Question about the time it takes to upload a texture

Ever since I started, my process of uploading textures is a very iffy one. Sometimes they upload, sometimes they just get hung up forever "uploading," and I have to log off and log back on, and once - only once - it actually showed a message saying the attempt to upload had timed out, and relatively soon, too. Normally I can sit there waiting for five minutes before having to log off, and never any message.

I have a whole bunch of theories I've tested for why this is the case.

One is that I had too many pictures and textures in too few folders. So I've made it a point to organize all the textures into folders of a possibly more managable size - say with no more than 30 textures in each, if that many, I'm not sure, and not a bunch of textures that haven't been classified yet hanging around in "My Pictures." That seems to help.

Another factor I've considered is time of day. Seems I'm more likely to get hung up at night, when lots of players are on, and less likely early in the morning.

The third factor probably has to do with my computer doesn't have enough memory.

I have tried doing it very slowly, but being real slow about it doesn't seem to help.

I would say uploading a texture for me will work only maybe 50% of the time, so it's a tedious job. And even when it is working, it will work for two or three textures, then . . . it stops. I would say managing to upload three textures in a row without having to relog would be a stellar uploading session for me.

So I started wondering this morning, are there those of you who go to upload a texture and poof, it happens, like magic? Maybe for most of you it is that way?

And do you have faster and better computers with more memory, or is there some trick to this I just don't know? Is there anything else I can do to make it more possible to actually upload textures when I try to upload them, instead of all this log on log off or wait till the next morning routine?

coco

I think I have seen almost every bug in SL but have never had a problem with image upload. Forget the folders thing, it has no connection to how SL stores images. Make sure your images are some power of 2 on each side, and go no larger than 1024x1024 (which is bigger than will likely ever be seen). That is, 2x256 is a good size, 512x128 is good, 254x256 is not good. Images bigger than 512x512 are usually a waste, with 256x256 being good for most purposes.

Since you find you have better success when load is lighter, make sure that you have 0% packet loss or lower your bandwidth in Prefs->Network until it is zero. This is good for gameplay in general and should keep your uploads from failing.

I don't think it is a memory issue because the SL client sorta "dribbles" uploads, but I'm not so sure about that. If these don't fix it, post more machine information.

I occationally also have this problem.

It seems to happen more often when my computer is low on memory, for instance if I run Photoshop in the background while uploading.

Problem is close to non-existant if I have ample memory available.

To me it looks and acts like a memory issue. I have 1GB RAM.
Sorry I couldnt be more helpful

Heh, two years of no problems and then I have the poor taste to tport in the middle of an upload. The upload previewed fine, was screwed by the tport, was uploaded again with no error.

Think I can get my L$10 back?

Oddly, I lost ten dollars this morning, too, for the first time, for no reason I could figure out. It all worked as it should have, and I uploaded texture number two, then went to get them and the first one - just wasn't there.

The fact that this iffiness is such a total way of life for me probably is due to the fact that I have only 512 of memory. That's probably all the machine info you need to know, Malachi, lol.

I never upload things as big as 1024, I don't think. But it could be some of the textures are particularly tricky because they are an odd size. I will keep a look-out for that.

I think I have never had any packet loss when I encounter this problem, which, as I said, is half the time. Probably the most useful thing I can keep an eye on now is things of odd sizes.

Thanks for the help!

coco

I have 512meg ram, a crappy 1mbit wireless connection, and never upload anything larger than 512x512 unless I am uploading a very large texture for an animation. Even then it is less than 2048x2048 in all cases.. Even when I do upload these MASSIVE textures, I have never had a time-out. These massive images take around 2 or 3 minutes to upload.

Hmm. Well then, Gaz, I just don't know.

New question: Regarding the 512x512 and other size dimensions - I took a look at some of the pics I have in my planning to upload file, and they are sitting there in Kodak form (I have the Kodak picture program on my computer as the default thingie), and though it says all the kb's and everything, it doesn't say the dimensions!

How can I figure out what the dimensions are? I mean, I knew what they were when I found them, but now that they are in my computer and ready to go, that info doesn't seem to be available any more.

coco

Coco, I use a free graphics viewer program called IranView. It allows you to resize pictures. It will give you the size in different meausrements, i.e., pixals, cm, inches, etc.

I am brand new at this and this is my first post. I hope it is what you are asking?

Jenny

Try this Coco: Instead of looking at the picture in the Kodak software, just go through "my computer" to where the picture is stored. Right Click > Properties > Summary Tab > Advanced Button.

If you are using Win XP this will give you a breakdown of the pictures statistics. Height and Width should be listed there in pixels.

Try to avoid using anything larger than 512 x 512 unless you really have to.

OK, I will try those ideas, Jennifer and Bunk.

Here's another thing I've found: I can usually upload a few textures, but then I have to log off and back on to continue.

I figure some cache somewhere is filling up and slowing things down to a crawl. (Bear in mind I am computer not-real-literate.)

coco

There's a clever trick I've seen where someone needs 4 different alpha textures or something, so they quarter them up on a 1024 x 1024 "cookie sheet" and upload that. I don't know if it's faster at uploading (and downloading) than four separate 512 x 512 ones, but I'm curious to learn. You can see something like this in the shadows of the WA.

Cocoanut, what format are you uploading in? TGA?

jpg.

coco

I'm thinking this is a memory problem. I had the same thing happen a while ago, but I haven't had it happen recently. I don't remember exactly when it stopped but I do know I've gotten new computers with more memory, so that might be what solved the problem.

Also, I see you are doing multiple uploading, have you tried bulk uploading, or do you need to see the preview for each one? And if you've tried bulk uploading, does the same thing happen?

From: Seth Kanahoe

Thank you for spewing sense into this thread.

One file containing 4 images might, just maybe, and only slightly at best, download faster then 4 seperate files. But uploading only costs L$10, rather than L$40, which is a good reason for doing it, but only if you plan on using all 4 images for the same object/project.
If you have 4 completely seperate objects that you want to texture, use seperate files, otherwise your effective download rate for each object will only be a quater of the normal speed.


Coco, if you are uploading images from a source that gives you JPG already (like a digital camera, for example), or your images are of the "shots of nature" variety then stick with JPG. No reason to go and recode the images to something else. BUT - If you are creating/drawing images in Photoshop or something similar consider using TGA with RLE compression instead. See this forum for more discussion. Your uploads may take longer (depending on the image), and may fail more often if you have heavy lag, but the image quality will be quite a bit higher once it gets there.

I used to have this exact same problem uploading jpeg's. That was like a year and a half ago, so I thought they'd squashed that particular problem by now, but I guess not. The way I solved it was simply by not using jpeg anymore, something I should have been doing anyway since jpeg is one of the worst looking and worst behaving image formats in use today. I assume the problem lies somewhere SL's process of uncompressing the jpeg, sorting the garbled data into a real image, and then re-compressing it into jpeg2000. I doubt it has to do with your computer. Between you, me, and one other person I know who had the problem at the same time I did, that makes three very different machines having the same issue. The only thing in common is the jpeg format.

I'd recommend doing the following test: convert a handfull of your images to TGA, and then attempt to upload them to SL. See if you continue to have the problem. If not, then you have your answer. Just don't use jpeg. If you still do have the problem, regardless of image format, then you know it's something else. I'll wait to try to work out what that something else might be until the time comes. See if the format change works first.

To convert the images, either get Photoshop if you can afford it (worth every penny), or else download GIMP for free. You should be able to run a batch conversion in either program so you don't have to do each one manually. See the help files or else google for a tutorial.

Good luck.

I experience this problem quite often, even using TGA.
It appears to be protocol related (Lindens: Are the files being inserted as chunks into the general SL UDP flow, rather than streamed up a TCP connection?)
It is worse when my lag is bad. This happens when my DSL lines is busy with other stuff or I am being throttled after hitting my transfer quota.
Also, if I start with a template (1024 x 1024) and forget to resample down to a more reasonable size, this problem is more likely to occur (which is actually great - after the upload fails, I am reminded to size down and try again )