Home Computer — my new setup runs Second Life really nicely!
Posted on: January 21, 2006Previously, I was on a Pentium 4 @ 2.4 GHz (first-gen I think, it didn't have hyperthreading or any added letters)… 1 gig of generic RAM… and a GeForce4 Ti4200 which was the value king of its day, but times have changed. It can be blinding what can happen in a trio of years, and literally, I was being blinded on SL because my system could not keep up with the way I wanted to experience the world.
I eventually "bit the bullet" and found myself leaping for a new computer. Ended up completely rearranging my desk. Disassembled my music studio, put the synths and samplers away in a closet, leaned my master keyboard controller (ol' faithful Alesis QS8) at a sloped angle, back up against the wall, and approached this anew.
After all, I spend so much of my First Life on Second Life—it makes sense!
I shopped at NCIX.com, which has become a juggernaut insofar as computer store kings in Canada. Did a lot of study on components, let it gel, and then ordered. It all happened so quickly, especially over the holidays, and I must give thumbs-up on my feet too for the professionalism with prefab assembly and speedy delivery. Not to mention they had a great shipping special.
The crucial question throughout the whole adventure was:
How well will this computer do with SL?
I'm aware there's confusion about this. A lot! I see a lot of anecdotes, speculation, and theory. But I'm very empirical, and I like to experience things myself—much as I have with Second Life—to really understand the choices I make.
Here's what I got:
PROCESSOR (CPU) - AMD Opteron 170
GRAPHICS CARD - eVGA e-GeForce 7800GT CO
MEMORY (RAM) - OCZ EL Platinum PC3200 2GB
MOTHERBOARD - ASUS A8N-E
COMPUTER CASE - Antec Sonata II
HARD DRIVE - Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB
DVD WRITER - LG GSA-4167B
I also got an external USB shell for a spare hard drive should I need some swap storage in the future, and a Wacom Intuos3 as a nicey (and pricey) bonus because I want to draw more!
The main components are all popular items on NCIX's charts. Nothing obscure here, which is nice because the likelihood of finding a solution—should something go wrong—is easier if you're using something commonly known about.
Here's some further reasoning behind my choices: first, the CPU. NCIX just received a hot shipment of certain Optys, which were previously scarce. These include the Opteron 170, which has the same foundation as the consumer-targeted X2 dual-cores, but with several niceties like supposedly higher-grade silicon and a better heat sink. Originally I was looking at something like an Athlon 64 X2 4200+, but reading numerous informed web opinions, my mind was set. Plus, it just sounds kewl, not something I often relate to, but gotta treat myself once in awhile, right?
Just like the Millennium Falcon is a fast ship, the Opteron 170 is a fast chip. It's dual-core, which equates to GOOD FOR MULTITASKING! On my previous PC, running SL and other apps at the same time was an awful experience because SL tries to eat up your whole CPU. Ugh, I don't know how I managed, but I'd like to believe that strengthened my resolve. Now, I can run SL on one core (since it isn't optimized for dual-cores or 64-bit yet, but I look forward to that!), and have a hoggy graphics app on the other. And it's smooooooth. Makes a big practical difference. This is especially important for Residents who are creating content and want to edit and upload it inworld without quitting/opening programs repeatedly. It's now a lot easier for me to do many things at one time.
Overclocking is popular to get more performance out of your computer. I'm not an expert in this, but I read some specific articles, and from the BIOS of the A8N-E motherboard, I boosted the core speed from 2000 to 2300 MHz just by pushing a few keys to increase the multiplier. Instant speed boost! No additional adjustment needed—I did try for 2400 MHz later, but experienced some problems with artifacting (nasty graphics glitches), so toned it down. I may experiment more later… especially since I've commonly heard of Opteron 170s getting up to 2600-2700 MHz.
The graphics card wasn't an easy choice, but after I made it, it became crystal clear. If this had been months ago, I may have gone for a GeForce 6600GT, which is the true successor as price+performance leader to the Ti4200. I've heard great stories from Resis too. But as is often the case with computers, faster, cheaper things come out. So thus entered a new champ, the 6800GS, which is a cut-down variation of the 6800GT. Confusing model names aside, I consulted with some trusted friends for their advice and experience actually using graphics cards and then read through more websites. My decision was made. For a few more dollars, I stretched and got a 7800GT—currently the 2nd-fastest card in NVIDIA's line. The fastest, the 7800GTX, costs an unreasonable price premium for what seems to a marginal increase that really only shows up on very high resolutions.
And not just any 7800GT. eVGA's e-GeForce 7800GT CO is like a non-gimmicky "special edition" with a higher clock speed (CO means it has a copper heatsink), so it's speedier. On top of that, eVGA is known for their robust quality, as detailed in this review, and they have a Step-Up Program in case you want to upgrade to something even faster. Not a requirement, but it's nice to have the option.
A scatter of notes on performance I'd like to mention before continuing:
- Second Life will aggressively attack the weakest link in your chain. You can have a topnotch allround system, but if your Internet connection is bad and exhibits high packet loss, your overall experience will suffer. You can be on a very fast graphics card, but if your CPU can't keep up ("bottlenecking"), it's like running a three-legged race while having a walrus chained to your back. You must be strong and well-balanced. You must be one with the computer.
- Second, I don't have any formal science to back this up, but observationally, when it comes to SL, the three most important aspects in a computer system appear to be the Holy Trinity of: CPU, graphics card, and RAM. Time and time again, I've seen problems with one ruining the others like a radioactive contamination leak. A solid combo of fast CPU, speedy graphics card, and mint RAM will make it that much easier for you to have an enjoyable time.
- A common misconception is to compare Second Life to a game. And I'm not just talking from a philosophical/semantics standpoint, but how SL's load affects your computer. Think of SL more as a 3D modelling program in how computationally intensive it is. Processor usage often shows close to 100% for a good reason—SL wants to use everything you've got! But not just that. It's commonly stated that most 3D games have preloaded environments. SL's uniqueness is in being dynamic and emergent, which means a friend can spontaneously drop down 1,001 bouncy balls right next to you and your screen will freeze. Which can be hella annoying, but those frustrations have such a big upside when it comes to being improvisational and creative. You are a worldshaper, not a spectator. Think of Legos. They have ugly bumps and Lego cars break apart easily when dropped, but unlike Hot Wheels or a Matchbox racer, which have fixed forms, you can reassemble Legos—like SL—into something new.
- It would do one well to consider the recently-updated System Requirements. And remember this: on many games, you can get away with having a slower CPU paired with a fast graphics card. Not so with SL. Local Lighting and Shadows are CPU-bound, for example, and while the new ripple water (which I'll write more about in a mo') uses your GPU's (graphics card's) pixel shaders, there's a LOT of CPU number crunching involved in displaying objects inworld, especially when you're in dense, very primmy areas. (Prims are "primitive shapes" that make up the objects in Second Life, excluding avatars.) And that only compounds when you have many avatars at a given landmark. I can now say this from personal experience as well!
- SL is supposedly more compatible with NVIDIA graphics cards. There's some history to this.
Onwards… I got 2 gigabytes of RAM (woohoo!) because I had 1 gig on my previous 'puter, and it wasn't enough. SL will routinely use a few hundred megabytes, and with all the other things I'm running, like multiple browser tabs in Firefox, it adds up immensely. Plus, the OCZ kit was a great deal for some quality sticks of RAM, and it gives me space to breathe. I'm budget-conscious, but why cheap out and stress out over it?
The motherboard I chose—ASUS A8N-E—is a very popular standard. I don't forsee a need for SLI-accelerated graphics, so I saved some money there. This is just an excellent choice of garden-variety mobo. My older PC has a ASUS P4B533, so they've kept it up.
(I didn't get an additional sound card because I can cannibalize my P4's Sound Blaster Audigy 2 if need be, and because the A8N-E has onboard sound by Realtek. Also, my ears aren't what they once were either, due to the distorted hearing that comes with hyperacusis.)
The case is a newer model of the immensely-favored Antec Sonata, which my bro has for his own workstation. No-brainer, includes a power supply too—not the best but it's good.
Hard drive was also a simple choice. I'm pretty thrifty with space and I back up a lot, so on previous computers (including a Power Mac G3 with a 4-gig hard drive), I never filled it all up. 250 gigs is fine for me. If you're doing movie editing like machinima—which I like to call SLinema, hehe—you'll probably want more, or another hard drive. I'm having good performance on this puppy, fast copies and seek times and all.
DVD writer is also cheap and cheerful. LG has really been ramping this up. I haven't even burned a DVD on it yet but it's got oodles of read+write modes. Looking forward to working that out!
And now for a subjective elaboration on how things have actually been going. In a word: YAYZERAMA!!! I'm extremely happy with my new home microcomputer, and it's a champ on Second Life. My viewer (meaning Second Life on my end, aka "the client") framerates are typically in the 20s-30s, but if it's an empty area like a sparse forest, they really skyrocket up to 60-70 FPS. In busy clubs with dozens of Resis, they'll get lowered to the 10s, and in the middle of chaotic sandbox situations with tons of twisted tori, I may still see them drop to single-digits. But that is perfectly normal with Second Life today, and it's a must-know that performance improvements are a priority to us at Linden Lab.
- Just about every single one of my graphical options are turned on.
- I'm running at 1024×768 on a Samsung 955DF monitor inherited from my previous PC, altho I do dream of such a time when I'll have dual flatpanel displays. The 955DF has blurry text and not a very true color representation, which is a sore point for me.
- I usually have Draw Distance set to 160 meters, altho there are times when I'll crank it up to 256 and trot around admiring the landscape. 512 for epic still shots RULEZ!
- Local Lighting performance is awful for me in 1.8. I remember even under certain hectic conditions in 1.6, it was tolerable on my old computer. So altho I like the glow—and it works inconsistently now, with some Light objects not lighting up as I rez them—I normally keep this off. Hope someday we'll have more lighting that's dependent on the graphics card. Would be nice to offload more eye candy.
- Shadows are either ON or OFF depending on how I feel. They can add depth to a scene, but they can also make some areas look unnecessarily dark. I like clicking it on and watching the darkness literally "burn in", especially when there are tall towers jutting upward in a stark landscape.
- Taking High-res snapshots (from DEBUG menu, CTRL-ALT-SHIFT-D to activate that!) totally is the cat's meow. Only takes 5 seconds to snap it, compared to close to 30 on my old sys.
- The reason why AVATAR VERTEX PROGRAM is checked off is because it gives avs more of a darker, "grittier" feel. Good for photographs with character. I've noticed that checking it on does provide a subtle boost, but it makes avs look kinda flat sometimes too. So I alternate on context.
- And now, for more about ripple water… I was really bummed out when ripple water was introduced in version 1.8, and it wasn't compatible with my aging Ti4200. Le sigh. I joked that I'd be getting a whole new computer just for it. That wasn't such an exaggeration. It really is beautiful to sit on a shore and watch the surface undulate—maybe we'll get seafoam froth and floatsam+jetsam, as well as assorted plankton bits washing up someday… wheee!
And this is what my "About Second Life" looks like:
As a matter of human reassurance—looking up to those who know better—and in the interest of completeness, I scoured the SL Forums looking if anyone else is using a similar system. Huns Valen is, and he's an extremely judicious arbiter when it comes to exacting technical quality AND value balance. Several others are also big fans of dual-core AMD processors. You could go the Intel or Mac route, or even Macintel route; I'm just mentioning what I have. Whatever works best for you!
TWEAK your NVIDIA drivers to get the best visual quality. This is one of the best-kept secrets, and should NOT be kept that way! While SL has an Anisotropic filtering mode (which basically means textures at an angle will look sharper), if you're on a high-end graphics card, it's far from the best you can do. You can turn on Antialiasing too, to smooth away all the jaggies. Graphics cards which aren't as fast will experience noticeable slowdown as a tradeoff, but my 7800GT has ample juice. Hopefully in the future, we'll be able to do this through SL's own preferences. It's confusing to get to where you do it and I think it differs depending on your computer, but here's me as a rat through the maze in Windows XP:
START button —> CONTROL PANEL —> DISPLAY —> SETTINGS tab —> ADVANCED button—> [NAME OF YOUR GRAPHICS CARD HERE] tab
See?
I've cranked up those sliders to the right for the highest quality.
Here's a before+after comparison:
The ugliness on the left is what most Residents of SL see as the default if they don't get a-tweakin'. The right is the beauty I can't bear to part with. Please pardon the slight degradation due to the JPEG format. I wanted to show these in a manner that wasn't too hoggy. Things to look for: edges of the snow, the sheen of diagonal graffiti, the bases of the street lamp, and the overall aesthetics.
The other thing I wanted to mention is SETTING AFFINITY. What does that mean? As you recall, I mentioned that the Opteron 170—as well as other Opterons and AMD's Athlon 64 X2 line—are dual-core. That's like one body having two brains. Too much thinking without the right programming can lead to empuzzlement, however, and I've noticed some bugs. I'm not the only one either. Every few launches of SL, I began noticing odd stuttering, and extremely bizarre numbers in the Fast Timers (CTRL-SHIFT-9 with DEBUG menu on, instrumental for pinpointing performance problems).
I was worried something serious was wrong, but I did some Internet searches and learned these sorts of symptoms affect other programs too. The key is in SETTING AFFINITY, which limits Second Life to run on one of the two CPUs. SL isn't yet coded for multithreading either, so don't worry, your performance won't be halved or anything like that. Just makes it clear what goes where.
I've been looking for an easier way to set affinity permanently, but until that time, you can use the ImageCFG.exe utility to do it. You'll have to apply that every time SL gets updated, but it'll stick—easier than repeatedly opening the Windows Task Manager and right-clicking.
Hopefully, a future version of Second Life will take advantage of 64-bit chips and dual-cores. If your system's like mine, then SL will fly faster on the same computer you have today. It's not what I'd call "futureproofing", but it will allow you to squeeze more out of your investment.
I've been a part of Second Life since September 2004, and I've seen a lot of words in the Technical Issues section of the SL Forums concerning what doesn't work with SL. But being an optimist, this is what does work for me. The cliched YMMV = Your Meterage May Vary applies, but I hope this info will help other Residents who want to get a new computer to use with SL, or perhaps those who aren't in SL yet and are curious about what performs well.
Finally, since price is a realistic concern to many, how much did this whole system, goodies and all, cost? About US$2100, and that includes taxes. The Intuos3 cost as much as a typical flat-panel monitor does, so factor that in, as well as an inexpensive keyboard and mouse. Not the cheapest of the cheap, but already I feel joyfully happy with my new computer—and she'll do many other things well too, not just Second Life.
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October 31st, 2006 at 7:54 PM PST
[...] Navigator « Clipmarks - news+ on the run, fast and fun | Home 2006.10.31 @ 7:53 PM Second Life and the dual-core dilemma If you love Second Life and dual-core processors like I do (I’m on an Opteron 170),you’ll know how handy it is to let a phat app (e.g., Photoshop or a video editing suite) sit on one core while Second Life gobbles up the other. For medium-to-heavy multitaskers, the investment’s well-worth it. Not to mention prices are coming down and popularity’s going up. [...]
January 13th, 2007 at 10:26 AM PST
I am thinking of upgrading my PC.
Would an AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ CPU: Dual-Core and 64-Bit, 1GB RAM and XFX nVidia GeForce 7600GS 256MB be enough?
Ivan Pirotta
January 14th, 2007 at 12:24 PM PST
Ivan, that exceeds the Second Life System Recommendations so you should be ok — depending on your needs though, I'd get more RAM, like 2 GB. Especially with dual-core, it's nice to run SL on one core and multitask with other (perhaps memory-intensive) programs on the other core.
January 19th, 2007 at 12:42 PM PST
Torley, Thankyou for your reply. It was a surprise that I got a reply.
I wish to tell you about my current set up, may you can give me some advice before I spend the money into upgrading my computer.
I bought this computer three years ago, and to tell you the truth it's a pity that I have to change it only because of the Video Card requirements.
I have a Pentium 4 (Socket 478) with 2.66 GHz. In addition to that I have 1 GB of RAM (ddr 1). These are all attached to an Asus P4S8X-X motherboard. The only drawback is that I have a weak Video Card, namely a 128MB Radeon ATI 9200 SE. As per Internet Connection, I am on Cable with 2MB per second.
I cannot find any Video Card compatable with this motherboard, because although the manual says that it's AGP Slot is 8X, it only accepts cards with voltage of 1.5V. So all Cards which work at 8X with voltage of 0.8V only work at X4 at voltage 1.5V.
If I can find a card which is 256MB and works at 1.5V at X8 I would buy it. But I cannot find anything. I searched all shops in Malta, UK, Italy and the US.
Regards
Ivan Pirotta
January 20th, 2007 at 3:13 PM PST
You're welcome, Ivan! While I'm not that closely familiar with graphics card voltages, you may want to ask on certain PC enthusiast forums for recommendations, like Toms's Hardware or Maximum PC.
I also found this guide with more info.
Also remember that while more onboard memory helps with the texture-richness of Second Life, a faster card with less memory will perform better than a slower card with more.
Best of hope!
January 31st, 2007 at 9:52 AM PST
Torley
Thankyou for your reply. Next Saturday, the new parts for my computer will arrive. I decided to buy a Pentium D with an MSI Motherboard capable to being upgraded to a Dual Core 2 in the future. I also ordered 1GB of RAM and the XFX nVidia GeForce 7600GS 256MB. Next month I will be buying another 1GB Ram. So I think I will be ok.
All this will be costing me Lm200 but since I am going to sell my old parts for Lm100 this process will be costing me only Lm100. I think that it is worth it.
Regards
Ivan
February 28th, 2007 at 5:07 AM PST
Hey Torley! Though your Mac readers might like to know that you can enable full screen anti-aliasing in SL on the Mac by following these instructions:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20060806215733256
You'll need to launch SL through a program from the free Developer Tools that come with the Mac, but everything looks *great*.
March 3rd, 2007 at 1:05 PM PST
@Ali: Thanx; I wish the steps were simpler, that's too cumbersome for many people. I wonder if someone could code a utility to make it more effortless.
April 27th, 2007 at 5:52 AM PDT
Version 1.15.0.2 on my system has very blurry text where scrolling up the screen chat text, IMs, object text, or avatar name text, hovertext, etc. are shown over top of a light colored part of the virtual world display.
Any hope of a fix for this or is this how it will be from now on?
It's not far from being a showstopper on my system. Not being able to read the text is not a triviable matter or esthetic quibbling.
April 29th, 2007 at 9:41 AM PDT
@SuezanneC: That's in the Issue Tracker, Richard Linden posted some comments.
May 21st, 2007 at 1:17 PM PDT
hi Torley, i've been having horrid problems getting SL to work on my pc, i've talked with numerous support people on the phone and have yet been able to enjoy my second life experience. when i log in my terrain is usually one or two colors, there is just a blur on my screen, i'm not able to even view my av…i've been told i exceed the system requirements, my pc is brand new..AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+, 2GB DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz-2DIMMS, NVIDIA GeForce 6150,but yet i am not able to enjoy my experience at all, i am on cable and my bandwidth usage is 1500 and above, which i've been told is also great, better than the techs infact (lol) if you have any suggestions i'd greatly appreciate it, at this point, short of throwing out my new system, i'm willing to try anything, in fact i'm going to try and overclock next. Thank you in advance, please help!!!
May 27th, 2007 at 8:04 AM PDT
@lisa W.: As I have more performance tips 'n' tricks and Second Life, I'm prone to blog about them, but sorry, I can't provide tech. support here — it's my personal blog. For one thing though, that graphics card sounds mismatched (e.g., too slow) for the rest of your config. I personally wouldn't go with anything lower than a 6600GT with that kind of system.
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:11 PM PDT
Im having issues with turning black!
Im running a dual core P4 with 2 gigs of ram and set up with dual monitore
1 24" ultra shrp dell and a 19" dell.
Is there any way to resolve this?
September 23rd, 2007 at 1:12 PM PDT
My Avatar turning completely black!!
That is!! lol
September 24th, 2007 at 8:50 AM PDT
Steve, afaik, this is due to the dual monitor setup. Run SL on your primary monitor and you should be normal.
Also see https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-690 for info, log in there and vote to show you care about it being fixed
October 28th, 2007 at 8:28 AM PDT
I joined SL in March of 2007 having "upgraded" my emachine with a NVIDA GeForce FX5200. It works fine and has given me a great experience on SL. Today I want to create content and try and contribute more to the SL experience for myself and others. The confusion I felt when I began visiting websites selling computer parts was overwhelming. Thank you very much for telling us what you are running on. This gives people like me who know about computers like we know about cars (if it starts great, if it doesn't call a tow truck) someplace to begin and not sound like a mark ready to be taken by a slick computer sales guy or gal. Also appreciate the comment about this not being a game so much as a 3-D modeling program…That changes much of what I have been thinking about. Thanks again.
November 4th, 2007 at 5:51 PM PST
@Jotus Janus: You are extremely welcome, and I'm happy to hear of your experiences in turn. It's SO important to share empirical experiences, because often, it saves time and trouble for others.
In particular, I realize since I work for Linden Lab, creators of Second Life, many are curious what *I* use, not dissimilar to how a doctor would treat their child if ill.
Perspective makes a lot of difference… and more often than not, I hope that difference is positive.
January 21st, 2008 at 8:34 AM PST
Hi Torley,
Was looking through your blog and came across this article. I too had a 2.4 P4 with AGP and a couple of weeks ago I decided to upgrade to a dual core intel, lots of ram and a 8600gt all sitting cosey on a ASUS board. Gosh what a difference the upgrade has made, I rarely drop off, although I get the occasional unable to address memory crash. The point I wish to make here though, which may be of interest to future readers is this:
I thought with the ridiculously cheap price of RAM these days that it would be fun to add 2 pairs of 1gb ram giving me a total of 4gb of system memory. Imagine my surprise when I started XP to find a total system memory of 3.25gb! Windows will not address more than 4gb ram, .75gb is taken up by other bus addresses. Even if the board bios says that 4gb/8gb is installed, windows will not see it. I tried numerous boot.ini switches to solve the problem and to no avail. After further research I discovered that even with this much ram, no applications are made to use beyond 3gb on windows anyway (unless your running windows server or other high end configs)
Hope this may be of help to anyone considering an upgrade
January 21st, 2008 at 12:17 PM PST
O-k, Torley, the Shadows I just saw in the screenshot sounds awesome - what was it for? (Avies, objects, etc.) And why did you remove it and not just put a big warning it's taking tons of power? :-S
January 27th, 2008 at 4:58 AM PST
@Handmade: Sad memory limitation… I'm in the same situation, and you basically need to have a 64-bit OS (like Windows XP 64-bit) to take advantage of that extended memory allocation.
@Smiley: It's an older Second Life feature which was removed. It didn't work too well, was supposed to have a replacement (like how local lighting used to be CPU-bound but now uses OpenGL lighting via your graphics card), but work wasn't completed on it (AFAIK) and we're still wanting object shadows today. (Something Team WindLight gets asked OFTEN.)
February 8th, 2008 at 5:11 PM PST
I have basically the same system you do with and AMD 4200 dual core , Asus SLI mother board, Nvidia7800 gtx video card, 2 gigs ram, 74 gig sata C drive, 300 gig sata D rive and two other 7200 ide drives, and windows XP Pro. Only problem is that DSL and Cable arent avail in rural areas. I use Wild Blue Satellite provider at 1.5 MBPS and have talked with other SL users who have satellite and are doing fine. I can also do streaming audio over the internet. Any suggestions, or will SL ever try to do a workaround for us> Thanks in advance
February 13th, 2008 at 8:53 PM PST
Hi Torley and everyone else posting here. I have an NVidia GeForce 7600 GS video card, and in SL the option for enabling water ripple is grayed out. Is that just something by design on the recent release or is there something I need to do to enable water ripple?
February 14th, 2008 at 11:41 AM PST
After too many times of hearing my computer start to choke (and having SL suddenly close), I decided to upgrade a little. Most my stuff is pretty good already, but I had some icky onboard video, so I picked up a GeForce 8500GT last week and a new 450w PSU. I almost took a hammer to the case trying to get that thing in - in the end, I used pliers instead to get the old PSU connection off the mobo. Not a good sign…
It all worked out in the end, though, and things are beautiful. I'd never seen the real windlight before, and my average fps before the upgrade was 2-4. Now it's 30-40 and things are shiney
It is better enough that it's blog-worthy. I'll write something up with pictures once I get my site up and running more. I'm procrastinating on the Wordpress install.
Yay for new hardware!!
February 17th, 2008 at 9:58 AM PST
While I can't provide Second Life tech support here…
@Jimbo: Sadly at present, I don't think there's much you can do to get around a faulty/unreliable Internet connection. That's why we can't recommend it, due to a large number of problems similar to yours which I've previously heard reporter.
@Case: Hiya! This sounds familiar, are you on main viewer or WindLight? What OS, XP SP2 or Vista or another? There are some related bugs @ http://jira.secondlife.com . Also, I presume you updated to latest NVIDIA drivers?
@Taryn: Glad to hear the upgrade worked well for you! Woohoo! That'll help you enjoy Second Life in a new (Wind)Light.
March 25th, 2008 at 11:34 AM PDT
Hi,
Re: Right click problem
Hope this is an appropriate place to ask this. SL works well for me in most ways. However, I have problems with right click of the mouse. The PC was just completely upgraded, speeds are fine, have cable connection, visuals are OK.
However I cannot get the right click to function as it should when trying to do certain functions within SL like touch, buy, sit. The pie simply does not appear, or when I need to touch, the sit pie will appear. Drop downs all work fine, can access all menus normally. Mouse works perfectly in all other PC systems. I bought a new logitech mouse with no change.
The result is I can go anywhere, but often can do nothing but walk, fly, change clothes, or chat when I get there. At times I can do all of the functions noted but it is hit and miss, mostly miss. I have looked through support and spoken with many people on SL and can't find any solution.
Is it possible that I need a specific mouse, or is there some way to adjust sensitivity to the mouse for these functions, or substitute a command for the right click?
I believe there must be a simple answer that I am missing.
Thanks for any advice/assistance.
Solo
March 30th, 2008 at 6:49 PM PDT
Solo, while I'm not Second Life support ( I recommend contacting http://secondlife.com/support ), that is frustrating and I do hope you find a way to make it work: no specific mouse is needed, a standard one will work fine, perhaps driver upgrade/fresh reinstall is needed. There may be BIOS settings to adjust too. There are some macro apps (like QuickKeys) which can trigger mouse buttons via the keyboard. This sounds puzzling and is the first time I've heard of this. What happens if you simply right-click on the ground terrain?
May 17th, 2008 at 9:05 PM PDT
Hi Torley,
I'm not PC savvy, but wish to get on second life. i have a laptop now so am looking to buy a PC through a major US retailer, (costco, best buy, etc). I've checked out the SL system requirements but I'm still overwhelmed when I walk into the stores. Since your above system was built in 06 prior to Vista, I'm wondering if you can offer a suggestion on what I should look for in a new PC in order to enjoy SL and not get frustrated by PC issues and drop off of SL.
thanks much.
May 18th, 2008 at 7:29 AM PDT
@theresa: Hello! I'd start with the System Requirements/Recommendations page @ http://secondlife.com/corporate/sysreqs.php . I've since upgraded to a Q6600 w/8800GTS system (if you search elsewhere on my blog I've more details), and it still runs nicely. We also have an automated tester @ http://secondlife.com/support/systest.php to make things easier for you. Hope this helps.
August 22nd, 2008 at 2:37 PM PDT
Hi, Torley:
I have Dell Inspiron 710m which configuration is as follows:
12.1" WXGA Display (1280×800)
Intel Pentium M Processor 735 (1.7 GHz, 400MHz FSB, 2MB Cache)
2048 MB PC2700 RAM, Shared
Integrated Intel Extreme 2 Graphics (64MB Shared RAM)
100GB 5400RPM PATA Hard Drive (Seagate)
8X CD/DVD Dual Layer +/- Recorder
Intel Pro Wireless 2915 (802.11 a/b/g)
65 WHr 8-Cell Extended Battery
Microsoft Windows XP Home
3 Year Warranty
Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller 6.14.10.4277
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If I upgraded it to 2GB memory cards, how about the graphic card? The current one is Intel(R) 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics Controller: It is a display adapter component of the Intel 852GM chipset. The Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME graphics controller, combined with the Intel Extreme Graphics Driver allows the output of high quality 2D/3D video and graphics to the monitor.
If I don't change the graphic card, would it bother if I use the SL?
And are there any other upgrading necessery other than memory and graphic card?
Thanks a lot?
Shannon
August 24th, 2008 at 3:26 PM PDT
@shannon: That's a laptop and alas, I don't think you have an easy path to upgrade your graphics card. But Second Life should still run based on the info you gave me — best way is to try and find out. You have enough RAM, 2 GB is fine as long as you're not running other memory-hogging applications.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:55 PM PST
Hi ,
I noticed SL is very behind with driver requirments? I had too downgrade my video card so it would work on SL ! I went from 1Gb DDR2 ram down too a 512 as my Nvidia 1Gb was not loading Sl .
They need too update the system requirements page !! I cant even get the reccomended Video cards as they are old ;-(. Money is no object when i shop for a pc that is going to last me a few years and it would really help if they mentioned the latest high end cards so i dont go wrong !!
Best Regards
Eddie
November 7th, 2008 at 5:09 AM PST
Hi, I dont know if someone can help me, an IT guy changed my pc and now I cant run SL, it keeps saying my video card is out of date or did not install properly, he is on hols and now I m left without SL.
I think the new card is an Intel G33/G31 Express Chipset, is anything I can do to fix the problem?.
Please help!!
Thanks all
November 7th, 2008 at 3:24 PM PST
Yes, Linden Lab should keep the requirements updated over time — especially since there are a lot of newer GPUs out now not mentioned there. In the meantime, the SysReq page DOES link to: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Graphics_Cards
… where links to bargain-shopping sites can help you narrow in on great graphics cards for the price.