LOD Algorithm Broken?

I've posted a bug report on the Secondlife Profession Issue Tracker here (please vote if you've noticed the same thing!).

As I say in it, I've been seeing more and more evidence lately that the LOD algorithm (which automatically reduces object detail to maintain performance) is completely fubared. It simply isn't doing it's job, as I can go into a prim-heavy area where my fps plummets, and yet it won't reduce detail! I instead have to do it manually at which point I get some semblance of playability back, but it's an absolute pain to do when there's a feature that's supposed to do it for me!

I'm posting here in the hopes some people may have more details that will help in tracking it down so it can be fixed soon, possibly even rolled into the current beta if there's enough support for it.

I've also noticed other oddities as listed in the report, namely; flexi-prims work fine, they go into a horrifying jittery mess just as expected when there's a gajillion of them on-screen. So their LOD seems to work fine, however that's calculated.
Also, LOD can be forced to work if you focus on a prim, but it only seems to work for THAT prim, and only if it's a detailed one (in my case a hollowed ring with sections cut away to create a 'concave' shape; a cylinder with sides that curve inwards at the middle of the Z-axis), others will stubbornly remain full-detail.

...whereas I have a hud object that doesn't come in to full detail...the sphere sits there a stubborn hexagon...

Hrm, it seems to work better with sliders down, but still not particularly well. I'm struggling to understand what's actually causing it to kick in. It seems to me that the LOD algorithm should have some target FPS (which would be nice if we could set it ourselves) and if SL is below this then LOD will lower the overall detail accordingly to try and get as close to the FPS target as possible.
The sliders should then be determining the comparative detail, ie which things are reduced in detail fastest to meet the target.

I'd like to be able to set a max FPS, such that if I either turn off some/all rendering features (or my machine happens to be beefy enough) I cant tell SL to limit processessing and not render 200 FPS (no, that's not a typo, I actually got that high by turning off all rendering and reducing the SL window to about 640x480). I'd rather SL limit that FPS to 40 and not overheat my CPU when it's doing "essentially nothing."

I want my money!

You’ve ignored my last 15-20 support tickets!

I WANT MY MONEY!

-Ben

Hi. This really isn't a good place to post this kind of thing. You could try calling LL, or something. You might also consider the fact that it's Sunday, and LL Support doesn't work weekends.

Hmm, I suffer the opposite. I have a studded collar and some prim eyes. In some cases I only see the leather band of the collar, have to focus it, zoom in ... and? The studds pop up and stay the whole time, no matter what zoom.
Similar thing happens to the prim eyes, they never show up, only after a zoom in, but get lost soon again.

Are you sure your GC control settings aren't overriding SL? Are they set to 'Let programme decide'?
I don't like the idea of some of the Client setting not being sticky, no point having them unless LL believe we only want session adjustments.