Answering a question in the SL Forum Answers, I found that I needed to update an article I wrote on testing your Internet connection to Second Life™. It is creatively titled: Troubleshoot Your #SL Connection. I posted it in October 2011.
At the time SpeedTest.net allowed one to test to a destination of their choice. SpeedTest.net has changed. Now one can only test to a nearby server from a list provided by SpeedTest.net. I suppose the idea is one only need test from your computer to your ISP. I suppose that works for most people. For our testing purpose, it is now useless.
Speed Test – Image by Lunchbox Larry @ Flickr
The article is about specifically testing your connection to an SL server. So, I need a new speed test. I started looking for a good choice to add into the article. I came across LifeWire, which has a list of speed test sites. It shows as having updated 1m/2d/2018.
Those freaking out about being splashed with freedom from the repeal of Obama’s socialist pretend Net Neutrality, you’ll need these sites to see if your connection is being throttled.
From reading the page you’ll see the main interest is in testing the speed your ISP is providing. The question they are answering is, “Are you getting what you are paying for?” So, these sites do not really answer the question we are asking, “How good is my connection to an SL server?”
There is no way to actually get these tests to download a file from an SL region server. But, you can probably find a server in the city where the SL region servers live. Pulling the geolocation of a region server from the viewer’s HELP->ABOUT… sim10446.agni.lindenlab.com (216.82.51.152:13021) I get San Jose, California.
A site named BandwidthPlace.com will let me select a server to test to. That is as good a bandwidth test to SL as we are going to get. You’ll have to check to see which servers your viewer is using, geolocate them, and then find a testing service with a server in that city.
You may have to work through the LifeWire list to find a service that will let you test to the city you want.
More SL drama. Unfortunately, about 100,000 SL users will be affected. It seems in November 2017 there was a sudden change in the OpenCollar programming team. Wendy Starfall and Garvin Twine were doing most of the work, programming, marketing, support, etc. for the last 6 years.
The early founders, from the history I can find, are Nandana Singh (now Nirea Resident) and Athaliah Opus. Several involved in the OC Project say they have ignored the project for the last 6 years or so. Leaving it to Wendy, Gaven, and others in the team to do the work and pay for websites and land (regions). But, we would have to define what the speaker means by ‘ignored’.
A point came when Nirea and Athaliah decided the OC project was going the wrong way. It seems that while the open source OC code was being maintained with no income for the programmers from it when the active programmers decided to sell an add-on under a brand name called Virtual Disgrace and some other things based on OC open source code.
You can’t stop the future You can’t rewind the past The only way to learn the secret …is to press play
The entitlement mindset folks decided it was an outrage that programmers working for free should even consider working for a profit and not giving them everything free… So, the great divide opened. The eventual result Nirea and Athaliah reclaimed the OpenCollar in-world group and kicked Wendy and others on the new path out of the group.
OpenCollar remained fee. But, the programmers were making other toys and selling them on their own. I could use the OpenCollar code and make a toy and sell it. But, you would still be able to get the free OpenCollar code and made your toys and sell them.
This is the first final release in something like a year… It has great stuff in it. Definitely worth a try. And for anyone playing the inventory maintenance game, this is likely the winner’s choice of viewer.
Catznip R12 Opening Splash Screen
You can download the viewer here: Catznip Viewer Download. If you have the beta links, forget them. They have stopped working.
While 64-bit is the preferred choice, those of you with HD Graphics may have to run the 32-bit version. There is a notice on the download page explaining the problem and what you can do.
Install
The download is about 98MB if that matters these days. Install runs, no problems.
Test Drive
My first login I butter-fingered the password. I mistakenly added a space at the end that didn’t belong, assumed it wouldn’t matter, it did, and then I could not get the viewer to accept the password without the space. The Login button would not wake up. I had to restart the viewer.
This is a quick viewer. In my standard test places, I get 107 FPS on my porch, 122 FPS in my green-screen room at 1500m, and with 12 avatars in my field of view, it drops to 19-33FPS. The first two are faster than any of my other viewers by 20 to 30%. The ‘avatars present’ slowdown is typical.
The viewer uses its own cache. For this viewer, I have an empty cache. So, I was thinking scene render is a bit slow because of that. However, on return to a place, it renders things fast. But, textures are lagging.
After 3 or 4 hours of use, I was unhappy with the speed of Catznip scene renders. I went shopping. That’s when the problem became unbearable. During that time, I switched back and forth between Catznip and Firestorm. I was checking to see if my connection was acting up, memory loading up, the region was just slow, or what. I decided it is just Catznip. However, running the cursor over a thing I wanted to render helped and was quick to fully render whatever. But, it would not stay rendered.
So, both Firestorm and the Linden viewers were rendering the shopping areas in the Region Evocative, the SWEAR stores for men are there, way faster than Catznip and they stayed rendered. So, doing cam-shopping with Catznip and my SpaceNavigator is out.
View after 45 minutes…
I ran into texture thrashing. Thrashing may not be the best word in this case as I think of ‘thrashing’ as a faster thing. But, it is the words we use to describe the problem. When textures did finally render, they would drop back to a blurry render. Then on a somewhat slow cycle, they would render, stay clear for a bit, then go blurry. They might remain blurry indefinitely. I seldom see texture thrashing in ether Firestorm or the Linden viewer.
While writing this I took my avatar home. Most of my textures there did not render while I typed the majority of this article. I would use the viewer, write some more, use the viewer… never did see most textures fully render. Some did, but they did not stay fully rendered
I tried the trick of removing all the HUD’s, restarting the viewer, leaving chat closed… nothing seems to help.
Profiles come up WAY faster in Catznip than in Firestorm. Is that just me that has slow, way slow, profile renders in FS? I use web profiles, not the legacy. So, that may not be a fair-to-Firestorm comparison. Catznip’s Profile panel is more the legacy type profile.
I’m not a fan of the Profile panel in Catznip. But, I like fast.
Inventory search has an upgrade or two to make finding stuff easier and improves how results are displayed.
The Quick Preferences is awesome. Ctrl-Shift-P to open. Inara explains how to use the panel, so I’ll skip the details. There are other WAY handy features not found in other viewers. So, this could become the shopaholic’s viewer of choice.
Inara is, apparently, a heavy user of Firestorm’s Photo Tools. I am too. What I use most is Firestorm’s change to WL Sky, which in Catznip is the Fixed Sky setting. So, for the majority of my use, the Catznip Quick Pref’s are good enough. And the Windlight presets, while extensive, have been cleaned up.
RLVa is available. It is off by default. You’ll find it in Preferences->Catznip->General. A viewer restart is required when changing the setting.
Summary
Inara is adopting Catznip as her alternate viewer. For her Firestorm remains the preferred Viewer with Catznip in second place. For me, the slow Catznip render during shopping kills it for me. The Linden viewer remains my primary backup. Other viewers, I consider as specialty viewers, best for specific tasks.
Black Dragon for photos when I need to adjust poses. Catznip when I have a lot of inventory maintenance to do. Linden for playing with new features, think animesh. Firestorm is my primary viewer.
I’ll do more testing with Catznip throughout the week. I am hoping it is something transient. The features in Catznip I could get really attached to. I think they are awesome.
Today the No-Change-Window is closing. Developers with a bit of extra time over the holidays have finished up upgrades to the viewers they make. So, we have some new third-party viewers out. The Lab, of course, was closed over the holidays. So, not much news from them.
You can not escape it.
Servers
There is no Deploy post today. No rollout was expected for the main channel. Whether we will see one on the RC channels is still iffy.
I am showing the last restart of my main channel home region as 12/26.
Viewers
The main viewer remains 5.0.9.329906. Last updated
Second Life Alex Ivy Viewer version 5.1.0.511248 – Last updated in week #48.
Second Life Maintenance Viewer version 5.0.10.330123 – Last updated in week #51.
Second Life Voice Viewer version 5.0.10.330039 – Last updated in week #50.
Second Life Wolfpack Viewer version 5.0.10.330113 – Last updated in week #51.
Second Life Project 360 Snapshot Viewer version 5.1.0.506743 – no update since week #27.
Second Life Project Animesh Viewer version 5.0.10.330058 – Last updated in week #49.
Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.0.511446 – released week, #50.
Third-Party Viewers
The big news is the Catznip Viewer updated in Beta the 26th and in final version yesterday 1/1. This is a big update. Now version R12.
I’ll be downloading it later and will post after I get to use it for a bit. However, Inara has a good review of the release and changes: CATZNIP R12: INVENTORY, SHOPPING AND MORE. She put some effort into the review. Check it out. You’ll get the keyboard shortcuts to get to the fun stuff.
I’ll download it and post my take later today.
Black Dragon has a New Year release, version 2.9.6. This is a bug fix release.
Wish you all the best for this year… may you find gorgeous shoes on sale everywhere you go, may the lovers in your life treat you as royalty, may the chocolate you eat not add pounds…
Happy New Year 2018
There are many sources of fake news and abusive people being revealed. Politicians of all parties are revealing themselves as members of the establishment party. More and more often it is the Establishment against the people. THEY are interested in power and control. We struggle to stay free.
For 2018 you will need a variety of news sources to be able to see the chess game of propaganda in play. Every October outrageous allegations are made. October is the time for them because it leaves no times for court cases to determine facts before the election. The American ideal of innocent until proven guilty is systematically being destroyed and allegations are decided in the court of public opinion.
Christmas is sort of over. We are on to the post-Christmas battery buying days and OMG, why-did-they-think-I-would-wear-this returns…
Second Life is in a ‘No Change’ window. Many Lindens are off work this week. So, there is little news. There is however a Friday post from the Lindens in Featured News: Unboxing 2017 and Looking towards 2018 in Second Life! Worth a read.
without thinking of anything
Other than saying they will make Second Life™ better in 2018, they don’t say much about what is coming. If you have been reading here you know of some things.
I used to do reviews of the events of of the year. It is a bunch of work. So, Inara is doing her year-in-review: 2017 IN REVIEW – PART 1. I’ll leave that work to her. I am thinking of doing a review in video… If it proves fun, you’ll see it. If it turns into work, I’ll probably abandon the project.
