them work, voila.

coco

Yes, i didn't know there was such a thing as "settings" as well. Which is what I was saying in my orginal post. My point is that through asking and trial and error, I was able to learn about all these things. I never played a MMORPG or a RPG before SL, so I was an absolute n00b. Hell, I'm still learning. The problem I have is that we are taking the exploration out of learning from new residents and later they will not appreciate it in the end. I agree that some tools are needed to get them started but there will always be something that isn't covered and I'm just wondering when do we cut the umbilical cord and let them figure shit out on their own?

MJ

OK, well, I just think that the settings to be able to play the game are different from every other "exploring" thing. I like to explore, too, but it's ridiculous to lose players from something that could be so simply fixed.

We have a choice - give them default settings that allow them to see better stuff they to see, ASSUMING their computer is good enough, and those poor folks who can't even move with those settings can just quit.

Or - give them default settings that allow the most people to be able to move, and let the ones with better computers go on to set theirs to see farther later.

Fewer would quit over only having a 64 draw distance than will quit over not being able to move at all. (And whatever other setting changes would help; I still don't understand them, and as far as I know, there is nothing straightfoward and obvious on the web site that would explain them. Cause I sure did look hard for something like that when I was on the verge of quitting shortly after I joined.)

coco

I posted this soon after I started in SL back in September...

I now carry this Notecard to give to new comers who tell me that SL sucks...


Edit... Preferences:

Adv. Graphics

Texture Cache Size: Small

Object Detail: Medium (mid point)
Tree Detail: Minimum (far left)
Avatar Detail: Full (far right)

Draw Distance: 96
Fog Distance Ratio: 4.0
Max. Particle Count: 512


...it generally seems to work as a quick and dirty fix-me-up to the default settings.

Thanks, Pale!

*copying*

coco

You make a good point here. They should change the default settings and therefore its would be a new feature or fix. You should post this suggestion in the Feature Suggestion Forum or start a proposal here . (I'm post-a-hyperlink happy today, btw) That way this one particular problem can be solved at the start. Great idea coco and good luck getting the change to take place.

MJ