Just for completeness and to notify anyone on this post – I am pretty sure this also affects Second Life Viewer RC 'Atlasaurus' 7.1.9.9620320242

Previously I had only tested in the SLV public version which is 7.1.8, so it seems like possibly a 7.1.9 issue regardless of viewer.

I have seen each of the issues you gyazo'd at various points on my M2 Pro (mac). I've had some relief by stepping graphics quality way down, disabling mirrors completely and lowering draw distance drastically. But not total relief.

I also participated in the Firestorm beta and was dismayed when the acknowledged and serious mac specific issues couldn't be addressed in the current Firestorm release.

As a sceptical old developer, my hunch is that the linden labs code is largely the cause of what I am seeing, and I know the Firestorm team lacks Mac developers. Still, the nett effect of a much anticipated change has been sour for me.

I had the same problems as you, although in a lesser way, by activating everything in preference for pbr my big problem was a sudden drop in FPS, by disabling mirrors and shadows ( by default Firestorm already activates sun and moon shadows ) and decreasing the distance drawing goes better and I don't care if the mirrors don't mirror...of course for me it was a mistake of LL not allowing the choice whether to stay with the old way or get the PBR version. Regarding the response of the Firestorm staff it seems that like those at LL they don't know the overwhelming majority of their users who are people not with so much economic means for a Nasa style PC , but after all what are we ? just a lot of little numbers who support with their subscriptions the whole merry-go-round.......

I'm using last version of Firestorm

I have to agree with this entire post. PBR has had two polar effects: it turns darker textures REALLY dark, and lighter textures blindingly bright. Glow is off the charts. I had to turn Mirrors and Shadows completely off to even be able to see where I'm going in many environments. (It is amazing how much more "normal" the environment becomes when shadows are turned off.)

With shadows turned on my avatar's face is so dark it's difficult to see (especially if I'm wearing any sort of hat). For the first time in 20 years on SL I have been force to use face lights of all things, just so people can see my avatar's face.

Even textures out in the open are darker under PBR. PBR has distorted textures that have been in use for years, changing the entire appearance of our landscape. This should not happen with non-PBR textures. They should appear as they have always appeared, should they not?

While we're at it... who chose to use the name Blinn-phong instead of a simple "Legacy" texture label? I don't care if it's the industry label... seriously, are the majority of users on SL "industry" users? It's silly. "Never use a simple term when a complex one will do"?

PBR needs tweaked and "normalized" so that our landscapes don't look like garish, polar opposites of the gamma scale.

And as a note: I have a gamer system, but when I turn on mirrors I take a significant hit in FPS and movement becomes much less smooth. Frankly, being able to see my reflection in a mirror simply isn't worth the hit in graphics. Mirrors OFF. Problem solved.

That the system defaults to full PBR mode with Advanced Lighting, Mirrors ON and Shadows ON probably isn't the best idea if you're wanting to attract new users using a wide range of computers.

This implementation of PBR doesn't bring SL on-level with other gaming environments; it is a harsh representation of the worst of such with only experienced, manually-tweaked power-systems able to handle the excessive impact of the new PBR settings.

Hello, and thank you for your detailed report on the texture loading issues in the Firestorm viewer. This issue has been previously reported in our Jira archive, and we will set it to tracked. We have no estimate when it may be resolved, but please keep an eye on future updates. Your input is valuable, and we appreciate your patience as we work on improving Second Life. Thank you for your continued support.

deplove Resident " for me it was a mistake of LL not allowing the choice whether to stay with the old way or get the PBR version."

Ditto. And PBR should be opt-in at the press of a simple button... not the default (which causes many people to instantly crash the moment they try to log in).

Merged in a post from Isa Aristocrat:

Title: Texture issues

Details: I have downloaded both the linden lab viewer and the new release of the firestorm viewer, i even went as far as being one of those residents who used the firestorm beta viewer before the new released of pbr was made on the launch of the birthday of Second life.

I've never encounted so many issues with a viewer than iam right now and its gotten to a point where iam completely now questioning my future in the game and with Second life.

Firestorm is not as helpful they keep telling a bunch of people that in order to fix any issues that we're expereancing with the new pbr viewer we need to whitelist firestorm on our firewall settings and in our antivirus to ensure all issues suddenly disappear- this did not help me in my case.

I have the fortunate life where i can log in at work- i never had to whitelist firestorm or linden labs before in my life and was able to view my textures both legacy and pbr without any issues on the firestorm beta and was fine with the linden lab viewer too but now iam having severe issues- all my huds are fuzzy they all look like this when i load and log in world: https://gyazo.com/eedc6d79090d1679ee10e120ef25f3b1. When i right click and texture refresh them they suddenly turn dark grey and remain dark gray in the pbr viewer if i switch back to the old viewer its the same and its frustrating as im someone who creates on the side and builds for fun and the like.

I purchased a full perm pbr mirror i enabled the mirror settings and everything did all the steps but i should not be veiwing the product like this: https://gyazo.com/d81e8305aa1a421641fe9aeb8d8a7158 and if i try and open a texture i would like to apply to a build project this is what it loads up as: https://gyazo.com/04a49fdbb5e2215df71d43088a9de4bf on the beta product this was not the case in any shape way or form the same mirror on firestorm beta and in the linden lab viewer looked like this pre pbr release of a third party viewer or the linden lab viewer...i use firestorm as the options for the inventory windows and the chat boxes is just more handy for me to use personally. ttps://gyazo.com/170ad913c2058981e88984b644c593ba<=== this is in beta and in the linden lab viewer before the pbr release was made my firestorm.

i have the exact and identical issues on my macbook pro and on my gaming pc at home i have the ability to whitelist firestorm at home for both the mac and for my windows gaming pc and i have had the unfortunate issues continue to persist.

As someone who adores second life and have done so for many years being told to white list a third party viewer concerns me on many fronts for the protection of my all my computers i own i do not want to be attacked with malware or suddenly be sent to a malware infected website all because i've whitelisted a viewer just to see textures and pbr and even if i have whitelisted the viewer the identical and same issues persist asking for help in the firestorm group was also unhelpful i was told that the new pbr release was being pushed by lindenlabs and that i had to go out and buy a brand new computer that had a better graphics card and that anyone on a slow computer will be phased out in time...and in the current state of the economic crisis that is happening globally im shocked that the advice is to buy a brand new computer just to be able to run the new pbr viewers third party or not.

These issues did not happen before but are now and its frustrating to see- I will admit i did download the alchemy beta viewer i still have some glitches texture wise but it not as bad as it is with firestorm and with linden labs. It has come to a point where im reconsidering my status online and in second life and whether or not i will continue logging inworld. I use to use sl as an excape a place where i can create and meet people from all over the world..but now with all of the issues and being told to white list seven components of firestorm viewer to magically fix issues issues or being told to log into linden labs and relog back into firestorm and it should be an easy fix when it wasn't was also frustrating.

So i've been encontering the same issues on my macbook pro laptop, my Windows 11 Gaming MSI Pc and my HP Windows 10 pc.

I was given a new link to download and use from the Linden Lab Viewer but the issue still persists unfortunately.

Experiencing exactly the same problem and Firestorm Support Group seems unaware of this as a general problem.

Update 7/28: I have stopped using FS 7 as it was unusable on my laptop (2021 gram, 11th gen quad Intel i7 with Xe integrated graphics, 32 GB RAM) due to gray texture non-loading and frequent freezing and crashing. FS 7 has succeeded in making SL+PBR inaccessible to those using integrated graphics and wanting to use FS. Disturbing to hear that there is no estimated time for any fix. I recommend keeping non-PBR FS 6 alive into the indefinite future.

My computer has 32GB Memory, RTX 3060 12GB, SSD drives only built 2 years ago and only a few textures render in within 30 meters of loging in, this also happens on ower spec computers I have as well. This hot only happens on Firestorm viewer but the detail SL Viewer as well. I don't lag on either of my computers just the textures don't load everything is printer paper white