Reader Submitted: The Cloud Move

By Kἶէმƈεlἶმ Lմἶղƈօɾἶმlօէε Kεlνმɾl (Kitacelia Resident)

The first thing I have noticed, is much slower rezzing sometimes taking as much as 20 minutes to rezz an area and some items still not rezzing no matter how long you wait or leave or relog that weren't blocked or blacklisted.

The next thing I have noticed is that DJ streams seem to hiccup or skip quite often now, regardless of their internet, PCs, DJing program or location. I notice this because I host quite often so listening to DJ streams is  a large part of that. I hate to imagine what a DJ goes through trying to run a DJ  program and Second Life with all the current SL issues.

I have also experienced increased logging in times, as much as two to three times longer at times.  I have experienced increased lag and crashing as well.  I have major cable company high speed internet and while my PC isn't top of the line it is fairly decent and relatively newish.

Another issue, while I am uncertain it is related, is that I had once experience several months ago where all the scripted objects on land I rent broke, and had to be reset. Some permanently broke, and had to be replaced or were gone forever.  Several other times the same land my avi wouldn't rezz and nothing could be rezzed.

Several items that were scripted seem to have broken in some fashion due to updates and often it was up to the creators to fix them or not as LL apparently did little to nothing to deal with the script issues on certain items caused by these updates.

I have also noticed more bugs, and it taking longer for them to fix them. One especially annoying one that apparently took two weeks to fix was the recent timestamp issue on group notices where they looked like they were all sent the exact min, second, hour, day etc you looked back at the notices.  There were also issues with flickr and other things that came up and didn't seem to be resolved in a particularly timely manner.  

Increased scheduled and unscheduled maintenance has also been happening, which makes it difficult to do much in Second Life, much of it during prime time hours for the US and/or Europe. Also, it seems the servers either have a very small limit or aren't good at keeping track of blacklisted items.

While they have introduced some really cool new projects in the last few years, I hope they will reconsider this cloud move as it seems to be not only hindering the application of the cool new additions to a degree but also making more traditional applications/objects difficult as well to a point Second Life is sometimes barely playable and possibly not playable at all for some.   I have been in SL almost daily for nearly eight years. So while I am not one of the first or close to it, I am not even remotely close to new, recent, or a casual user.

I think Second Life has the population they have kept going mainly because they have had no real competition. If these issues persist or worsen I wonder how many will remain here post Covid-19.

Kitacelia

SLife and Times: Viewer Issues

"Is it just me, or is there something wrong with Second Life?" That's been a question I've been asking myself this week. One of the places I go to regularly, there's not usually any problem and I can cam around and chat to my hearts content. But twice this week, things began to slow down and freeze up to the point the screen would turn black. A few times I had to close the viewer and restart. The crowd wasn't that particularly big, about a dozen people. I managed to get around it by focusing on just myself, or some corner of the place. But that wasn't much fun.

This was the buggiest time I've had since November when a "Unscheduled Maintenance" at the time caused people to be knocked off the grid. But checking the Grid Status Report, while there were some rolling restarts at the time, there wasn't anything out of the ordinary mentioned.

Chatting with friends, a few have been telling me they've been having troubles as well. One wondered if it was Linden Lab's moving things to "cloud" servers. Another wondered if it was someone's avatar, or the avatars of a few people, that was so resource-intensive, it slowed everyone else down, an issue I touched on last month.

Does the machine need replaced? It is a few years old. But friends of mine have been able to get by on machines much older. Plus I don't have a lot of money to spend. And I recall a friend of mine once got a new computer, and her performance on Second Life actually got worse.

In any event, the issue went away after a while. Hopefully it was just a fluke and the problem, whatever it was, won't show up again. At least not for a while. Glitches and bugs have always been a part of Second Life. So we learn to put up with them when they're small and occasional. It's when things get out of the ordinary when we notice.

Bixyl Shuftan

Viewer Developer's Remarks on Resource-Intensive Avatars Sparks Debate

By Bixyl Shuftan

Last month, Hamlet Au interviewed Black Dragon developer NiranV Dean about what the viewer maker felt was an underdiscussed cause of lag: avatars that use of a lot of resources to process. While it's no secret that the more avatars in an area, the worse the lag can get, some of the more popular mesh avatars are more taxing than others. He went as far as to state they used up far more processing power than characters in computer games.

"Maitreya starts with 80,000-100,000 — only the base body. Belleza was something like 200,000+ last time I checked. Modern games use roughly 20-40k for an entire character. A few games use more, obviously, but 20-40k is standard today. So with 100-200k you can imagine how much more straining avatars are. And they are just bodies — [not counting]  clothes, no hair, nothing."

NiranV's solution, he felt, was for users to refuse to buy these polygon-heavy avatars, and to look for ones that have less. One example he gave was the Snokra Snake avatar, which used less then 28,000 polygons, which could be reduced to about 15,000, while "the Maitreya body without hands, feet and head has 125.000 triangles. Belleza has even more." Hamlet himself felt that on average makers of popular furry avatars had done a better job of making quality mesh avatars that didn't use massive ammounts of polygons than makers of popular human ones.

There was no shortage of comments, especially in response to the first article. Some readers stated that high quality/low impact human avatars did exist, including one made by a furry product designer. But not everyone was on board for looking for an alternative. There were comments that decent human avatars had to have all that complexity to look good. And one felt "the barn door is open and the horses are out," saying these high complexity models for better or worse had become the standard and not many would "willingly use what they perceive to be a frankly less-beautiful product." Cassie Middles had a video with tips on how to improve performance either when wearing one of the avatars in question or being around them.



Between the links, there are a lot of remarks in the comments, including a few insults when the debate got heated and a few Not Safe For Work pictures. There's much information and opinions, but what there isn't is a clear-cut solution that satisfies everyone.

Among my friends in Second Life, one is proud of her appearance, and if it uses up a few more resources fine with her. At one point, she complained about people "jellydolling" her and not voting for her in party contests because of it, though no comments about it lately. Others have also mentioned using Maiterya for their avatars. I've also talked a friend who commented his screen would lag like heck, until derendering one particular avatar, then his frame-rate per second would shoot up to 20 fps. One sim moderator told me she had to deal with complaints about one renter's horses which were getting the blame for the lag, when it was really high-detail avatars hanging around at the social spot.

What do you the readers think? Feel free to comment below (but no insults please).

Sources: New World Notes, Black Dragon Viewer, Cassie Middles

Bixyl Shuftan

Best Viewer Apps for SL

Second Life Viewers are maturing rapidly and avatar users are choosing sides. I am decidedly multi-viewer. As an active user and teacher of several major viewers, I'll share some important news and insights. In my recent survey of 133 experienced Second Life (SL) users, the viewer market share breaks down like this:
56% use Phoenix Viewer @ PhoenixViewer.com
26% use Linden Lab's Viewer 2 @ SecondLife.com
3% use Other New Viewers (e.g. Imprudence/Kokua, Emergence, Ascent)
16% use Linden Lab's Viewer 1 and Miscellaneous

More surprisingly, SL ages appear to correlate with Viewer choice…
Phoenix users are mostly 1 to 4 years old in SL
Viewer 2 users are mostly less than 1 year old in SL
Viewer 1 users are mostly over 3 years old in SL
* Of course there were several outliers who don't fit these norms

Linden Lab (LL), the maker of Second Life, stopped development of Viewer 1 at version 1.23 in October 2009. LL launched Viewer 2 the same year, and offered the Viewer 1 code to 3rd party developers. First Emerald emerged as third party leader, which was replaced by the Phoenix project, which now dominates SL viewer market share.

When I announced this survey to some groups, people came forward to announce their Viewer 1 loyalty. Indeed, oldbie avatars (avis) are laggards, by and large, and even very old versions of Phoenix are being blocked from SL (156 and 168).

You see me in Phoenix Version 818 with all my glorious Heads Up Device (HUD) gadgetry in Picture 1. The pictures are all raw SL snapshots, un-retouched (i.e. a little dark), where I compare Viewer 2 and Phoenix for this story.

40 GROUPS NOW in SECOND LIFE: Here's How!!!

From time immemorial in SL, users were limited to 25 SL groups. Someone at LL made a ridiculous assumption that if we let people join too many groups, the resulting communications would overload the virtual world. Kind of like a nuclear chain reaction, we would collectively melt their server farm!!! LOL Finally LL came to it senses. Hee Hee!

If you are Viewer 2 user, you are already 40 groups capable. If you are in Phoenix, you may need to enable this feature, here's how: Enable the Advanced Menu by holding down CTRL and ALT… then press D. In Advanced > Show Debug Settings, then type "Phoenix40…" (auto-completes)… and click the TRUE radio button, then OK button. Done!

Viewer 2: Market Share by Default Downloads

If you don't have a desktop iMac and or a superwide HDTV 16:9 display, forget V2, Bada Bing! V2 has a right margin bar that takes up too much screen on ordinary computer displays, Picture 4.

Nevertheless, I have always liked the Viewer 2 (V2) interface, and declared that to M Linden (then LL CEO) while V2 approval ratings among SL users was only 3%. See my letter to M Linden on SL Newser: http://tiny.cc/udl6m

I suggested M dump Google… they were botching V2 search quite badly, the key feature that makes SL SL (e.g. Compare with OpenLife). Instead, LL drove Google very deeply into V2, to the extent that, it's fair to say: V2 IS SPYWARE. V2 requires full enabling of Google's Analytics, AdServices, AdWords, and LeadServices… otherwise the "action" buttons in search don't work at all: Teleport, IM, Profile, and Details. Why does Google need to know who's profile I'm opening? Groups I research? Where I'm going in SL? Or who I'm IMing? YIKES! See https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/WEB-2465

Remember… I like Viewer 2. Adding Phoenix to my SL quiver was hard for me in some ways. V2's groups list is awesome; I love the Favorites Landmark (LM) bar across the top (Picture 3); and the Instant Message (IM) icons are way cool… little caption bubbles pop up when a chat arrives.

In-World search in V2 actually works! Yay! But the user interface is very annoying, making you slowly reopen search numerous times, every time you TP. Slow Google-driven buttons… need to be re-started from scratch for your next search. For Event Search, your best bet in V2 is to click the Profile button then Notify, for a bunch of Events, before you TP. In Phoenix (after you TP), to use the next search result… Ctrl F, Click-Select an event, and Teleport. Dead simple and fast! Duh!

The surgery LL did on Group Notices, IM's and chat with Toast pop ups, Toast Time, Toast Fade time… is pretty ill-defined and unworkable for users. Either you go with their ADD-inducing 5 second defaults or… go with their ADD-inducing defaults… You Will Lose Settings with Every Viewer 2 Update!

Now, what really irks me is Viewer 2 lag. Clouding and Ruthing are a form of lag. I get serious Clouding most every time I log into Viewer 2, and seldom a problem in Phoenix. Viewers 2.4 and beyond significantly increased lag… I noticed instantly because I surf in SL, and I CAN'T SURF IN THE LATEST few V2 releases e.g. my SL Surfs Up iReport: http://slnewserplaces.blogspot.com/2010/12/dude-surfs-up-in-second-life.html.

This lag in LL's own viewer is a great irony, because the new CEO of LL is a video gamer guy.
For Clouding/Appearance fixes see my iReport: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-504314
And see this amazing Phoenix Wiki note… incredible De-Clouding advice! http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/doku.php?id=bake_fail

Why Phoenix is Winning Market Share!

TA DA!!! PHOENIX OFFERS FREE LIVE TECHNICAL SUPPORT… In-World for their browser… delivered by Phoenix staff… through their SL group Phoenix Viewer Support. During peak SL hours, Phoenix has at least 2 dedicated staff answering your questions. This is an amazing feature because in my 3+ years in SL, I've never seen LL do direct technical support. Not even close.

If you are in Viewer 1 (or any non-V2), moving to Phoenix is dead easy. No learning curve, 95% upward compatible, you won't notice the difference. I assure you. I urge you NOT to stay on Viewer 1.23… since there are no code updates in years, the security/griefer situation will continue to deteriorate. The multitudes of V1.23 users are a juicy target! Oh Yeah! Don't get hacked silly, upgrade painlessly now!

Most features of Viewer 2 are available in Phoenix in some form. The Outfits folder was a great V2 innovation, fully available in Phoenix, and built into Appearance > Make Outfit. Your V2 outfits are already in Phoenix and work great!

Zoomable Mini-Map with mouse wheel! Great V2 feature! It's in Phoenix too! Yay! (Picture 2).

Favorites links… are an inventory folder in Phoenix. Often, I get annoyed with V2's way of splitting up inventory… into Places and Outfits and whatnot… Yikes! I'm in the WRONG V2 window again! But no, in Phoenix it's all in inventory and searchable without switching panes.

Phoenix let's you see which SL Viewer other people are using. Making this story possible! Hurrah! Look at avi name tags. Picture 2 shows many Phoenix cool cats hanging with a handful of Viewer 2 and miscellaneous avatars.

Phoenix has many "beyond Viewer 1" extensions… Some are integrated into familiar SL controls… but many are in the new Phoenix menu and the new Phoenix tab on Ctrl P Preferences. Fun to explore… no worries, the good olde features are just where you expect!

Bottom Line: What to Do?

If you are on Viewer 1, upgrade to Phoenix. If you are on Viewer 2 and don't mind the avi clouding and lag… you are cool and should stay. Enjoy your SL! Otherwise migrate to Phoenix and join Phoenix Viewer Support SL group! You can't go wrong!

And join my classes, I re-start teaching in February, every Saturday and Sunday at 6:30am SLT (US Pacific). All at our remodeled way-cool campus in SL: Dream Seeker (206, 132, 22)

For more info, download my free SL book, links in this iReport: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-518024

ABOUT SECOND LIFE GADGETS & HUDS (Pictures 1 and 3)

SL, like Dog years, feel like 7X faster than RL years. In my decades in SL, I've accumulated over 22,000 items. Omg! Most oldbies use a lot of HUDs and attachments as shown in any Picture 1 and 3. All this stuff is pretty easy to find in the SL Search classified ads, or just ask any SL help group.

Starting from Mini-Map upper left, and going clockwise, you see HUDDLES EZ Animator. I have this one setup to do modeling poses, but it's main function is to animate dances and invite friends to sync dance. Buy the deluxe model because it's copyable.

Top center is the free Simbolics Translator. Does dozens of languages, translating both directions. You also have built in Google translator in Ctrl P Prefs, Chat tab, but that translation is only 1 way :-(. Ferd's free translator is also great and does 3 or more languages at once.

Just under Group Notices in Picture 1 is the JLU signal HUD. This is anti-griefer panic button that summons the super-hero-clad Justice League Unlimited experts to your location. It's the 911 of SL for fighting griefers!

The Pink button next to the chat window is Musyume-AO from MAMESANDO Rings (Japanese AO seller). Gotta love those way-cool AOs to get some 'tude in ur avi postures!

Above the chat window is Avatar Online Tracker. I find SL's online friends notification to be way laggy and annoying. This great device helps me track online status of anybody, especially useful for iReporters and event promoters for finding people online they want to meet!

P.S. I only specialize in the features of SL that enable fun. I would love to have an open discussion (i.e. public SL meeting) with people who are truly knowledgeable about SL techno stuff.

P.P.S. Viewer 2.4+ very important… (otherwise it's DOA)… Advanced Menu > Show Debug Options, then in the box type adminmenu, set the radio button to True and OK. Then… Advanced > Show Develop Menu and Develop > Show Admin Menu. Now you can ALWAYS FLY real high (fixes loads of SL problems) and work round the SL music failure bug… Essential for true SL fun lovers! See Chapter 2 of my free SL book for more info: http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-518024

P.P.P.S. The next version of Phoenix is FIRESTORM... and the next Imprudence viewer is Kokua... the new new thangs! Get the buzz on the SL group Phoenix Viewer Support! It's cool to people-watch the SL support fun! Go Figure!

P.P.P.P.S. The 10 thousand odd members of the Phoenix Viewer Support group make it an amazing forum... SL's true Towne Square... A recent interaction really "made my day"... someone asked sincerely... if we could help her friend who was lagged and clouded and having tremendous SL problems... Whirly Fizzle promptly offered this sage advice... "If boobs are not jiggling... go to edit... prefs.... Phoenix..page 2... effects,,, make sure boobs are enabled & set numbers to 100, 15, 100, 16, 1 (if you have low fps you need max/min vel at 100/1). If still no jiggle go to advanced... debug settings..... PhoenixBreastPhysicsToggle...set to FALSE, then back to TRUE" LOL LMAO!!!, used with Whirly's permission!

(originally on CNN)

Any1 Gynoid