SecondLife(R) Viewer2 LL vs. Open Source SnowGlobe & Kirsten's S20(29)-(30) FPS spec comparision

Today I will be running a frames per second and various other specs. comparison test between the 4 Viewer2 versions ( please refer to the 3 previous posts beginning July 31 ) Over the next 24 hours each viewer will repeat the prior test, the control viewer will again be Emerald 1.25.36 / ALL 5 Viewers are set to a network bandwith speed of 530mbps. This series of tests will differ slightly from the previous 2. This is Windows only,(Linux is next :_) I will be using IoBit Software's, Freeware Game Booster and Smart Ram to shut down all background process's and insure maximum system Ram is available, my first step will be to check how many inventory items are still in the cache upon startup out of yesterdays 11,533
Official SecondLife Viewer2 v. 2.1.0.207030
Inventory : 10,098 auto loaded the remainder after entering the letter A / test 2 was =
Start Up Ram available before load610mb program log in 370mb program end 285mb/ test2 end 400mb
FPS : 4.5 - 7.1 relatively stable at 5.6 / test2 2.8 - 8.8 stable at 5.5
Bandwith : 30 - 410kphs peak typical average 45kphs / test2 11 - 311kphs typical average 45kphs
Packet Loss 0.0 - 0.1% / test2 0.0 - 1.8%
Ping Sim : 129 -2675msec relatively stable at 160 / test2 149 - 500msec relatively stable at 240
SnowGlobe Viewer2 v. 2.0.2.3576
Inventory : 10,975 auto loaded the remainder after entering the letter A / test 2 11.0800
Start Up Ram available before load610mb program log in 350mb program end 304mb / test2 end 300mb
FPS : 2.2 - 8.9 relatively stable at 6 test 2 1.9 - 7.2 relatively stable at 5.5
Bandwith : 12 - 417kbps test2 17 - 40kbps typical average both tests 27kbps
Packet Loss 0.0 - 1.0% / test2 0.0 - 1.7%
Ping Sim : 129 - 2675msec relatively stable at 145 / test 2 139 - 199msec relatively stable at 135
SnowGlobe Viewer2 v. 2.1.0.3587
Inventory : 4,804 after pressing the letter a then required a force reload / test2 7454
Start Up Ram available before load610mb program log in 370mb program end 296mb / test2 365mb program end
FPS : 1.6 - 6.9 * relatively stable at 2.5 - 3.0 / test2 2.8 - 8.8 relatively stable at 4.5
Bandwith : 33 - 190kbps / test2 / test2 23 - 320kbhs
Packet Loss 0.0 - 0.5% / test2 0.0 - 37%
Ping Sim : 128 - 5620ms / test2 189 - 504ms / average about 180 both tests
Kirsten's S(20) Build(30)
Inventory : 10,975 auto loaded the remainder after entering the letter a / test2 start 11352mb
Start Up Ram available before load 610mb program log in 362mb program end 360mb / test2 end 362mb
FPS : 2.2 - 10.3 / test2 3.1 - 11.7 relatively stable at 5.0 both tests
Bandwith : 25 - 465kbps / test2 17 - 227kbps
Packet Loss 0.0 - 2.3% / test2 0.0 - 4.0%
Ping Sim : 121 - 1104msec / test2 138 - 560 average at about 180 both tests
Emerald 1.25.36
Inventory : 11,110 auto loaded the remainder by it's self / test2 start fully loaded at 11,533
Start Up Ram available before load 610mb program log in 334mb program end 403mb / test2 end 327mb
FPS : 4.6 - 11.3 relatively stable at 6.0 - 6.5 / test2 4.1 - 8.9 relatively stable at 6.0 - 6.5
Bandwith : 25 - 540kbps / test2 23 - 310kbps
Packet Loss : 0.0 - 0.1% / test2 0.0 - 0.1%
Ping Sim : 104 - 383msec / test2 140 - 780msec average about 170

Ok, so what do these numbers mean ? First of all this is by no means intended to be looked upon as a controlled scientific test, it represents the real world, everyday average users experience, but in a controlled static setting, a private estate island. In a crowded mall or club I am sure the results would be different, please keep in mind the age of the hardware I am using for the test as well, a 9 year old PC and 4 or 5 year old video card ( this card was considered to be top notch when it was new, so I am guessing that helps a lot )

What these numbers say to me is that both the official LL V2 and Kirstens S20 Build(30) are for the most part in a neck and neck race, neither one is better than the other performance wise. And both of them are just slightly behind the Emerald control viewer. Thats pretty good, when you consider that the 1.23.5.xxx code base has been around for a very long time. :_)

I believe I will bypass any further Linux testing, as the majority of users are running Windows. Later today I will begin usability testing the UI (user interface ) of each individual viewer. Please feel free to post any comments.

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife Viewer2 LL vs. Open Source SnowGlobe & Kirsten S20(29)-(30) Inventory Load Times

Hello / welcome back :_)
I will be comparing the installation and inventory load times between the official LL SL Viewer2 and the Open Source SnowGlobe and Kirsten's version's(S20)build(29) &(30) / my control standard will be Emerald Viewer 1.23.5.136
Please note these are for initial inventory loading times only, I will get further into performance specs. within the next several days
The following installation specs will remain constant / Network Bandwith 530kbps / Disk Cache size 990MB / Graphics set to Mid - Antialiasing x2 / Sim Objects 12588 / Active Objects 565 / active Scripts 4087 / My Avatar ARC score 6936 / Avatar inventory count 11,533 items
SecondLife Viewer2 v.2.1.0.20730
Inventory Load Time (ILT)
Windows : 70 minutes 6 relogs
Ubuntu : 110 minutes 11 relogs
SnowGlobe v.2.0.2.357 ILT
Windows : 50 minutes 5 relogs
Ubuntu : 70 minutes 6 relogs
SnowGlobe v.2.1.0.3587 ILT
Windows : 35 minutes 4 relogs
Ubuntu : 45 minutes 5 relogs
Kirsten's v.S(20) Build(30)Windows Build(29)Linux
Windows : 30 minutes 3 relogs
Ubuntu : 30 minutes 3 relogs
Emerald v.1.23.5.136
Windows: 10 minutes 3 relogs
Ubuntu : 10 minutes 3 relogs
Well there you have it, the specs you have just read are how long it took me to do a complete clean installation and inventory load, including the number of times I needed to relog the viewer in order to complete the inventory load, for further information please read the 2 previous posts dated July 31 2010

JayR Cela :_)

Installing LL Viewer2 first things first

Welcome Back reader's
Today I will be describing how I have my test bed rig setup for these reviews. This particular machine has 2 hard drives, hda & hdb. / hda is a 160 gig Seagate consisting of Drives C:\ - D:\ - E:\
hdb is a 60 gig Maxtor used by the Linux distribution.
C:\ is a 4.8 gig boot loader and Windows Swap file partition, D:\ is a 10 gig partition used solely to handle the various Veiwer2 Cache files *note* it is very important to make individual cache files for each version of the viewer both Windows and Linux that I will be installing ! I can not stress the importance of this enough, mixing your cache files from one viewer to another can result in some very odd and undesirable side effect's. Therefore I have come to learn, never accept the default installation. E:\ will hold my V2 program files for Windows. On the D:\ drive I have created d:\SLStandardV2CacheWindows & d:\SLStandardV2CacheUbuntu
I have removed all previous installations of SL, ran 2 separate registry cleaners ( Glary Utilities free version http://www.glaryutilities.com/ and IoBit Software Advanced System Care free version http://www.iobit.com/ ) my next step was to defrag my Windows program files E:\ drive using IoBits Smart Defrag
Windows Installation:
Step#1 Install E:\Program Files\SecondLifeViewer2
Step#2 Start Viewer2 Click on the Me button and select Preferences / click on the Setup button
Browse to D:\SLStandardV2CacheWindows / click on Close button / select OK and restart V2

Step#3 open Preferences and verify that my Cache file pointer has been moved and continue
to make other adjustment's in the Preference's section.
Step#3 log into V2 and force my inventory to load / I am using an Alt Avatar with 11,000 items
relog several times and continue with the force inventory loading

UBUNTU Installation:
Step#1 Open SecondLife-i686-2.1.0.207030.tar.bz2 with Archive Manager and extract to Desktop / next I will mount my D:\ drive
Step#2 same as above / except : the Cache location will be D:\SLStandardV2CacheUbuntu
Step#3 same as above

Next I will install the Snow Globe Standard version / Snow Globe Experimental version and Kirstens version to separate directories IE: E:\Program Files\SecondLifeSnowGlobeStandard
E:\Program Files\SecondLifeSnowGlobeExperimental and E:\Program Files\SecondLifeKirstens I will also be creating individual Cache directories on the D:\ drive for each individual version IE: D:\SLKirstensV2CacheWindows and D:\SLKirstensV2CacheUbuntu and for the 2 Snow Globe versions.
Tomorrow I will begin testing, so stay tuned :_)

JayR Cela :_)

Linden Lab Viewer2 and the Open Source Alternatives

Greetings to everyone:_)
Due to recent events at LL in regards to SL and Viewer2. I have decided to reinstate this Blog and post here on a regular basis, with the purpose being to further the development of the Viewer2 project. Also since I am a long time SL builder there will also be occasional post's and picture's of my various building projects. Please feel free to post your comments and opinions here, I will not be moderating this blog ! It is yours to use freely, I do however ask that you respect your fellow readers, no vulgar language, no flame wars. I am here again for the sole purpose to make Viewer2 a success, and intend to devote as much time as possible towards this goal. So lets get started:_)

Yesterday Friday July 30 2010 I listened to Philip and BK Lindens meeting in regards to the future of SL. The one thing that stood out in my mind was LL admitting that V2 was and still has a very poorly designed User Interface, however the underlying code base allows for some very interesting and needed features. I have decided to focus on 4 different versions of V2.
#1 the Standard LL current version
#2 the Snow Globe Standard version
#3 the Snow Globe Experimental version
#4 the KirstenLee Cinquetti version

The test bed for all reviews will be done using an Intel Based Pentium 3 733mghz 756meg ram and Nvidia 7300 512meg video card, Ubuntu 10.04 and Windows XP Home SP3. I have decided to use this older hardware for two reasons. To many bad experiences with V2 borking my main rig, and I feel if this box is able to run V2 than anyone should be able to as well. This is not a set in stone decision, as V2 progresses into a more mature platform, I may change my mind, and install it to more modern hardware.

JayR Cela :_)

Bare Rose does Space Junky's

Well this is a bit off my usual topic, but I have to say June Dion the premiere fashion designer and owner of Bare Rose ~ Tokyo has certainly topped herself this time. Last Sunday I attended a concert at the B@R White Wolf location, and witnessed something that completely blew me away ! Space Junkies the SL band that seems to be taking on SL with a vengeance. If you have not seen them yet, Woooo Look Out, this band Rocks BIG TIME !!!! :_)

http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/tech/2008/01/25/obrien.second.life.musicians.cnn?iref=videosearch

http://www.slcn.tv/music-isle-spacejunky

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife 1.20.x.x Release Candidates & Dazzle

By JayR Cela 5/3/08

Most SLifers are aware of Linden Labs(tm) fervently fast paced upgrade path for the SecondLife(tm) client viewer. The current batch, 1.20.x.(1-5) have been met with mixed results from the general and developer communities. During a recent Linden meeting, I had the chance to ask some questions, and print a condensed version of my transcript. But first A quick look at the disappearing skirts issue, the Havok 4 team, along with some closing comments on recent Server problems, and a statement from Rob Linden.

Disappearing Skirts
You: silly question / if I may ask please ...............
You: has any one solved the dissapearing skirt problems yet ?
Alexa Linden: it's still being looked at, VWR-2778
You: ok / thanks Alexa :_)
Alexa Linden: np :), it's been imported, and we are looking at it

The Havok 4 Team
You: ok i got comment.......
Aric Linden listens to JayR
You: sidewinder and his team deserve some real hero pats on the back and probably a raise in pay for pulling of the havok 4 release, that team rocks
Aric Linden: Oh, they got all that and more, and yes they do rock. They're showing the rest of us how real people get work done

Dazzle and the 1.20.x.x Release Candidates
You: so why ya'all gonna do about Dazzle ? / I personally like it / but seems as
if not many other folks do ?
Aric Linden: JayR? what is it that you think we should do with Dazzle?
You: ok / I personally like the Dazzle skin / should be an option to choose between
Classic and Modern / same as Sea Monkey ( FireFox ) (Win~Amp ) why is this
not an option ?
Kooky Jetaime: I haven't tried Dazzle... I'm in the boat though of hold dazzle and
just go straight to a skinnable UI. At the minimum, give the choice of Dazzle or
raditional. I like the dark ui.
Aric Linden: It's not an option currently for a few reasons. It was very expensive to try and test and support two versions
concurrently so we opted for pushing to dazzle and moving towards a skinnable ui
Squirrel Wood: Dazzle, afaik is a first step towards skin ability
Aric Linden nods at Squirrel
Yuu Nakamichi: I have read that the skinnaibility will be finishied before Dazzle
becomes main?
Asriazh Frye: would the skin modifying be an in-client thing or an extra program?
Aric Linden: Asriazh it would be a simple config - you'd add a folder with your
desired skin to the install directory for SL. We are working on it, and we're split into many different groups and have a range of priorities. Sometimes our priorities map 1-1 with residents (the crashes in last weeks rc for example). In other cases, the timing shifts out based on other ordering for resources. QA and release are both stretched very tightly right now, we wanted to get Dazzle out and get feedback before we completed the skinning, but we haven't given up on skinning at all .
You: Aric / seems as if QA is streatched more than a bit thin / the RC's should be
re-named ALPHA clients / they are not of Release Canidate calibur
Aric Linden laughs This topic has been discussed and is in the process of being worked out now
I'm driving that
You: and this is a problem ...... because ..... the average user is or does not
seem to be able to grasp the fact that these are experimental
Squirrel Wood: mayhaps a name shift from RC to Beta Client may help ?
Aric Linden: but since you seem to know - how would you define the difference
between Release candidate and Alpha or Beta software
You: Ok...look at MS for an example, they go thru and closed alpha & beta stage .....
Aric Linden thinks fondly of IE 3 and listens closely
You: then an open beta.....then a closed RC....then an open RC stage
Aric Linden: and they take how long to release product?
You: a long time:_)
Aric Linden: would you be willing to wait 2 years for an update to SL?
You: no / I would be willing to wait several months. What the heck are you'all rushing for ?
Aric Linden: We're rushing because we are not ubiquitous. We are trying to build a platform and feel that time to market matters. We are also solving (or trying to solve) problems that MS doesn't have
Trinity Coulter: for me, i don't think rapid changes matter as long as you have a
lot of communication with the residents
Aric Linden: all that said, we will be slowing down the RC process and implementing
a more closed alpha cycle
You: but in the mean time you have created a unstable platform ..... why not pay residents that actually want to work with you..... for their time to test things before they are release into the general population
Aric Linden: Um, I'm not in charge of the pay residents to work with us problem, JayR - I will bring your suggestion to the team tho
Kooky Jetaime: I think JayR is on something that I've been repeating about for awhile....
LL needs to use the "established" meanings for words in software development.
These RC's are not Release Candidates. They are Public Beta's. They are no where NEAR polished, or feature locked
Aric Linden: Kooky - have you been sitting in on our meetings?
Kooky Jetaime: I hit some hours here and there, if not talking about those, then no.
Aric Linden: no, i meant our internal meetings
Kooky Jetaime: No.
Aric Linden: we're discussing this stuff - alpha beta naming conventions time to
release etc.. this is a big topic internally and we'll be making some changes
Bridie Linden: Another reason for the increase in RCs lately was to try and
find/fix crashes...
You: but in essance you are using the general Avatar population as guinee piggs.....
thus in the long run ...alienaiting a lot of potential future customers to this platform
Kooky Jetaime: Bridie - RC's are not for bug hunting. Thats what Alphas/Betas are for....
something titled with "RC" should be, as far as can be determined" A-OK, and ready to
ship, your just checking to make sure the public agrees with you.
Bridie Linden: As Aric mentioned, we are discussing all of this internally.
Aric Linden: thanks - we're doing something that's not been done before and we're
feeling our way along sometimes really painfully, sometimes really successfully. We're' trying to collaborate with you all and internally
Bridie Linden nods
Aric Linden: sometimes we don't realize we've effed up until two days after the effup
Squirrel Wood: If y'all ask me then it may be a wise idea to have one team rewrite
the client from scratch and define common interfaces for different modules like input,
rendering, skins, ... but that's just my two cents of L$
You: i agree with Squirrel
Aric Linden: wow squirrel - i think if we had a large enough team, we'd consider that, but that's HUGE, and by the time we got to the end of that, we'd have to rewrite a
bunch of it cuz it was outdated
Trinity Coulter: they are working toward that, Squirrel, by changing the way the server and client interact, so its on the long range plan
Squirrel Wood: yes. but the team would just rebuild the base framework. everything
else comes as module to link into that frame
Aric Linden: Trinity is right, exactly right, and even though sometimes it doesn't seem like it, we try to factor residents into the work we do all the time

Some Server Issue's
You: personally I dont think the client is the biggest problem right now
Aric Linden: agreed jayr, the server is. But that's only because we put so much into the client over the last 9 months
Squirrel Wood: Yes. The asset server has been a pain during the past couple weeks...
not a single day without any major troubles
Aric Linden: we're now pointing at trying to get the server solid
Trinity Coulter: to help improve the reliability of SL, but, i guess this isn't the Which hour, its the Bug Lindens hour :)
Squirrel Wood: modularize...much easier to rewrite or exchange a module than the entire thing :)
Aric Linden: Squirrel, we're trying, we're getting there
You: Backward compatibility with legacy code is allways a problem / and sometimes,
can choke off inovation /
Aric Linden:sometimes, so you refactor all of that and make occasional updates mandatory, and then listen to your users gripe about mandatory updates, or lack of mandatory updates
Aric Linden: Sadly, I need to go, I'll set up office hours. It seems as though this is a conversation worth continuing with y'all

Final Comment from Rob Linden
Rob Linden: the question is not whether it's possible to write something
more compact and less buggy. the question is whether a complete rewrite is a faster path to
more compact and less buggy than gradual refactoring/improvement
Rob Linden: this line taken from the essay link below, is pretty important:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html
" The old mantra build one to throw away is dangerous when applied to large scale commercial
applications. "


Well there ya have it folks.
JayR Cela :_)

Microsoft does .NET Event in SecondLife

By JayR Cela 5/2/08


This Week, I was invited to a virtual world event hosted by Micro Soft, courtesy of Linden Labs Second Life(tm) internet Virtual World platform. The former had set up several islands to host a number of .NET developers an enthusiast's. I'll admit I was quite impressed upon initial arrival. MS had numerous in world employee's there to greet and direct all newcomers and old time SLifers as well, they were very friendly and helpful to everyone. This this is a bit unusual, most SL in world experiences with corporate entity's, (an exception being Sun Micro Systems) that I have experienced, are not as well planned or executed. However, as with any new medium of virtual communications first time large scale event, things swiftly started to unravel.

MS had set up 3 separate islands for the attendee's, depending upon their particular interests. My teleport to the Visual Studio island landed me somewhere in a lake bed underwater, but according to my map, I was close enough to make my way to the proper location. Within a minute I was at the auditorium that had been set up with help from LL. I sat and watched as the MS employee's unfamiliar with this new virtual environment, struggled with in world Power Point slides, and the spotty voice chat performance that seems to be so common in SL. Most problems were eventually resolved, and the presentation proceeded, minus the PP slide show.

In closing, I would like to say, that considering recent difficulties LL has been experiencing the past month or so, things seemed to go over well enough to satisfy, the majority of attendee's. I base this statement on follow up, in world text chat, and the dot~NET group IM comments afterwards.

Does this mean that the Linden Lab folks are finally getting a handle on things? I sincerely hope so.

JayR Cela :_)

SecondLife Perpetual Beta & 1 Big Crap Shoot

By JayR Cela 4-25-08

Ok it has been a while since I have posted here, I hope fate, smiles upon me. So with out further adieu. I am here today to explain, as I see it, my opinion of. The current state of affairs, dealing with the issues of server instability and client disaster within SecondLife the Virtual World owned and operated by Linden Labs.
As most readers already know, the SL (tm) grid seems to have turned into a mass of mush the past several months. Not only that, but the flurry of poorly designed and implemented SL client viewers, tends to make one wonder, what and the heck is going on. The recent firing of Corey (Ondrejka) Linden, ( Linden Labs lead technical architect) was thought by some to signal trouble ahead, perhaps they were correct, perhaps not so. And Phillip stepping aside, hmm I believe this was, and still is a good idea, simply because this is considered to be a logical move for many growing companies that start out small, and suddenly grow faster than anticipated. So lets start with the with some very apparent facts.
The first open to the public release of SL was in October of 2003 with version 1.0.0, prior to that SL was an open beta, and prior to that a closed internal beta. Currently the server code is at 1.20.1.85162 and soon to be updated to 1.21.x.xxxxx. For a look at the version history ( see > http://secondlife.wikia.com/wiki/Release_Notes ) ( this shows a complete history of SL version progress with explicit details included ) The client viewer software version, generally runs concurrent with the server software. It is important to remember that the two, although intertwined, are separate pieces of code, and that they perform different functions from one in other, as are the subsets of other contained code within each of them. So often, I hear or read in the blogs people getting the two of these programs functions confused with one in other. Example: "Since the introduction of Havok 4 the inventory system is ruined!" This is simply not true, and for that matter an impossibility. The inventory asset system and the Havok physics engine ( although they run together on the Server side of the equation) perform two completely different and separate tasks. This would be similar to making a statement that your automobile started running poorly, because you overfilled your windshield washer fluid reservoir. The two have nothing to do with one in other, besides the fact they are both a part of the same overall end result. Getting from point A to point B. In September 2005 when I first became aware of SL, the server and client code at that time was the1.6.12.x series. And I can tell you for the past 2-1/2 years that the one thing about LL that remains the same, is that, things are constantly in a state of flux, that will never change. Sometimes problems get solved only to resurface for no apparent reason again, months down the road. Old problems that have been here forever seem to be completely ignored, while the coders at LL feverishly pile on new features, that seem to most of us, that not many users really want, or care about. Although I am sure LL has their reasons for doing so.
Another thing that however regrettable also seems to remain the same. Is that the utter lack of seeming concern by LL, of its life and blood. The Customer, that's right, the Customer! Mind you now there are a variety of customer types. You have the free accounts, paying, premium, land owners , estate owners, corporate & educational accounts. And I am sure that, priorities come into play when dealing with different account types and their various concerns. For instance, consider the addition, and botched introduction of live voice chat into SL. if I recall correctly, there was a huge outcry from the basic and premium account holders against this feature being added to the platform. However the cooperate and educational communities felt this was a necessity, in order for SL to become a viable venue. The latest features to be frowned upon by the community at large, Wind Light & Dazzle have been met with the same vigorous dismay, as so were the previous introduction's of Flexi & Sculpty Prims. ( I don't recall hearing any recent rantings about these now invaluable features )
Why you ask, does LL do these things. The answer is simple, in order for them to remain competitive, in what is probably the fastest growing industry seen in recent times, ( see article >Ignore Second Life at your own peril< http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article3803056.ece ) they simply have to, in order to survive. No if ands or buts about it. Face it quite a few people, whom are technically savvy enough, and who even have the desire to dabble in Virtual Worlds, like their bells and whistles. We are for the most part a gadget obsessed society. However to obtain all these perks at the sake of having countless system breakdowns, major issues that continue to remain unresolved, and the general population so often simply to be told to file their complaints into the almost incomprehensible bottom less pits, so unaffectionately referred to as the JIRA, and PJIRA can be utterly maddening at the least.
So what are we as users to do? Complain in different ways available to us, yes. Will our voices be heard? Maybe they will, maybe they wont, who knows. Its all one giant crap shoot, a big game of chance, the players being us the customers, and Linden Labs the persons running the gambling table. We are all gambling here. And as with all business ventures of any sort there are risks that must be taken. We constantly here from different sources, issues such as, why don't you fix what is broken, instead of adding new features? Well the reason for that may well be, that all companies except for the smallest Mom & Pop shop types, are sectioned off into separate teams, these individual team members work on different aspect's of the overall performance for the business as a whole. The fact remains that SL in of and as itself, is a huge undertaking, unprecedented before now. I ask you to sit back for a moment and think about this question. Have you ever not been able to find something to do here in SL? ~No !!~ I'll bet that you have not. That is because the possibilities of things to do are practically limitless. And you have to keep in mind another truism, if nothing else, remember this whole on line environment, that we call SecondLife, is has been and will continue to be one giant Beta Project. So hold on tight, and fasten your seat belts. Either way no matter how things eventually work out, it will be interesting to say the least. And years down the road, you can look back and say, I was there when it all started ! And then you can smile.
Finally, a prediction for the future. Database server related problems will soon become a thing of the past, now that Sun Micro Systems has acquired MySQL, the open source company that developed the underlying data management software that runs SL. ( see Sum Micro press release > http://www.sun.com/aboutsun/media/presskits/2008-0116/index.jsp/ ) 4/15/08 Cheers & Rock On !!

JayR Cela :_)

Sun Microsystems ~ Second Life & Club Java

JayR Cela / 11-14-07

Several months ago I had the pleasure of meeting Fiona Gallagher, (Avatar~Fiona May) the SL project leader of Sun Micro Systems, at their in world location. To my surprise unlike most corporate entities with a presence here in SL , Sun Micro is very active within our virtual community, and a strong supporter of Linden Labs efforts to make SL a standard within the industry. Since then I have met many other wonderful people employed with Sun. So much so, I have decided to condense, and post a transcript from a recent, dual 2 hours each, Question & Answer sessions, held last month by Sun Micro employees and a number of independent resident developers.

After this phenomenal event, the best part was still to come. Most everyone headed on over to Club Java. The newly created gathering place for social events, related to the information technology industry. As the different conversations continued for hours and everyone mingled,and listened to music. I watched the avatars dance, chat, and get to know one in other. People from vastly different parts of the planet, all of them involved within this new and growing industry, gathered together in one virtual space. Enjoying themselves, discussing the various aspects and possibilities of virtual technology, a VW social gathering place. And then it suddenly hit me, Wow! Why has someone not thought of this before.

Well apparently Fiona, her coworkers and Sun Microsystems have. This may well be the best thing I have ever seen happen here in Second Life. The ability to be able to get so many people within this industry, and have a place to actually chat, dance, joke around and just socialize with one in other, in a friendly, environment, exchange idea's, concepts, and work together. Is so vastly different from the standard voice or video conference call.

Finally the independent, Second Life, software development community, has attracted Real Life, upper management attention, from one the industries best known pioneers and constant leader in the world of Information Technologies. What will become of Second Life, and will it eventually merge with, or into project Dark Star and or MPK20 ?

The Event

Gathered together in one virtual space were, some of the brightest and most influential minds involved, within this new, evolving computer information exchange platform. All of these people are actually taking a serious interest in the future of Lindens Labs virtual reality platform. On opening the session, A general topic question from, Web Marketing Manager Heidi Dailey (Avatar~Heidi Sun Microsystems) was asked to the large group of attendees, and the response was immediate.

My condensed transcript

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Good Morning and welcome to our SDN Chat on Sun on Second Life. I'm Heidi Dailey, Web Marketing Manager for Sun Developer Network. It's my pleasure to introduce Fiona Gallagher, Brian Foley and Chris Melissinos who have joined us today to discuss SUN's presence in Second Life. Can I ask you a question? What are you looking for in Second Life?

You: I want it to work properly

Tree Kyomoon: I want to use it as a corporate training tool

and design/develop platforms for training here

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: RL/SL integration (plus what JayR said! ;-) and
I would like to be able to get email & phone calls here

AnandAtre Sun Microsystems: I want to use it for community meetings

Morgaine Dinova: I want it to scale, massively, in all dimensions of scalability.

Tedd Maa: 3D websites, common 3D platform both on communications protocols but also on objects, one set of servers for any 3D purpose

Rex Cronon: a SL viewer in Java

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: use SL as a new kind of browser

Dirk Talamasca: and with what tools

Tedd Maa: artificial life experiments in 3D with server side physics engine

01 Hifeng: science and tech events

You: and I would like also to see Sun Micro completely take control of the Server side back end

Saijanai Kuhn: voluntary ad hoc clusters client side upon entering said AI simulation

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Ok. wow, thanks for the feedback!

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Rex, you had a question

Rex Cronon: is sun planning to make a SL viewer in java?

Heidi Sun Microsystems: It's open source and we hope someone in the developer community
would take on the challenge

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Next question?

Morgaine Dinova: If Sun is planning to create a Java-based viewer, their viewer team needs to sit in on the Scalability VAG discussions.

Fiona May: I agree, we are trying to link ourselves into as many of the groups as possible

Tedd Maa: Sun runs servers too? so I guess there are more than just 1 VAG that might be interesting

Fiona May: we are all about contributing and participating

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Next question?

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: Will sun be building applications to run in SL? And Is there a group that will be spun off/created

Fiona May: Sun continually uses SL as a development environment, in fact at one time MPK20 used to have a place in SL. We are in fact working with them on bringing them back so that we can try to see how we can leverage each others technology

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: Do we have a strategy now? :-) This seems like a huge pot of potential for both internal & external. That's a great starting point! ;-)

Fiona May: We believe that environments like Second Life give us the ability to explore new ways of communicating with customers, partners and people curious about Sun in a way that has previously been unavailable. We use our virtual space to more effectively communicate the kinds of technologies we create, ways to use those technologies, how we are making an impact on society at large and to just engage and talk with people.

Klaatu Niu: Yes. to further what Fiona said... I'm finding that as a way to connect to other tech communities here is very beneficial

Fiona May: Lastly, we see it as a way to observe and learn how to be more effective communicators and on line participants in this emerging space.

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Domchi, please ask your question

Domchi Underwood: Is there ANY kind of consideration in Sun regarding bringing Java in SL, like,for example, Java / Swing on the prims, like, you know, enabling standard Java GUI apps to use prims as screen, say, using DEBUG_CHANNEL as System.err and channel 0 as console? I'd like to see that much more than applets or server side Java. And I think Java2D has a lot to give to SL.

Tillie Ariantho: Do you think this will stick with 'exploring' only or SL might this become a well used environment in the future? What's your guess about it? :)

Fiona May: By having the ability to meet with other developers from all over the globe in a single space, by having the ability to visibly demonstrate what they are doing and by having access to technology executives who, due to very pressing travel schedules, may not be able to participate in a real world venue, but can jump into the Sun space in SL at a moment's notice. In short, the developer's benefit is access. Access to information and people

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Dirk, please ask your question

Dirk Talamasca: What do you find residents to be most curious about with regards to Sun.What is it they'd like to see and do you find that the technology available enables that properly?

Fiona May: Thats a really good question Dirk. I think people are still amazed about who Sun really is and the products and solutions we have to offer

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Wyn, please ask your question

Wyn Galbraith: Will Sun only be offering a meeting place in SL or will it have something to offer the residents of SL?

Fiona May: I think we are still learning about what people want to see from Sun in this environment, I don't have the answers I am always looking for feedback, Wyn. We try to give back to the community where possible, so far that has been on two fronts

Fiona May: 1. We have a public sandbox with really comprehensive tutorials, 2. We do not work with a big company such as MOU or Electric Sheep, all our builders and scripters are in world residents

Heidi Sun Microsystems: JayR, did you have a question?

You: as a gathering place / lets say the recently opened Sun Micro, Club Java night club I think the potential to bring together like minded software developers is a wonderful idea / how you intend to continue this

Fiona May: oh thanks JayR I forgot about the nightclub, never in my life did I think I would be a night club manager. LOL, hiring DJ's was so much fun.

You: Fiona / yeah I think it is Important that word gets out about Sun Micro's Club Java

Heidi Sun Microsystems: it is PG-13 :)

Fiona May: thank you - we have a live DJ this Friday

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Go Morgaine

Morgaine Dinova: So do you see SL (and virtual worlds in general) as nothing more than a conduit to run RL? Or do you also see Sun as contributing to a new virtual entity out there,in much the same way that the net has a certain independence as a social structure?

Fiona May: Morgaine, Great question, I want Sun to contribute to the new virtual entity. We have our own development platform and we are engaging closely with the other companies who are looking at how and where this environment will evolve

Klaatu Niu: I agree with Fiona.. one thing that I do here.. is participation in many things and communities not related directly with Sun

Fiona May: Up until recently (in fact yesterday) Sun did not have dedicated resource on SL, i did it where i could, VW is now my remit

Morgaine Dinova: Excellent

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Tree?

Tree Kyomoon: I recently read an article about Agile programming, and how large orgs are losing out to 1-3 man shops who can react/respond faster...what is Sun's position on this? (for example, digg.com, facebook, SL etc) Or should I say SUN's strategy

Klaatu Niu: Interesting that you should mention Agile. The team that I belong to at Sun.. has implemented Agile processes for all the projects were are involved in. In particular .. we are using Scrum to manage and guide our projects

Saijanai Kuhn: kool. though, in a sense, if a project can't be broken down to the Agile level, there's probably something wrong with the project

Klaatu Niu: Indeed yes

Klaatu Niu: We're finding at least in our group that agile is helping us be much more responsive in development. Hope that helps

Tree Kyomoon: yes thanks!

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Dirk, ask your question

Dirk Talamasca: Landowners in Second Life are quite curious about what the future holds for them. Rumors of a tier increase on grandfathered regions in the first quarter of 2008 will affect them first but they are also curious with regard to how the Open Sim project will affect them. Does Sun have any plans to facilitate ownership and maintenance of regions on the grid so that persons wishing to own and operate them without the technical know-how to do so may set up regions and connect to the grid easily?

You: good question Dirk, and what about OpenSim

Fiona May: Its not something we are considering at the moment but would be delighted to work with any organizations that are looking at this to ensure that the infrastructure they use is more stable and reliable

Klaatu Niu: though there isn't any plans at the moment. I'm part of our Network.com group. where we have put up publicly available services. and I could speculate that that could be something down the road.

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Wyn, ask your question.

Wyn Galbraith: Taking from your event note, which of Sun's technologies help build the SIMS we see today?

Fiona May: Good question

Fiona May: one of things we wanted to do when we started the rebuild was to have a presence that was open to the public asap. These sims are designed in a 3D package and an application based on java. The buildings are then imported, unfortunately the import mechanism uses too many prims, so in world builders do a prim replacement, what would of taken 3 months was actually achieved in a month, so in fact java was behind the development.

Wyn Galbraith: Thanks. :)

You: What software development tools will be made available to us ? And will they be directly linked to X-86 platform or Sparc ?

Wyn Galbraith: Good question JayR.

Fiona May: the client interface has been developed on Solaris for X86 platform.

Klaatu Niu: Well there is all the "normal" software tools avail.. compilers etec.. for X86 platform, in addition.. we have avail.. Project Darkstar and Project Wonderlan.. which run on X86 and provide a virtual world experience .. on a single box, Darkstar of a free.. Open source.. Virtual World Software environment . developed by Sun Labs, and made freely avail.. Google for Project Darkstar and you'll find it.. the code is available and runs on windows/solaris / and linux today

Orion Ogee: https://lg3d-wonderland.dev.java.net/

Fiona May: I have a question for you here, what would you like to see from Sun in SL, is what you see what you expect, are we missing the mark, are we just another corporate taking up grid space with no value add?

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: No I think your making the right steps

You: I just want the back end servers,various routers / switches / interconnects to work properly !

Fiona May: yeahhhhh JayR, so do I

Rex Cronon: i would like if applets would be able to communicate with the SL viewer, back and forth:)

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: Double up on Rex's comment

Domchi Underwood: I would love Java and Swing on the prim. :)

Tedd Maa: On that question: I'd like to see Sun take part in the development of the new SL

Wyn Galbraith: An in world career page ;)

Saijanai Kuhn: coordinate with Manpower on in-world job offerings for RL

Fiona May: access to RL job offerings are in the Sun lobby, we will be looking at recruitment fairs moving forward

Heidi Sun Microsystems: From a community standpoint what do you want? More chats? More events? More Sun Experts on line?

TrentTurner Sun Microsystems: More sun experts on line!

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Morgaine, please ask your question.

Morgaine Dinova: The Internet didn't grow explosively because of business interest, it exploded through growth at the leaves of the tree, through massive interest from ordinary people. Most business discovered it only very late in the game, with only a few insightful companies present early on: Cisco, DEC, Sun. Do you think that the memo of "Let's get this working, sort out the business later" is dead, or still alive and kicking?

Fiona May: i echo the sentiments on applets and java - I would like to throw the challenge out to our developer community as well. I will even consider land of any serious developers. for any*

Fiona May: Morgaine, I would hope that a lot of us learned by what happened in the early days of the Internet. I remember them only too well. From what I have seen there is a lot of people outside of the big corporates who are showing an interest in how this environment evolves

Klaatu Niu: Mogain.. I think thats exactly how we've gotten here too. for Sun . . we kinda started up our SL presence and than have worried about the business of it as we move forward

Morgaine Dinova: Fiona: I think the question really translates to: is Sun limited by having to present a business case now, for involvement in Vws.

Fiona May: up until yesterday Morgaine I would of said yes, but now put a dedicated head and the team will grow I think that opened up a whole new ballpark

Heidi SunMicrosystems: JayR, please ask your question

You: ok thank you this is more of a statement / and I feel is an important issue that needs to be dealt with. Ok this is just my opinion , seems to me there are server load balancing issue's that need to be addressed. Here within the LL Server cluster / Way to many packets of data seem to bounce around back and forth , thus this is creating unnecessary network traffic – resulting in all sorts of difficulties / what I believe needs to be done is consolidate the clustered architecture into a uniform state and maintain current evolving technologies as they emerge, and blending them as needed.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Gotcha! :)

Ancient Shriner: I think that sims should be run on virtual machines on mainframes

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Why mainframes ?

Ancient Shriner: So you don't have network traffic, and you can take empty sims, and have only a couple clock cycles to see if there is some one there before ramping up in memory then you can scale up to hundreds per sim, as traffic bandwidth would become the problem, not processor horsepower

You: BlackBox seems like is a viable answer

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Ok, let's talk about AS's comments. Mainframes act as a central point of power as well as failure

Ancient Shriner: ok, cluster of mainframes then

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: what we are building at Sun in Darkstar, is quite a bit different

Ancient Shriner: I'm very interested to learn about Darkstar

Slick Stringfellow: I was going to mention Darkstar, the idea of "shards" "sims" etc is outmodded

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: building a horiz. scalable environment that disributes the work as needed, invisible to the client as well as the application. The issues we have with today's though around virtual worlds is the sharded or geography based model

Ancient Shriner: that what you mean by shards?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: they are principally based on "web server" links of thought, this works well for the WWW because there is no one datacenter that runs all of the servers powering the web

Ancient Shriner: true, but there is the InterNIC

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: can't do that in a distributed sim, no scale :) does not matter

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Go Eric

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: is it a centralized bandwidth problem, or a problem of load and cross network (client - > server -> #clients) load going exponential?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: what needs to happen is to have the server be agnostic when it comes to content, treat everything the same

Ancient Shriner: it is a lock-step concensual projection of events problem

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: this way, the client and/or app does not care where in the data center their apps are being run, they just care that it *is* being run :)

Ancient Shriner: keeping virtual realities the same one each client . . . so we all see the same thing , but take inventory . . .where is that kept?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: let's move on for a minute

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Eric?

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: Well part of the problem is coordinating the clients within the latency between them

Fiona May: I think Erics question was, is it a centralized bandwidth problem, or a problem of load and cross network (client - > server -> #clients) load going exponential?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: correct Eric

You: it is load balanceing I think

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: Maximizing the server helps tremendously

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Which is why game developers hide latency with art / animation ;) Only for the items being executed on that particular server. We need to work to make the app run on all servers equally well.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Let's not talk Sun product here, this is about VW exploration

Fiona May: We believe that environments like Second Life give us the ability to explore new ways of communicating with customers, partners and people curious about Sun in a way that has previously been unavailable.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: agreed

Fiona May: We use our virtual space to more effectively communicate the kinds of technologies we create, ways to use those technologies, how we are making an impact on society at large and to just engage and talk with people. Lastly, we see it as a way to observe and learn how to be more effective communicators and online participants in this emerging space.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: We also use SL to understand how we can make the next evolution of VW platforms even better

Fiona May: We are continuing learning about this space, thats why i feel we are still learning about this environment

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Slick ask your question

Slick Stringfellow: Chris: Along those lines of VW and making them better, what if any interaction has Sun had with MindArk and EU?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Not much, meaning I have not reached out to them, but, we are working on Wonderland/MPK20 to look at building deeper collaboration frameworks with stronger/granular security and media. And can play some games in there also :)

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: Sun has been quite active in charities, and there are quite a number of non-profit causes active in SL. I would then offer service as a goal for Sun SL.? Probably the biggest is the American Cancer society relay, but we are also working on Rock the Vote, and With Capitol Hill, founded by John Gage

Fiona May: LL already offers non profits opportunities within SL. We try to give back to the SL community by dedicating space for a sandbox. We use in-world builders and scriptors, not big organizations

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: Rock On!!

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Whoops, you are up.

Whoops Babii: nope I'm fine. I just have to say that without Fiona, Sun's presence in SL would have floundered.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: 100% agreed :)

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Dillan you're up.

Dillan Munro: I came in a bit late so sorry if this has been asked, but where are the performance bottlenecks in a VW application like SL? Raw processing power in the servers? Network bandwidth?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: The issues can be broken down into overall architecture, initial design, and flexability. Bottlenecks that crash the server happen at the physical layer of the DC, geo based worlds assign servers to each parcel of land, the only way to fit more people or assets into the sim is to physically beef up that particular server. No load balancing across the entire DC. Imagine if we did that for each stock that trades on Wall Street, it would not scale. And this is not, BTW, a slam on LindenLabs, it is how they thought about initial design way back when, and their backgrounds were in the web space so, the thought is logical. Network bandwidth is another concern, but less of an issue as we can do things that mask latency. Unfortunately, we cant change the speed of light. and atomic physiscs are pretty hard and fast rules :) But we have some ideas on how to ease the latency burden ;)

Heidi SunMicrosystems: JayR, my friend, you are up.

You: ok this is a bit off topic / but i really want to bring it up. Since this new VR enviorment is evolving and we are obviously / all intelligent individuals / how can we work together / and help solve problems / such as World hunger / Domestic Violence / Peace and Co-operation in a RL world gone Mad? Can we actually make this a platform for Global World Peace ?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: VW platforms allow us to shed the social blocks, we have in RL encounters, racial bias, gender bias, religious bias, etc... we can mask these and have a more candid conversation

EricAhlberg SunMicrosystems: Many are trying, we had long lines of demonstrators for Myanmar. Instant global demonstration?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: VW platforms server to equalize voices, in a way RL media can not. Much more to discuss on this topic, but we should move along :)

You:Thank you for your response Chris & Eric :_)

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Next question?

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Go Slick

Slick Stringfellow: Darkstar seems based on N1 Grid Engine and HPC Cluster tools technologies,am I correct?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: No, not at all :) Darkstar was built from the ground up for online games.

Slick Stringfellow: Similar priciples? compute nodes instead of geo servers, etc ;)

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: N1 and HPC Cluster serve different markets. Similar in that they seek to dynamically load balance and move data based on geography, but, the way a developer approaches Darkstar is through an API stack that appears mono-threaded, which is the world of the "game loop" In reality, it is highly scalable on the server.

Also, the game developer never actually touches the database, all access in and out are handled through services which increases our security as well as availability


Slick Stringfellow: very interesting, thanks :)

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: no problem!check out http://www.projectdarkstar.com for more info :)

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Evian, go! :)

Evian Argus: Can you tell us what Darkstar and Wunderland will offer the business marketplace in the next 1-3 years? - Intranet Metaverses at the OEM level for medium/large companies? Hosted Metaverses for medium/large companies from SUN and Cisco?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Yes, and yes, plus imagine a framework that allowed you to interconnect very different themed worlds seamlessly and transfer goods, ID, status between said worlds allow for very granular levels of security that protect real world financial transactions or RL identity.

Evian Argus: All within the SUN/Cisco platform (only).

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: nope, Darkstar is written in Java, the client APIS are Java and C, we are already seeing client APIs in development on c#, Java,Flash, Torque, etc... all talking to the SAME back end server

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Karen, you are up. Ask away!

Karen Canto: Chris, I'm not a techie, you answered some of this, but i am interested to know if Sun is working on any VW platforms that are enterprise-friendly, for business? is that in the future cards for Sun? a safe place for business training, customer engagement?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Absolutely! MPK20 is our first research demonstration of exactly this, a VW environment designed for work environments. For example, if you are in Wonderland and see a picture of a Firefox browser, it is actually a live browser. Open Office even WindowsXP can be made available in the world, and several avatars can control at once
or pass control between each other. We can even provide mixed modes of security, let's say, for example, we were in the MPK20 world having this discussion. The Sun employees in this audience may have a security level that allows them to see a slide deck on the screen behind us. While the non Sun employees just see the graphic up there now all of us together. different, tailored experiences, we are building this, and using it for our internal meetings today.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Oh yeah, one more thing..... It's all Open Source.

Fiona May: we are working with this team to build an area in here to be able to hopefully demonstrate MPK20, so watch out for that.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: yep!

Heidi SunMicrosystems: JayR, your turn. :)

You: ok mabey a bit off topic again / But numerous reports of bot-net type of invaders have been circulating around for the past year or so / and how they can creep into a VR environment / what attempts have been made to minimize this potential threat ?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: the environment, from SL to your eTrade account is only as good as the security model around it. The same things we have in general web security, we have in VWs, no different.

You: anything at all that poses a security threat?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Anyone get a letter from a diplomat in Nigeria lately? There you go :) same issues.

You: LOL / * I appoligize for asking such a silly question * :(

Fiona May: no question is a silly question JayR

Heidi SunMicrosystems: @JayR...there are no silly questions

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: not silly at all

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: this is something that we have been discussing in the Metaverse Roadmap group for a while now. Very difficult issues to resolve, because nothing these worlds do is based on standards. Everyone creates their own frameworks

Whoops Babii: just like UNIX's before POSIX, etc.

Siddhartha Fonda: So the Metaverse Roadmap is the place to keep an eye on for that then..

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: absolutely, it deals with everything from social impact, economics, legislation, healthcare, education, etc.... some incredible minds got together to work on this, fantastic information and insights

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Who here likes what Sun has done in SL?

Ancient Shriner: You're getting better . . .

DonaldKay SunMicrosystems: who doesn't?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: ?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Who dosen't "get it"

Siddhartha Fonda: does

Jai Baxter: smiles

You: education and healthcare / we all may be able to make a difference

Siddhartha Fonda: loves it!

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Education is a BIG one

EdWetmore SunMicrosystems is very pleased

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Fiona rocks, BTW

Ancient Shriner: You're getting much better . . .

Siddhartha Fonda: Beautiful sims, engaging us in talks like this, the bookstore, etc.

Fiona May: the bookstore we are expanding and also looking at additional resources we can provide

You: if we work together and stop the maddness of War, sorry I Had To Say That :_)

Heidi SunMicrosystems: Well, time is up. I want to thank Chris and Fiona for their time and all of you for attending.

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Everyone, check out www.projectdarkstar.com

Jai Baxter: Like the M Roadmap, like the discourse- friendly spaces - interested to see how this will relate to standardization

Fiona May: I promise to drag Chris back in again

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: and let me know if you have any other questions :)

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Thanks all for coming out!

Fiona May: Yes Thank You for coming

Revidescent Delvecchio: Thank you very much for taking the time to hold this discussion.

Ancient Shriner: Thanks for having the discussion in the first place!

Whoops Babii: Chris - how is the build environment in Wonderland?

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: It is Java at the moment, but for Darkstar there is already a publicly available bridge for the Torque engine, wich Microsoft is also using for their XNA platform

Evian Argus: Thanks ChrisMelissions - Fiona - Heidi - SUN

Fiona May: You are welcome Evian

ChrisMelissinos SunMicrosystems: Thanks for listening

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Our time is up. I want to thank Fiona, Chris, Brian for joining us today. And thank you for your great questions. If you'd like to join us we will be in Club Java for a post-chat mingle

Heidi Sun Microsystems: Chris Melissinos, Chief Gaming Officer, will be joining us at that time.

JayR Cela / 11-14-07

Improving Second Life performance on Windows XP

After speaking with many users running the SL Windows XP Client. I have found that their computers are often cluttered with so many background running programs and services that they do not need in order to run SL, it cause's the system to slow down to a snails pace.

Also fragmented hard drives, Viruses, Spy Ware, Trojans, Spy Bots, and other various junk cluttering things up. So the usual story, is that they end up blaming Linden Labs and the SL client on all their problems. When in fact, what they need to do, is keep their machine running lean and mean, instead of bloated and overtaxed.

Here I will offer some advice and links to free ware programs and tips to help you keep your Windows XP Box running in top condition, and Second Life a pleasure to use.

Here is a web site I recommend.

>> http://www.filehippo.com/ <<

1. CCLeaner this is good for getting rid of lots of hidden temp files and other things that build up and slow down your computer

2.SpyBot Search and Destroy a great anti spy ware tool, it has an option for some automatic filtering called Tea Timer :( don't use it :_)

3. AVG Anti Virus Free Edition, I have been using this product for so long I cant even remember, highly recommended. Oh yes, on the automatic update download you may want to set this to notify only.

4. Ad-Aware 2007 very good at getting rid of pesky crap.

OK at the bottom of File Hippo page, is a section for Drivers / Direct X 9.0c is a must have. Microsoft's latest patches & updates to the current Direct X graphics capabilities in the Window's environment. Also the current video drivers from Nvidia & ATI are available. However, better tweaked video drivers can be found at >> http://www.tweakforce.com/ <<

I also recommend “” A-squared Free “” this will find things, other programs seem to miss like Trojans and Bot's >> http://www.emsisoft.com/en/software/free/ <<

Next on the list, is Advanced Windows Care from >> http://www.iobit.com/ This is an all in one program that includes a registry cleaner.

Another registry cleaner RegScrub XP is very useful as well. Although IO-Bit's all in one Advanced Windows Care includes a reg cleaner. I can usually find a few things it missed by running this utility afterwards. You can download it from
>> http://www.sofotex.com/RegScrubXP-download_L7528.html <<

Last on the list is the best hard disk defrag utility I have found,”“ JKDefrag “”, It is far superior to the utility included with Win XP >> http://jkdefrag.en.softonic.com/ <<

I know this sounds like a lot to do, in order to keep your computer running properly. However, I have thoroughly tested all of these programs for a number of years, as have countless others. ( The all-in-one wonders like Norton & Symatec, can not compare to using separate dedicated programs designed for 1 task) ( with the exception of IOBit's Advanced Windows Care ) and it will take several hours to go through the routine. However I do feel it is well worth the time spent in order to keep your computer running as smoothly as possible, and SL operating at full speed. I do-not recommend using any of the automated scheduled, or background process maintenance routines with any of these programs !! RUN THEM MANUALY !!

Another note many people have so much crud running in the background that it just is impossible for Windows XP to keep track of everything. So it will constantly use the extra space on you hard drive to swap programs in and out of the physical memory, to available hard disk space. This usually results in what is referred to as disk thrashing. Avery common complaint while using SL

Look in the lower right hand corner of your screen ( How Many Icons Do You See ? ) If there are more than 2, 3, or 4 you may be over taxing your machine. These programs are automatically starting and using resources every time you boot your computer, and are competing with other programs for your computers memory limitations, hence the constant complaint of my computer is slow, while trying to run Second Life. Do you want to solve this problem? Of course you do! Click on the Windows Start button, choose "run" and then type in "" msconfig "" ( minus the double quotation marks. ) this will present a configuration tool. Goto the Start Up tab and un-check all the stuff you do not need in order to use the SL client, and reboot the computer. If you are really brave check out the Services Tab and you will find all kinds of processes running in the background that are not required in order to run the SL client, or your computer in general, for that matter. ( !!! Warning if you do not understand the Running Services portion of MSConfig, is better to seek out someone who does.!!! ) ( Please feel free to contact me in-world if you need some help with this ) If you do understand background services, and want a really great tool to see what is actually going on behind the scenes. I highly recommend a program called "" Whats Running "" this will literally show you every aspect of what is happening in the background, and foreground. It is available here >> http://www.whatsrunning.net/ <<

Furthermore when un-installing and re-installing SL on a Windows XP box be sure to do a clean install, and blow that entire SecondLife directory out of existence. This may require that you reset all of your preferences upon reloading the game, but believe me, it will git rid of things that the standard SL un-install or the required update feature upon log-in somehow manages to leave behind. You should also visit >> http://nicholaz-beresford.blogspot.com/ <<>

Last but not least is video drivers, it is imperative that you have the correct, current up to date proper driver for your video hardware.

All of the above programs listed are completely free of charge and very well established, reliable, and free of spy ware. However, this is only the way that I run my computer, and is in no way or shape or form being endorsed by Linden Labs. I will not accept any responsibility for something that you screw up! In other words If you don't know what your doing, seek out someone that does.

sorry some of the web links will need to be manually typed in

JayR Cela / 11-13-2007