Avatar Complexity - how much is too much?

[Missy Starchild]

So I found that display setting and I think I'm in the clear at 670k triangles? But it's also startling to see just how many are walking around with 1-2m, probably completely unaware.

[Viktor Varela]

Generally try to stay under 100k as many have stated already (even with legacy mesh) - jewelry can be a big contributor to that number especially, so I avoid wearing it as much as I can.

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

I need to add more stuff because I am usually below 35k 

[Love Zhaoying]

Do clubs that require mesh avatars have a minimum complexity requirement?

[Nia Frostypaws]

While it's good to monitor your triangle count too, another thing to watch out for especially with the roll out of PBR (viewer 7) is alpha blending vs alpha masking. Alpha blending is already quite expensive per frame, but PBR makes it more expensive due to the additional calculations involved with HDR, tone mapping, etc. Hair is the worst offender here because I don't see many creators designing their textures to use alpha masking. Alpha masking is MUCH faster on the render pipeline - yes it takes more effort to look 'right', but that is the whole point of optimisation and games have done this for many years.

Thankfully if you have an item that is mod, you can easily set the transparent textures to an alpha mask and then adjust the offset to get it to look as best as you can. Unfortunately complexity does not take this into account, but if you do this, you'll be speeding up your own graphics rendering of your avatar. Lots of furry avatars nowadays are using alpha masks.

I do always try to keep my complexity under 100k and in fact I have never had an issue keeping it under 100k but I only wear what is really needed, I don't bloat my avatar.

[Ceka Cianci]

5 hours ago, Nia Whiskers said:

While it's good to monitor your triangle count too, another thing to watch out for especially with the roll out of PBR (viewer 7) is alpha blending vs alpha masking. Alpha blending is already quite expensive per frame, but PBR makes it more expensive due to the additional calculations involved with HDR, tone mapping, etc. Hair is the worst offender here because I don't see many creators designing their textures to use alpha masking. Alpha masking is MUCH faster on the render pipeline - yes it takes more effort to look 'right', but that is the whole point of optimisation and games have done this for many years.

Thankfully if you have an item that is mod, you can easily set the transparent textures to an alpha mask and then adjust the offset to get it to look as best as you can. Unfortunately complexity does not take this into account, but if you do this, you'll be speeding up your own graphics rendering of your avatar. Lots of furry avatars nowadays are using alpha masks.

I do always try to keep my complexity under 100k and in fact I have never had an issue keeping it under 100k but I only wear what is really needed, I don't bloat my avatar.

Ya, that's gonna suck for a lot of products and a lot of human body users.. So many make things no mod these days, yet charge like those things are full perm.. hehehe

A lot of hair creators, even some of the more popular ones haven't even adjusted for the attachment priority so that their hair doesn't alpha glitch and that's been out for awhile now..

The troubleshooting curve just got a lot bigger now.. hehehe

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by Ceka Cianci

[AmeliaJ08]

13 hours ago, Nia Whiskers said:

While it's good to monitor your triangle count too, another thing to watch out for especially with the roll out of PBR (viewer 7) is alpha blending vs alpha masking. Alpha blending is already quite expensive per frame, but PBR makes it more expensive due to the additional calculations involved with HDR, tone mapping, etc. Hair is the worst offender here because I don't see many creators designing their textures to use alpha masking. Alpha masking is MUCH faster on the render pipeline - yes it takes more effort to look 'right', but that is the whole point of optimisation and games have done this for many years.

Thankfully if you have an item that is mod, you can easily set the transparent textures to an alpha mask and then adjust the offset to get it to look as best as you can. Unfortunately complexity does not take this into account, but if you do this, you'll be speeding up your own graphics rendering of your avatar. Lots of furry avatars nowadays are using alpha masks.

I do always try to keep my complexity under 100k and in fact I have never had an issue keeping it under 100k but I only wear what is really needed, I don't bloat my avatar.

Isn't there just some things that can't be done without blending though? Masking can certainly be used for parts of a hair style but it seems like any modern game uses a lot of alpha blending in hair to achieve the types of high quality results you see in SL as well and not sure people would accept the compromise of using entirely alpha masking.

We certainly do spend a lot of resources on hair in SL though, it's my big ticket item for sure and I love all the newest styles.

 

Edited November 19, 2023 by AmeliaJ08

[AmeliaJ08]

7 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

A lot of hair creators, even some of the more popular ones haven't even adjusted for the attachment priority so that their hair doesn't alpha glitch and that's been out for awhile now..

Oh I know exactly who you mean... grrr! I'm refusing to buy anything from them until they fix it, they've been told what needs to happen (saw the discussion in group chat) but for some reason aren't doing it.