Troubleshooting / FAQs
From SLIS Second Life Wiki
The five most common issues solved:
Contents |
Official Documentation
- Linden Lab keeps a set of official documentation:
http://www.secondlife.com/community/support.php
NOTE: To access the Solution Finder and Knowledge base you MUST login. You may login as a guest by giving your email address or create a free account.
The Solution Finder features information on:
- Technical Issues
- Inworld Issues
- Billing Issues
- Linden Dollars (L$)
- Estates
The Knowledgebase covers:
- Content Creation
- Controls and Getting Around
- First Look (testing area)
- Land and the Linden Dollar (L$) Economy
- Policies
- Second Life Website
- Social Stuff
- Support
- Volunteers
- Workarounds
- Public Issue Tracker (JIRA)
"Quicktime initialising" errors can be resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling the latest Quicktime version.
Windows Vista
Second Life provides Windows Vista support for recent graphics cards with updated drivers. The most up-to-date information on Windows Vista support can be found on: http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Windows_Vista
Macintosh
'Guide to Improving Mac Performance'
First off, forget Ctrl-Clicking in Second Life! Cmd-Click (Apple-Click) is how it's done here, and note that the Mac Option key is equal to a PC Alt key. If you have a two button mouse you'll find Second Life a lot easier!
Based on experience, it seems that the lowest Mac configuration is acceptable for Second Life is a Powerbook G4/iBook G4 1GHZ with 768MB RAM and a 64MB video card. If you have a G5 with 128 MB of video RAM, some of these modifications may not be necessary. Some general advice might be to start here, and turn things up as long as you don't crash. Under this configuration and similar configurations, the following settings are advisable in Second Life's Preferences window:
Graphics Tab Setting Recommendations
Graphics > Performance Options: Deselect all settings except Shiny Objects. Graphics > Avatar Rendering: Select Normal. Graphics > Terrain Detail: This is variable, but the Some setting is acceptable. Graphics > Gamma: Don't worry about this; your Mac controls it. It's only useful for full-screen mode, which is inadvisable on a Mac. Graphics > Display Resolution: Check Run in a window. Don't worry about the settings after that.
Advanced Graphics Tab Settings Recommendations
Adv. Graphics > Performance Options: Select AGP if it's not grayed out. If it's selectable, your Mac's video card does not support AGP, which greatly accelerates video. Obviously you want this selected!
Adv. Graphics > Texture Cache Size: This depends on how much total RAM you have. If you have 768MB or more, you should use the Large option. Keep in mind that running other applications at the same time as Second Life can reduce the amount of available RAM.
Adv. Graphics > Video Card Memory: Max this out! It only goes up to the total amount of VRAM you have.
Adv. Graphics > Object Detail: Move the slider to the middle.
Adv. Graphics > Tree Detail: Move the slider to the middle.
Adv. Graphics > Avatar Detail: Max it out if you can, but anything at the middle or above is good.
Adv. Graphics > Avatar Vertex Program: This option can cause some problems on some Macs. If you select it and see weirdness (defined as your avatar staying gray, turning bright white or otherwise improperly rendering) for more than a minute, turn off this setting. Adv. Graphics > Show Avatar in Mouselook: Not necessary, it just shows your avatar's hands or other body parts when in Mouselook mode.
Adv. Graphics > Draw Distance: In general, 64 meters is good for busy locations. If you want to take a picture of a beautiful scene you can raise it much higher. For low-traffic areas, 96 is good.
Adv. Graphics > Fog Distance: This feature fades out things that are on the threshold of your draw distance. 1.5 to 2.5 is good for this option. if you have your draw distance down at 64 meters, set the fog to 1.3.
Adv. Graphics > Drop Draw Distance if FPS: In the event that your FPS (frames per second, or how fast Second Life can draw the screen) drops below this number, your draw distance will drop dramatically. Setting this to 0 disables the feature; 3-5 is a good option.
Adv. Graphics > Bumpiness Draw Distance: With enabling ShinyObjects comes Bump Mapping, which makes objects and/or avatars appear to have raised and recessed areas. Setting this to 5-10 is good.
Adv. Graphics > Max Particle Count: Depending on your Mac, you can increase or decrease this. 2048 is a good option.
Adv. Graphics > Outfit Composite Limit: This has to do with how many recent outfits your video card "remembers". If you change your avatar as often as you change your socks, 1 or 2 is fine. If you tend to change avatars mid-sentence, 4 or 5 is a good option.
Troubleshooting Your Mac
Second Life stores its cache files in the following location: ~/Library/Application Support/SecondLife (where ~ is your home folder) Delete the whole cache folder every month or so to keep Second Life happy, or if you run into slow startups (the Second Life hand icon bounces for a long time before displaying the Second Life window), strange texture issues, or other things.
It is recommended that you not run Second Life in full screen mode. It works for some, but most find it to be more prone to crashing.
AGP mode is recommended for all out-of-the-box Mac OS X-ready systems. Avatar Vertex Program should not be used on Macs with ATI video cards (all Powerbooks except the 17", all "iMac" G4 and G5 systems).
Run as few applications as possible while running Second Life, unless you have 1GB or more of RAM.
The Command/Cmd/Apple key is used to modify the mouse instead of the Control/Ctrl key in Second Life. This simulates the right-click on a PC mouse. You'll notice this will bring up the rotation rings. You can ignore them if you're clicking; they won't get in the way as of Second Life version 1.4.
Newer Sl Client Versions
- Please also check this link about solutions for problems with the
newer Second Life client versions: http://secondlife.com/support/known-issues.php
