When Lag is Lag or not….

How many times have you heard the phrase “oh its really laggy today”, but it’s running fine for you, or perhaps the opposite, Second Life is running like a dog for you but seems fine for everyone else.

This article looks at lag and what causes it.

Firstly remember that Second Life is a Client Server application, that means that you have a client on your PC and a connection to  a Server and the two things work together to bring you the application.

So the first task if you’ve got Second Life lag is to find out where the problem is.

a. The Client

b. The Network

c. The Server

Where is the problem?

Before doing any diagnostics on the local machine and network always check the blog at http://blog.secondlife.com – you’ll find there the latest status updates also http://www.secondlife.com/status

Also try moving to another location – you may be on a buggy or lagged out old Sim. The people that built the sim may not have considered the build in terms of a server, but just built it.

If everything checks out and there are no problems. Lets move to the network.

If you have a red bar at the top of your screen on the right or two, you probably have network lag problems. This is called packet loss. Especially noticable if you try and do something for instance and SL just beeps at you. The message is simply not arriving at the server and the server can’t send you anything back simply because it has not got the message in the first place.

Try resetting

Do try resetting everything at this stage – if the lag is not at SL’s end and it’s not on your network you’re down to your local machine.

So lets try and configure the Second Life client to work the best for you.

1. Get a good graphics card and memory - The bigger and faster the better and the smoother your experience, also don’t forget memory, get as much as you can.

2. Network – find out what your network set up is, if you are on broadband is it contended or uncontended, this means that if you are on a contended network you are sharing your broadband line with say 10 other people, if they all download videos at once, your 8gb line will reduce to something terrible!

3. Check your disk (windows especially), delete temporary files and defragment your drive – I have seen a machine that did not have a HOPE of running SL go from being unusuable to running like a dream, simply by checking the hard disk, in windows do this by clicking START, RUN, type cmd in the box and enter, then type chkdsk /f and enter, click Y for run on restart and restart your system (don’t worry about closing the dos box).

4. Latest Graphics Card Drivers - advanced! Find out what graphics card you have and get the latest graphics card drivers, I noticed particluarly ATI cards the improvement is quite large when you download their latest drivers.

5. Settings in Second Life

Draw Distance - edit, preferences, graphics Draw Distance   the bigger this number the further you will be able to see but the slower your machine will run 128 is ideal, 64 if you can’t cope!

Nearby Local Lights – edit, preferences, graphics detail,Nearby Local Lights SL seems to run slower if this is enabled.

Enable Bumpmapping and Shiny – Turn this on, you’re missing out if you don’t

Audio & Video Streaming – edit, preferences, Audio & Video ALWAYS turn off Play Streaming Audio and Music unless you specifically need them on.

Graphics card memory – edit preferences , Adv. Graphics Set to the highest you can, if your machine starts playing up, lower it.

All in all remember that the Server part of SL is only part of the story. So before we scream “oh sl is so laggy today”, lets check our own stuff.