What is "Avatar Impostors" and what do they do?

[mercurysuigintoulampe]

I looked but couldn't find any answer to this, and I only worth with pictures and media (I do graphic design and media) NOT 3D although I know some terms used for 3D; so I have NO clue as to what that is. My main goal is to have good/great graphics and good/great speed at the same time.

 

[Rolig Loon]

Avatar impostors is a way for SL to save your Graphics card some effort rendering avatars that are too far away from you to be worth rendering clearly.  Instead of rendering them as 3D figures, with proper shading and detail, they are rendered as 2D figures -- like cutouts.  Doing that reduces the rez time for nearby textures, at a pretty minimal cost to your SL experience. You can adjust the distance at which avatar imposters take over by moving the avatar detail slider in Preferences >> Graphics .

Read more about avatar impostors here >>> http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Avatar_impostors

[Peggy Paperdoll]

Now that Rolig explained the avatar imposters I want to tell something you might already know.  You mentioned you wanted great graphics (as do most of us) and, at the same time, great speed.  You being a graphics artist (even though not a 3D artist) you know the graphics you see on your monitor depends greatly on your video card and it's capabilities.  You might have already noticed that SL is unique in that it's almost entirely 3D.  The graphics are rendered on the fly.......as your environment changes so to the graphics (even just a small change causes most graphics around you to change also).  Plus when another avatar enters into your view those graphics must be rendered (that's the purpose of avatar imposters.....to lessen that particular load on your graphics card).  Vehicles and prims (which have graphics placed on them) are not effected by avatar imposters......the graphics must be rendered.  All that takes time......which will slow your speed.  You're going to have to arrive at a compromise that you can live it.  You can't have blazing speed and cinema quality graphics at the same time. 

 

I like the graphics more than I like the speed.  I have my preferences to show the best my card can show and let the speed be what it will be............but I don't generally have much noticable lag.  I have a better than average custom made computer but not even a mediocre gaming rig.