How Much Does Unoptimized Content Actually Affect Us?

[Penny Patton]

On 8/17/2019 at 10:37 AM, Alyona Su said:

The flip-side of equation, I consider this "unoptimized also and why NEVER BUY ANYTHING UNLESS YOU CAN DEMO.

This is with the *default* LOD setting in Firestorm (which, if I recall, is the same default setting in LL and Catznip):

 

LL is apparently looking into ARCtan again, and one of the goals is to figure out a way to get people using reasonable LOD, but not simply gutting LOD and telling customers "crank up object detail and kiss your framerates goodbye to see this content properly!"

Some of the ideas bandied about at the last content creation user group meeting included a better LOD generator in the mesh uploader, re-weighting LOD in ARC and LI calculations, as well as trying to communicate better content creation habits to the userbase in the form of a content creation blog.

[Alyona Su]

1 hour ago, Penny Patton said:

not simply gutting LOD and telling customers "crank up object detail and kiss your framerates goodbye to see this content properly!"

THIS. It is utterly wrong for a creator to require this. It's the same as a customer support rep saying "Sorry that our website doesn't't work for you, you should install XXX Browser" - and my answer is always "So that means you''ll support that browser? And I call you if anything goes wrong with my computer because of that browser? And if my identity is stolen because of that browser then you'll pay to fix that?" They tend to get rubber legs at that point.

In short: if you require some third-party thing you cannot control then you have no business requiring it. I lump "you telling me how to set my LOD" into that pile. Do not pass the bug when you cannot support your own stuff properly. And if it breaks with default settings in-place, then you are doing it *wrong*.

Edited August 18, 2019 by Alyona Su

[Fluffy Sharkfin]

On 8/14/2019 at 12:07 PM, Da5id Weatherwax said:

Let's face up to one unpleasant fact. Those of us that successfully sell "products" in SL are pretty good at peddling snake oil. We have to be in order to make a go of flogging the intangible for what is equivalent to real money, for all the legal nicety that the L$ is an "in-game token." I say this not as a criticism, but from the honesty born of having been moderately successful at doing it in the past. Most of us have encountered situations  where we can achieve the effect we want but our skills and knowledge are only up to doing it in a way that isn't "kind to the machine" and we are salesmen as much as we are artists so if we can talk that up into a feature rather than a detriment, we tend to do so. I know I was guilty of that on a couple of occasions. My knowledge and skills have improved since then and I'd hope I would not fall into that trap again but if all were being honest I think most would admit to at least a few instances of it in their history.

And because we are good at peddling snake oil, folks buy into those sales pitches. You see it in software too, horrible kludges being marketed as a feature until even developers that know better have to hold their noses and implement it to stay competitive.

You will never convince folks that have bought into it that way that it's bad so consumer choice will never fix this. That's why LL have to if it's ever going to change. They just don't think that the pain it will cause to the userbase is worth it, so they don't do it. They don't even incentivize merchants and creators to make improvements in this regard for new products, let alone update older ones. Without both the stick and the carrot, way too many of those merchants and creators just ain't gonna change what they are doing.

All very valid points and I'd agree that the onus is on LL to fix the issues with the lack of incentivization for creating more efficient content (and conversely the lack of penalization for those creating poorly optimized content).

That being said the fact that SL content creators are, as you put it, so "good at peddling snake oil" and are often looked upon by their customers (and SL residents in general) as experts in content creation, I believe they do share some responsibility when it comes to the information (and sometimes disinformation) that they disseminate.

A large part of the process of improving the optimization of content uploaded to SL is going to involve providing residents with much better information on the best (and worst) practices involved in content creation, and the difficulty in doing that will depend a lot on how many differing opinions users are exposed to.  If LL are saying one thing and various content creators are saying something completely different, it's just going to lead to confusion and the propagation of more bad practices.