As the grid is down right now, I took a look at the quality metrics for Second Life.  I think this graph, from the Linden’s own web site really says it all.   It really is appalling.  Over 1/5 of all Second Life sessions crash.  Maybe Cory needed to explain these numbers and couldn’t.  Notice how the trend is not really moving downward, sort of sideways.  Also look that this is over a one year time span.  One year to work on things and no substantial quality improvement.  But hey, we did get voice, and now lots of new shiny baubles to look at, um, until it crashes.  I do give Linden Labs kudos for putting up metrics like these and being open about it.

At some point, this graph will be a direct threat to Second Life’s and Linden Lab’s existence, if it is not already.  Philip Linden might think it’s a long road ahead to stability, I think it’s going to be a short road.  The number of active users has started to plateau now and now there is a risk of instability leading to disgust and then people leaving the environment.

Companies invariably do one of two things in general, they get bigger until a bigger fish eats them (or they become the top predator) or they get smaller until they disappear.  The question now is what is going to happen to Linden Labs/Second Life.

-Veyron

So with the news that Linden Labs CTO Cory Linden has left the building I have to wonder if things are going to get better or worse.  (As a side note, I personally hate to see people fail or have these sorts of things happen to them.  I do not subscribe to the theory that in order to succeed others must fail.)  I am curious to see how often avies log out of Second Life without crashing.   That means your  Second Life session ended, on your terms, not blowing up on you.  For example, if you log into Second Life for the evening, it crashes 4 times while you’re on and then you log out at the end, that is pretty close to - almost all the time.

Ask your friends to vote in the poll over in the corner and I’ll close out the poll near the end of the month.  Maybe it’s not as bad as I think it is.  Maybe it is.

-Veyron

Okay, so I’ve seen a steady stream of interesting client software come out of Linden Labs lately.  The Windlight software and the new release canidate (RC) line of software.  Both have some pretty nice features and I kinda like how they work.  However, they both have some - well - fatal problems.  One of them is essentially fatal.  It’s memory leaks.  They are serious memory leaks.  I have seen the both beta clients leak 1GB of RAM in a few minutes of use - just before crashing.

What is annoying here is that this problem is probably fixed already.  Yup, probably already fixed.  We’re just not going to get it - at least not right away.

Nicholaz Beresford has been working on a modifying (ie fixing) the Second Life client for some time now, and I am impressed.  His fixed up version is FAR more stable than what is coming out of Linden Labs these days.  This is one guy who is actually bothering to fix problems.  Don’t believe me.  The JIRA database lists 159 issues as fixed internally.  That means the Lindens have fixed the bug, but it’s not actually in the viewers we have.  159.  That is just the start.

Windlight is great, but it is total CRAP if it crashes 5 minutes after launch.  I just don’t get it.  Linden Labs talks about how they are now going to focus on stability, openness, and getting it right.

In the military when they screw up something with safety or similarly stupid, they have a stand down.   Everyone gets their arses chewed and re-explained what needs to get done and how to GET IT DONE RIGHT.  What the programmers and managers need to now is stop playing with chrome, fiddly bits, and other stupid shiny things and fix the damn bugs.

In the mean time, I recommend you all give Nicholaz’s viewer a work out.  It seems to be a lot more stable.

-Veyorn

Linden Labs buys a company…. They buy Windward Mark and promise to improve visual quality within weeks. Hmmm…. Well, visual quality would be a nice thing. I’m less annoyed about this sort of activity rather than focusing in on stability. The photographers in Second Life should be happy.

But they do need to focus on stability, some of these bugs are pretty stupid….

Gotta catch a plane…

-Veyron

I hear now and then about people who have trouble with Second Life crashing their Windows PC from time to time. There are a few reasons why this might occur, but here’s one reason that you might not think of. Heat (or maybe power).

Okay, if you can run Second Life for about 5-15 minutes, and then it crashes, or your machine locks-up, heat or power is a likely candidate for the root of the problem. Now, the Second Life client has a lot of problems, but… here’s what is going on.

On a reasonably new computer while you are normally using it, it will idle down considerably. This draws less power. When you just have your normal windows display up, the 3D portion of your video card is probably turned off, and not drawing power. Your computer probably is drawing around 100 watts or less power while just surfing or playing around.

For example, an AMD X2 (Dual Processor) Athlon CPU draws about 30 watts of power when idling. When it ramps up to full speed it alone will draw up to 120 watts of power. This does not count the memory, support chips, the hard drives, etc.

A 7000 series Nvidia GPU can draw up to 150 watts of power when fully driven, sometimes more. Every watt of power consumed is turned into heat. Your power supply is also not 100% efficient, between 60 and 80% efficient. My PC at home when running Second Life probably draws close to 400 watts of power. This is a lot of heat for a home PC.

Most generic computers you buy off the shelf are not designed for 100% duty cycle for any extended period of time. Worse, as the high rises, electrical resistance rises, producing more heat.

This heat problem is going to manifest itself as being able to run for a while - the system is cool - and then crash after a while - it has over heated. Usually the video card over heats first. So, how do you fix this? Your number one problem is probably dust. Dust impairs the ability of the fans and heat sinks to remove heat. Open up your computer (after turning it off) and blow it out with air and clean it up good. Heat is also the number one killer of computers and hard disks. This is going to go a long way to solving problems. Get rid of the dust. If you smoke around the computer, that makes it worse.

Next, you can try to improve airflow into the computer. Do this intelligently. You want to blow cool air in and take hot air out. Usually, blow in from the front and out from the rear. You may also want to upgrade the CPU cooling unit on your computer. This can be somewhat difficult to do, depending on your computer design. You can find a lot of cooling fans and upgrades from companies like Newegg or Computergate. Buy ball bearing fans, avoid sleeve bearing fans.

Next problem might be an under powered power supply. It may be over taxed and the voltage might be sagging, causing a crash. If it looks cheap, it probably is. On most PCs, you can replace it with a bigger, unit. Newegg also sells power supplies. Look for high efficiency units. Do not buy a fan-less unit, as you are going to run it HOT. A good power supply is a good investment.

Lastly, you might look into upgrades. I’ll talk about that next post.

-Veyron