EOTB: Linden Lab Acknowledges Some Residents Are Having PBR Related Issues

 

If you've been having issues with the viewer in Second Life since the PBR (Physical Based Rendering) updates, you're not alone. Numbers of people have complained since it's introduction of increased lag, longer rezzing times, and crashes.

 

In their latest post on the official blog, Linden Lab was basically acknowledging there was a problem,  

We are always striving to add more improvements to Second Life and we’ve been particularly excited to roll out integration of PBR Materials, which has the potential to improve and modernize much of the look and feel of our virtual world. However, the introduction of PBR has not gone as smoothly as we would like and we have heard community frustrations and feedback with recent PBR-enabled Viewer releases of both the Official Second Life Viewer and Firestorm Viewer.

We share your frustration and are taking steps to make things better for everyone on both lower-end and high-end systems. This means that we’re actively focused on improving the performance in a variety of areas including improved FPS, VRAM management, texture loading, alpha blending, and even how lighting is rendered within the world. Additional fixes are already in our development pipeline and will head to QA soon.

Of what to do, the Lab suggested that those using the Linden Viewer download this update (link).

If you are having issues with the Official Second Life Viewer, you can immediately download an update here that addresses many of the issues affecting performance, particularly among those who may be using older or less powerful computers. We are continuing to work on additional fixes that will further address texture loading issues and low framerates. If you don’t update proactively now, you’ll soon see a prompt when you go to login to Second Life in the coming days encouraging you to update. 

 

For those using Firestorm, the Lab stated, "We are working closely with the Firestorm team to coordinate the rollout of updates that will improve your performance." They would mention that Team Firestorm made the decision to keep their last pre-PBR viewer around indefinitely .

 

The next release of the Firestorm viewer will include all the performance fixes we are working on. You’ll be prompted to update your Firestorm Viewer once it is ready in the next few days, but you can also be one of the first to try it by joining the Firestorm Preview Group inworld and continue to stay connected with their development progress on the official Firestorm Viewer website and its dedicated download page.

For the blogpost in full, Click Here. 

Bixyl Shuftan

The BBB Thanks The Newser

 

The Bellissarian Bureau of Bureaucracy, of which Gemma Cleanslate recently reported on it's second anniversary, has it's own paper, the "BBB Gazette." As it turns out, they were so pleased with Gemma's coverage, writer Boo Rojyo complemented her work in their publication.

Gemma Cleanslate over at the SL Newser has been reporting comprehensively on BBB2B. You can read her enthusiastic thoughts on our birthday party here and here. Thanks, Gemma. I was only teasing when I said you were making me, as editor of the Gazette, redundant but you certainly made this article a lot shorter than it would otherwise have been!

Always happy to hear when the hard work of our journalists is acknowledged.