Floor/Planes & Sky Warping

heyas;

i'm trying to track down some more information on a bug that seems to only affect a small percentage of users, before i try to report something vague on the jira.

image:
http://bldsong.net/imgsrv/SL-warped.jpg


SYMPTOMS:
the floor or any flat plane surface will have the texture warped, creating a vertigo effect. the angles and severity change with camera angle changes.
this does not seem to happen on the ground, only on prims.

the sky will also have angular bends in its gradients at certain angles.


WHERE/WHEN:

it seems to happen after editing for a considerable length of time. perhaps at least two hours.



if this has ever happened to you, could you post your pertinent specs? i THINK it is video card/driver specific. thanks!


CPU: AMD (Unknown model) (2210 MHz)
Memory: 1024 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 1 (Build 2600)

Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: RADEON X850 XT
OpenGL Version: 2.1.7275 Release
Driver Version: 8.451.0.0


i had this happen after updating my video driver to this version. (on the other hand, after that update, my client stopped sending my computer suddenly into sleep mode. which i suppose is a better trade off, seeing as i can still work with warped backgrounds. those with weaker stomachs may not be able to :X )

I would say, the vast majority of your issues, the answer is right in front of you.

Memory 1024mb, doesn't leave a lot for the Client to operate within.
Combined with SP1 on XP, you do not have the latest version of .NET Framework which ATI cards rely on.
Are you running the latest version of the Catalyst?
Try turnning off VBO (Vertex Buffer Objects) in the SL Client. a known issue for ATI cards.
The time span in which the symptons begin is probably due to memory leaks, the less you have the faster the issue starts.

...and here I am running the client from 6 months ago on 768 mb of ram...with no issues (other than a frame rate of about 12).

looks like your video card is overheating/going bad. Could also be a power supply thats going bad (was in my case).

n o i s s u e s o t h e r t h a n 12 f p s... dang.. lol.. But I'll bet your OS is upto speed with updates? If you are also using a good graphics card, then the CPU cycles wont suffer as badly, nor will so much of your system ram be used for storing textures...

Good graphics card? Pfft. Radeon Mobility 9000. I can't even get updates to that, I need OpenGL 1.4 (yes, 1.4) and I can't get it. ATI doesn't have an update package for anything older than the Mobile 9600 and the non-mobile version can't detect my VGA driver (which if I don't have I don't know how to get).

BTW, the 768 MB of ram is not how much SL uses, that's how much I have. SL only uses ~115 MB.

Have you tired here? http://www.omegadrivers.com/
or here http://www.omegadrivers.net/
or here http://fileforum.betanews.com/detail/ATI_Omega_Drivers/1160590419/1
here http://www.ngohq.com/home.php?page=files&go=cat&dwn_cat_id=14
here http://www.driverheavendownloads.net/omegadrive.htm
good laptop resource here http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2008/02/04/how-to-install-latest-ati-or-nvidia-drivers-on-laptop/
or use these pages here http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ati+omega+drivers&hl=en&start=10&sa=N

GL

Never heard of Omega Drivers before. Trying it out.

Nope, didn't work. Nuke still won't run and is throwing the same error ("needs OGL 1.4"

OGL 1.4?? damn that an old version. Most GC drivers support upto OpenGL 2.1

If you are using a ATI GC especially, have you installed .NET Framework version 3.0 ?

Old, I know. Which is why it annoys me that I don't have it. I'll check on .NET 3.0, I'm sure I've got .NET 2.0, but event that might be a falsehood (I've had this laptop for 3 years and I'm beginning to lose track of what I've done to it and how many times).

Edit:

No good. Still "needs OGL 1.4"

If it is a laptop, from memory, the vast majority create their own versions of GC drivers, have you downloaded the drivers from its website (assuming it supplies them)?

Looking back on this quote, you are probably right about the amount of memory SL's client uses, but have you considered that the Graphics Chip uses shared system memory? In the graphics section of the client, you can reduce the amount of memory the client uses which in some cases stabalises ppls systems to a degree.
Most GC's use some form of 'HyperMemory' technique, which creates a hole to the system memory and allows it to off load and store textures in like a ram-cache. System memory is never going to be as fast as dedicated memory, but its a technique that has been used for quite a while, especially in laptops.

I've not gotten an update through Windows Update (not surprised).
ATI has no idea what a Mobile Radeon 9000 is (apparently it's too old to provide current drivers for, but as Mobile Radeon is current technology it's not old enough to provide Legacy drivers for)
Checking Dell....my service tag comes up as an OptiPlex GX280 (what the hell?)
Checking Dell manually...Ooh, driver from Dec 2005.
*Downloads and installs*