Katiahnya Muromachi

I know some of the people on this forum have already bought the Asus Eee PC, which is a new mini-size "subnotebook" laptop that can run either Linux or WindowsXP. (Some people have even been able to hack Mac OSX to run on it!)

I got my Eee PC on Friday, and have been very impressed with it, as it's the first fully-functional laptop that I've owned that can fit inside of my coat pocket. Here is a picture comparing the size of my HP NX9600 laptop alongside my Asus Eee PC:



Since the Eee PC is small and not very powerful, I've spent a lot of time this weekend working on optimizing it for best performance. A couple hours ago, I started working on trying to get Second Life to run decently on it. I wanted to set up a thread to discuss this process a little bit, as well as set up a space where other Eee PC users can share their Second Life tweaks and optimizations.

Setting up Second Life for Fullscreen mode on the Eee PC's screen
The Eee PC's screen is very small (800x480), so I recommend running SL in Fullscreen mode to take advantage of the total screen's estate.

Here's how you do it:

1) Load up Second Life and go into Preferences -> Graphics, then un-check "Run in a Window". Also, manually type in "5:3" into the "Full Screen Aspect Ratio" text box. Afterwards, exit the SL client. This should create the initial "settings.xml" file that we need to edit in order to customize Second Life for the Eee PC hardware.

(Note: The following step requires you to be able to view hidden files in Windows Explorer. Inside Windows Explorer, top Tools menu option -> Folder Options -> View -> Show Hidden Files and Folders)

2) Go to the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\SecondLife\user_settings\

3) Edit the "settings.xml" file inside using a text editor like Notepad.

4) Find an Modify the following Lines below:
<!--Aspect ratio of fullscreen display (width / height)-->
<FullScreenAspectRatio value="1.66666"/>
<!--Fullscreen resolution in height-->
<FullScreenHeight value="480"/>
<!--Fullscreen resolution in width-->
<FullScreenWidth value="800"/>

5) Save the "settings.xml" file, then fire up Second Life and it should be in the proper 800x480 resolution!

One thing I noticed is that if you ever go back into SL's Preferences -> Graphics tab, it will revert back to the minimum size Fullscreen mode (800x600) when you load SL up again. If that happens, you'll have to re-edit the settings.xml file again.

Tweaking

RAM:
Right now I only have 512MB of RAM in my Eee PC, however I have a 1GB stick of 200-Pin DDR2-667 RAM arriving tomorrow, which should give a good performance boost for resource-intensive apps like Second Life. I recommend doing the same if you plan on running SL on the Eee PC.

Eee PC Overclocking:
Visit this URL that explains how to overclock the Eee PC.
http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=2540

It's fairly simple, however you have to re-overclock each time you reboot the Eee PC. By default, the Eee PC processor runs at 630MHz, however I am currently running at 862MHz without any issues. People have reported running fine at 900MHz and over, but I crashed last time I tried to run it that fast.

Storage:
Due to the very small storage space available on the Eee PC 4G's internal solid-state drive after you install WindowsXP, I had to install Second Life onto a Corsair USB 2.0 thumbdrive. Access speeds aren't that efficient with the thumbdrive (21-24MB/sec), so if you wish to have a faster SL cache speed, I recommend waiting until 2008 for the Eee PC 8G model to come out, which has an 8GB internal solid-state drive.

SL Preferences Settings:
The Eee PC has a weak on-board Intel GMA 900 video card, so framerates are pretty bad so far. With the default SL graphics settings, I get an average of 5FPS in empty areas and 2FPS when five people were around. When I tried to turn all the graphics sliders and settings way down, I got averaged 8FPS in empty areas and 4FPS when the five people were nearby.

As well, one of the biggest performance boosts you can get in Second Life is turning down the Preferences -> Graphics -> Draw Distance setting. By default, the lowest you can set this to in the SL menus is 64. You can set this lower (to something like 32) by manually editing the "settings.xml" file:

1) Go to the following directory:
C:\Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\SecondLife\user_settings\

2) Edit the "settings.xml" file inside using a text editor like Notepad.

3) Find an Modify the following Lines below:
<!--Distance of far clip plane from camera (meters)-->
<RenderFarClip value="32"/>

I'll finish this post with a couple screenshots taken from SL using the Eee PC:





If there are any other Second Life Eee PC users out there- please feel free to contribute any optimizations, corrections, experiences or suggestions for improving performance.

Joshua Nightshade

Bwahaha, I'm just setting it up on mine as we speak when I saw this thread.

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Joshua Nightshade

Oh and if you didn't know it, it can support up to 2 gigs; you have to buy it as an individual stick since there's only one slot for RAM in the device, but I've got two in there and it's even faster.

WarKirby Magojiro

I fail to see the point in trying to run SL on something so horribly underpowered.

5FPS in empty areas o.0

I couldn't tolerate that at all.

Ewan Took

That's tiny! You'll be getting it to work on phones next. I wonder if the avatar impostors in Windlight would help for the nearby avatar slow down? Switching off all the fancy skies and stuff of course.

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"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."

Joshua Nightshade

It's not so horrible. For example I can take this to work and deal with customer issues that crop up during the day beyond just replying to their IMs with "I'll talk when I get home."

The laptop is literally the size of a normal paperback novel. It's pretty impressive. And it's fully featured too, so I have XP on it and everything. I'm also still continually amazed at how fast it actually is. There's absolutely no lag on response time to loading stuff even though it's so underpowered and it's all flash-based.

Really sexy.

I got SL running on it in the latest Nicholaz viewer and I was getting about 15 FPS with all settings down and 2 gigs of RAM. It was a mostly empty sim, but I wasn't on a skybox, just ground level.

My one issue though was that

<!--Aspect ratio of fullscreen display (width / height)-->
<FullScreenAspectRatio value="1.66666"/>

didn't exist in my settings file, so I added it. It makes all the text look kindof smooshed. Is that something I'll just have to put up with?

Joshua Nightshade

Oh, and it's possible to get Vista on there too actually.

Katiahnya Muromachi

It's a matter of portability convenience, since the Eee is small enough to carry around in my coat. Whenever I'm bored on-the-go or waiting for a train/bus/plane, I can just pop it open, tap into a wireless point and play some Second Life.

15FPS? Nice.. I guess 2GB of RAM really makes a difference over my 512MB. Either that, or the Nicholaz viewer is a lot more efficient.

My fonts are a little smooshed too in some places. I figure this is perhaps due to the UI being proportional to the screen resolution, and when you set the resolution to a below-the-minimum-default-option size, it smooshes it? However, 1.6666 is the proper aspect ratio for the Eee (800 / 480 = 1.6666), plus the font is still legible and doesn't take up too much screen room.

Joshua Nightshade

Yeah I figured it had something to do with the aspect ratio; but it is still legible. I was even able to build a bit.

Joshua Nightshade

Here's mine!

Katiahnya Muromachi

I dunno.. I'll try out the Windlight as well as the Nicholaz viewers and try to do some frame rate comparisons. I'm gonna need every bit of tweak that I can get!

Cool! I also tried to do some teaching with the Eee today. It's not a very graphics intensive activity, so the small keyboard was more of a limiting factor than the system speed. Let me know if you figure out any more useful tweaks!

Joshua Nightshade

I haven't really been tripped up too much by the keyboard. I know it's been an issue for a lot of others, but I play piano and I have small fingers. As I said previously I am able to get 40 WPM on the iPhone virtual keyboard just on my thumbs, so while the EEE PC has tripped me up slightly, it's usually around just the buttons like shift and backspace.

badkittybeth

sorry for the OT, but daaaamn josh you have the cleanist desktop in all of SL!!!

Holy shit, im beyond jealous!

I can haz ur setup?
its so purdy!

ok resume laptop critiques...

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Resurrected , hopeful , and just plain annoying

Brig McD

Damn! Nosy me can't quite make out the titles on all the books in the bookcase.

Joshua Nightshade

I used to have so many books too. I couldn't take them with me when I moved to NYC so they were still in storage in New Orleans. And when Katrina hit I lost all of them.

Dnate Mars

Let's see... we have the Lord of the Rings, Snow Crash, something Alastair Reynolds, and... hmmm... I can't quite make any others out.

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I'm not dead yet....

Joshua Nightshade

STOP CAMMING INTO MY PARCEL, JERK.

Reality Control

I would like to run SL under Linux on one of these if possible.

My mother is giving me enough to buy this or an ipod touch for xmas. I can't decide still. I need a new mp3 player badly which is guiding my hand sadly.

Katiahnya Muromachi

Dang Josh! You're desk looks immaculate with all the nice glossy finishes on your furniture and hardware and that whole black/violet motif.

My computer desk? ...







I just have WAY too much stuff. My room is a computer graveyard and I'm constantly working on things all over the place. Even my underwear drawer is overrun with stuff like IDE cables, and I gotta sleep on the edge of my bed because I have two laptops and a crate of keyboards covering most of it. I only clean on even-numbered years, so the whole place is due for an overhaul shortly anyways..

Joshua Nightshade

Yeah but you have that three monitor thing going on.

Are those three different computers, or two computers (in dual monitor mode) and then a second single monitor?

Katiahnya Muromachi

You can install various Linux distros on the Eee PC, however I wouldn't get one if you want to mainly use it for SL, since it functions much better as an all-purpose x86 PDA.

Clancy Sullivan

Damn, I need swords all over my walls, too!

Joshua Nightshade

Anyway the underside of my desk is just as scary.


I can't look at it or the OCD kicks in and drives me crazy.

Katiahnya Muromachi

The 27" on the left is hooked up to an 8-port KVM, the 30" in the middle is for my flagship PC, and the 27" on the right is a split-screen HDTV / Linux box. I only use dual-monitor mode at work because all they'll give me are cheezy 17" CRT's..

Joshua Nightshade

I have my laptop split into two partitions now; the main one is Vista, which I use in dual monitor mode, and the second is XP which is just in SLI on the 22'' monitor.

I love dual monitors though. But you epeen me on sheer monitor size. 30''? jesus christ!