Huge change in FPS for no apparent reason

Just in the past few days this started happening. It'll be running at 15 fps (slowest running application on my entire laptop -.- ) and then for no reason, shoot down to like 1.5 and then 0.6. This happens in a secluded area where everything was already rezzed and nobody came in or left. It's just a still scene with nothing changing, without my camera moving, and everything slows down.

I've also noticed around the same time that this started happening that SL is running at a constantly lower FPS as if something major has changed. What once would be going at like 15 is now from 5-10.

It's getting REALLY hard to use SL.

Oh, and also, often it'll say my fps is like "1.7" but will in fact take more than 3 seconds to update the screen...more like 0.3 fps.

Jesus.

i just now noticed you said laptop ... has it been getting unusually hot, it might have blown out the little case fan

Oh no the fan is fine.

However, I cleared my cache and restarted my computer and it seems to be better for now



edit: it's doing it again for no reason with nothing new opening or closing.


Fix SL plz.

kthxbai

Maybe you are running automatic updates on the OS, which would take some focus away from the SL Client causing it to have lower resources, or maybe:

Your Anti-Virus programme is checking the SL Cache folder as you download textures etc... if its Norton, I have read this is a issue but can be set not to scan the SL Cache.

Have you got enough HD space for all the Caches? IE, OS and SL, plus QuickTime, all use seperate caches.

Run a registry cleaner, spurous entries that are dead, can divert the system looking for them.

Defrag the HD. Also run ScanDisk, you may have bad sectors.

Turn off HD Indexing (only really useful for servers, not laptops).

Run NoAdware on your machine, to check for exploits that use system resources to transmitt data while you are using the system.

Start, Control Panel, Firewall Icon, Exceptions Tab, make sure only SL Voice and your anti-virus software are checked to bypass the firewall.

Clear IE cache and cookies regularily, especially if you also have Firefox installed as well. There is an exploit that uses one browser to steal information and install cookies in the other browsers cache.

I do suspect that there is potentially a heat issue, you could try sitting the laptop on a cooler base. SL is particularily a heavy graphics programme, that can cause heat stress to several system components that can also cause heat creepage.

Hope that helps.

Yeah yesterday I:
-Ran CCleaner
-Ran Adaware
-Ran Spyware Doctor
-Ran Avast AntiVirus
-put my laptop on my cooling base (that has two fans on the bottom)
-cleared cache again
-installed CPUIdle Extreme
-restarted

(should have that covered the exploit thing?)

And the same thing is happening. I only really notice it happening when SL is running...

It's a pretty recent, sudden thing. Maybe I'll run Scandisk and defrag...I haven't in the 2 months (or so) that I've had this laptop


Thanks

BTW it happens when my CPU, out of nowhere, shoots strait to 100%...

edit: I had like 20 exceptions in my firewall..is that bad somehow?

BTW I'm on Vista.

Uncheck all exceptions except SLVoice and your antivirus (although it shouldn't need to bypass your firewall). Either a lot of those programmes registered to bypass your firewall are for server setups (office environment, which you don't need), or are exploits.

Ingame, turn down particles to 0.

Tor, I have noticed similar problems since Friday 26th, last week.

Initially thought it was just a combination of the usual weekend lags and the additional loading generated by the CSI event. However problem still persisting for me nearly a week later

I always log in and out of an empty SIM, virtually no objects or scripts running in it so it always gives me a good base reference to how SL is running. Since Friday my FPS has been halved. Several friends have also noticed drops in FPS.

My suspicion (no proof just MHO) is that LL has employed a more aggressive data throttling algorithm to help cope with higher numbers of users on line simultaneously.

Glad it's not just me

I defragged my laptop last night and was able to use it around 2 or 3 hours ago. Though I haven't been in a laggy sim or been around a ton of prims (just standing in my personal skybox) it seems much better. FPS is like 1.75 times what it was yesterday. Though I am still noticing, now that it's a lot better, that the FPS is jumping up and down for no reason. At least, for now, it isn't exponentially slowing too 100% cpu usage and then freezing like before...

I'll go to some of the sims I was last night and see if the problem occurs again.

You got my hopes up with your last post about things improving but for me it’s still the same, FPS about half what I am used to.

Have checked everything I can on my end, PC, ISP etc am convinced it’s at SL end.
Either aggressive throttling by LL or possibly there’s a fault in LL's hardware.
Seen similar slowdowns and disruptions before like they have been posting on the blog and they have belatedly advised of hardware failure after everyone’s suffered days of pain.

Maybe the current rolling update will change something for the better

I got my hopes up too

After like 5 hours of 10 FPS bliss (5 hours yesterday after I defragged), it's back down to like 4 FPS that, every 30 seconds, shoots down to less than 1.

I'm convinced it's SL. I've run every possible test/scan for spyware or malware, and even got CPU Idle, that helps with the problem when CPU usage shoots to 100%.

CpuIdle didn't help, but the fact remains: it ONLY shoots to 100% WHEN SECOND LIFE IS RUNNING.

Second Life is broken. Fix it.


EDIT: Weird...I cleared cache, closed SL, then ran the release candidate. It's working fine for now...

So lufpleh, just DL the latest release candidate. Who knows..if your problem is the same as mine, it could help.

Well at least for some of you, I guess this below, will help improve the situation:-

If you are using XP, set the system cache to a fixed size (system default spreads the cache all over the place and causes huge fragmentation) after you have defragmented your HD.
If you have the luxury of having more that one HD (not a partition on the same HD), then move the system cache to a different HD to the OS cache. If you have the funds, you can purchase a small HD, assuming you have enough port controllers, and mount the cache there.

Why does this have an effect on running SL? Well I defragment my HD (specifically the caches) everyday, or before I make machinima and afterwards. I gauage that I can run SL for approximately 4 hours (if I tp about a bit) or 6 hours if I stay in one or two places. If you spend time in one place, then setting your draw distance to 64-96 will reduce the cache defragmentation.

This will not 100% cure SL issues. It will give you greater time before fps slow down, and should only be considered part of a solution.

Running a registry cleaner and reducing the amount of system fonts you have, along with placing desktop icons into folders, using a tiled desktop background rather than the 1gb picture of your cat, all increase the available memory for applications and reduce the cache usage when windows are opened and closed.

In your opion guys what is considered a good FPS?

I generally seen 30-45fps in the laggiest places I go, and often see it go to 90plus on the statistics window if it is a very low lag area.

Some people are spoiled with FPS -.-
90 FPS isn't a "good" fps, it's useless since you can't tell the difference between 50 and 90.

A good FPS is like ~25... Hit that, and your happy.

Of course, SL is the slowest program I've EVER used (in relation to other applications on the same system), and so I'm never happy.

Scratch that: SL is so slow (how slow is it?) SL is so slow, it's lowered my expectations to the point where I'm happy, nay, ecstatic at 10 FPS.

The basic standard that can be acheived by SL is the SIM fps rating of 45. As I make machinima ingame, I look to acheive a stable 25fps. Having a great system will not always allow you to acheive that due to the link between your client and the LL servers uses the internet.

Strange that people expect SL to be a stable and predicable platform, when they will rarely complain that a website takes ages to show a coupls of gif's and stalls regularily. The complexities between the Client and data center at LL is very high. A few years ago, when Dialup ruled, some of us were playing SL, there have been improvements now that ASDL etc have been implimented, but is it that noticeable? Not really, the connection speeds have been uprated 10+ fold, yet lag etc still exists. Dual/Quad cores, multiple gigabytes of very fast ram, huge fast HD's, GC's that are aweinspiring in their abilities, yet the improvements don't seem to match.

Potentially, the reason would be the contention ratio's, now using the internet and the vast array of things the internet are being used for, have grown expotentially. Add to that the amount of checking now done between the programmes and the internet links, virus checkers, phishing, pop up blocking, firewalls, maleware blocking etc etc, all taking cpu cycles and bandwidth.

All very true AWM

Tried your suggestions regarding cache and fragmentation more in hope than expectation, really just to rule to another possibility.
Still got low FPS

I'm still convinced LL has a problem or has done something to the throttling algorithm.
Using the Debug console I can see SL controlling my FPS.

It was literally like a switch was set on the Friday 26/10. Day before and for countless others I always got an FPS of 18 when logging into an empty sim, contains less than 20 objects, less than 20 scripts and not another AV
I have a couple of other locations I also use as references just so I know its SL wide and not my login Sim that’s got problems. Same in all locations, for me FPS is about halved.

When you’re used to living with a low FPS system, you get to understand/appreciate its effects and tuning preferences for performance is a constant task, you get quite adept at it.

The fact that so many other people are commenting on it, in the blog post comments and within SL itself, convinces me that the problem lies with LL.

Seen similar slow downs before and its taken LL a quite a while to resolve.
Hopefully it is a fault they will rectify eventually and not a deliberate throttling which they won’t reverse.

Can only keep sludging through SL in hope that maybe the asset server update that was postponed last week will lead to an improvement


PS: Tor, I don’t see the sudden FPS drops you mention so might be worth looking at Client Debug Settings: CTRL + ALT + D > Client > Rendering > Rendering Tests
Nothing should be checked with an X

OK it's confirmed: SL is causing these slowdowns.

I REFORMATTED MY COMPUTER and the first thing I did was install SL...and guess what? Just a crappy and slow.

LindenLab: fix Second Life. The whole "ruining second life for fun" thing got old. Make it playable and stop breaking it. What little progress is made is always gone when something else gets wrong. Goddamn.

SL is making my CPU shoot strait up at random intervals which causes the FPS to go from 10 to 1.


Nobody's impressed...

Whilst I sympathise with the issues you are suffering, if it was soley LL/SL causing the issues, why do I still get between 30-90+ fps?

Since late last week, the Time Dilations have been some of the worst I've seen in SL for years, that suggests that they are taking certain elements of the grid off line, probably with the asset server upgrading so it can be upscaled. Time Dilations are linked with elements of the grid becoming out of sync.

Have you tried running a registery cleaner? I assume you have turned off particles in preferences? and rippled water, turned down flexi sliders.... and you are not using a wireless connection?

Try running it on a real computer. Don't mean to be crass, but laptops are not performance gaming machines, which is something that SL generally runs best on, unless you have some rip-roaring lappy rig from Sager... =P

You get a stupidly high FPS because you decided to buy a good machine. Everything else runs fine on my laptop BUT SL.

However...

I know it's SL because since a day ago, when, again, NOTHING has changed, it's suddenly back up to the highest FPS I've ever seen. In my prim-happy room I'm getting 18 FPS, which doesn't make any sense since I reformatted like 3 days ago and it was still slow. I reformatted and was getting like 2 FPS. Then the next day I'm getting 18.


And a laptop is a real computer. I can play Half Life 2 at perfect fps with no lag, but at one point had to play SL at 2 FPS?
I remember the VERY FIRST time I played SL, my first reaction was WOW FPS LOL I CANT PLAY THIS. I was about to give up just because how poorly it ran compared to everything else that runs fine.

Either way, it seems perfectly fine right now (again, running faster than I've ever seen it go). It's just weird how it was fluctuating when no changes were made (other than the fact that I reformatted - but it still ran like crap after that)

There are some super nice dedicated gaming laptops out there so to say laptops are not serious gaming machines is a bit of a fallacy.

I've run SL on a HP 6230, HP 6400, Dell 620 with no issues. Even wireless networking with my D620 I run 14ish fps on average.

I suspect the issue is really how SL handles itself. It always makes me wonder way it says "clothing still loading, you look normal to others" when it really should be that I never look wrong on my side.

I have noticed though turning makes a drop in fps super briefly, and one direction makes a huge drop, but I don't recall which way that was I was facing.

But each time it comes back up to speed for me. Just hiccups.

You are correct, there are some very nice laptops set-up out there for gaming. They are not your normal, typical off the shelf retail units though hence my comment about Sager.

14 FPS is not something to be proud of as an average.

SL is a very CPU and graphics intenesive application. It's also a hard disk and memory pig most of the time. Laptops do not normally have very fast anything. Your typical off the shelf unit with Centrino procs, even dual-core, have low memory bandwidth, low hard disk speeds, poor graphics adapter implementations, if you are even lucky enough to have a real graphics adapter (Intel is not a real graphics adapter)....

Laptops are what they are, made for portability, utility and a mobile computing experience, some do a better job of it than others and thinking most of any of them are gaming rigs is a farce in itself. To match my rig to a laptop I have to spend $3000 on one (http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=14886), why bother? I'll stick with my rig on the floor for REAL gaming, that'll run 50-90 FPS in SL, on a real C2D fully powered Intel processor, with 4GB of mem, a real nVidia 8800GTX graphics card, which will always provide a far supierior gaming experience for anything, or any application for $1800. Unless you wanna fund me for one of those Sager's =P

I built my systems so I could get the best from SL, especially as I make machinima in the SL environment for clients. Thats the main advantage of desktop systems, you can easily add/takeaway/upgrade any part of your system to make it do specific tasks well. Like most 'standard' desktop units, laptops try and be a 'Jack of all trades', unless you buy or make a specific setup.

When ppls make references/corollations between the likes of SL and Halflife, the two platforms couldn't be further apart from a graphics point of view, SL being OpenGL and Halflife being DirectX, the rendering engines are completely different. Most modern GC's are heading down the DirectX route when quoting specifications. OpenGL is lagging behind.

When SL's client becomes a browser pluggin, you will then be able to use the native OS rendering through API calls, much like media and picture rendering is done now. You will probably find greater compatibility and less clientside lag issues then.

think the point is being missed here.

Upto a few weeks ago Tor and myself (+ countless others) all enjoyed an adequate SL existance on our "crappy" laptops.
My earlier post explains how I closely I monitor my SL connection, so I know when there is a problem.
Its inconcievalble that all our PC's suddenly went and down graded themselves. The thing we have in common is SL, the thing that has changed is SL's performance, the problem is therefore more than likely LL's.

I suspect it’s a routing problem, that’s why some people are seeing no ill effects.

LL has had problems like this before and it does take time for them to recognise it.
About 6 months ago data from the biggest IP in Germany was being routed incorrectly in and out of the SL servers. This lead to a huge clamoring from the german users which took months for LL to recognise as a real problem.

I suspect a similar fault or bug so can only wait and hope that LL wake up

loh and behold, same crappy laptop, no driver updates, no new hardware, no mods to graphic settings AND we are back to normal FPS rates!!!

Was testing for several hours this afternoon, trying to find a routing fault, tracert etc on different PC's and ISP's, found nothing, always got crap FPS.

Later on while logged into SL with the now usual crap FPS, I visited several Sims looking for Miller Rust who had posted "SL Client Memory Leak Crashes - Sick of It” /111/a8/222147/1.html

and my FPS shoots back up to what I would expect. Stunned am I, gob smacked more like especially as it’s the weekend, when you expect piss poor FPS and loads of lag!!

Occurred shortly after 11 am PST / 7pm GMT. Logged in and out, checked my usual reference Sims, all back to normal

Thanks to the Grid Monkey who found the broken bits

Expect you will see less blog entries from LL next week about problems logging in etc