RoxyCyn

40 something here. My SL friends seem to cover quite a range from somewhere around 20 ish to 60s.

Sorry if I was not clear. I am the estate manager. I'm not saying memory is the best way of measuring, but from an estate manager perspective it's a quick way to determine the region's overall health and what's causing any issues as compared to a strict number of scripts count. Most importantly though the resulting lag experienced by the rider is mostly a result of their scripts. This is a fairly short, simple way for riders to see it when displayed on a board, if they care. My point was simply that a lot of riders with plenty of experience ride with excessive scripts regardless. Some care and others don't. From my perspective, when I run low scripts, I ride better and everything performs smoothly within reason considering the location and the day of the week (ie: peak times). Everyone has different tolerance levels for how much lag they want to deal with.

Even sending them an IM will often cause them to become 'unstuck' and log off.

Yes, script count itself is not an accurate measurement or way of predicting usage. The amount of memory used in mb is the more important number. It's been a long held myth or urban legend that the greater the number of scripts, the greater the lag. There is some truth to this in a general sense in that usually as the number of personal scripts increases the more affect it has. That's a very broad statement and only partially true but not in all cases. You could have more running scripts on your avatar and use less memory than someone else using fewer scripts. Running a full region for riding motorcycles you see a lot of people riding with a lot of unnecessary (for the purpose of riding) scripts running. Often I see people running scripts consuming memory of over 5.00mb. A simple, but well dressed avatar in full mesh body and clothing can easily keep their script memory down below 1.25mb and often less than 900mb if they make the effort. I have 'low mb' outfits in my wardrobe for the explicit purpose of riding/flying/boating/whatever. It's very easy to do, but sadly most people don't even bother to lower the usage. It really does make a difference.

I maintain a full region (stand alone) that is filled with roads and scenery for riding motorcycles. It's primarily a test facility for my road tests, customer demo rides and also a full region for others to use in a relatively low lag environment. I only use a small bit for the store, my modest 2 room house and a building platform to work in private. Otherwise the entire region is open to all who like to ride motorcycles, regardless of who built them.

Spend a lot of "seat time" in your vehicle on stand-alone regions and on mainland. Get used to the variations of different conditions and your computer/settings/vehicle, etc. There's a lot of good information offered here thus far. Understand too that everyone is different in their vehicle, graphics card, connection speed, location, etc. I suggest you try the various suggestions in the areas you prefer to ride and see which ones work for you by improving the overall experience. Not all situations are the same and what works for one person may not work all or in-part for others. But, certainly try them and see which does work. The number of personal scripts on your avatar is a bit misleading. While generally the more scripts you carry, the more memory you use, but that's not entirely true all the time. More important is the script memory used in mb. Keep an open mind too about the location as not all roads, tracks and riding regions are built the same. Quality varies everywhere. The amount of textures and their size is a huge factor in some areas and affects overall performance. Full disclosure: I build & ride motorcycles & limited edition hi-speed performance boats. I maintain my own full region/riding 'sim'/store where I can control the lag within some reasonable fashion for purposes of building, testing, selling and demos for customers to test ride. That being said, I also perform a lot of 'seat time' on mainland and on the seas testing in areas of high lag and traffic for the express purpose of building better vehicle. Aircraft I fly just for fun. On mainland, the seas & waterways, private regions, anyplace I'm riding, flying or boating I keep the draw distance at 320m so I can see everything on the region I'm traveling as well as the region on approach. Riding a motorcycle I run lower gears and speeds on mainland because there are so many textures rezzing all the time and the region crossings, of course. Not all vehicles are geared the same so that needs to be taken into consideration. In the air I like to fly jets, so my speeds tend to be mid range to high speed and I don't have a lot of problems overall. Yes, there are going to be times when high speed flight is out of the question and that's OK considering most of the better made aircraft can maintain reasonable level flight at low speed with flaps down. Sailing, I like the ease and relaxation of sailing and generally have few problems as long as I pay attention to the surroundings. I don't find crossing at an agle to be problematic as long as it's not on a corner or set of 4 corners. That is certain death! Now for high performance power boating, things get interesting. I like high speed boating in RL & SL, so naturally my SL boats have to be fast; very fast. Testing for my personal boats is at the same 320m draw distance with my Maitreya avatar, mesh sneakers, layer applier jeans and a mesh shirt or bikini top of some kind as long as my overall memory used for personal scripts is less than 900mb. Then, the boat is tested at wide open throttle with no additional boost added for 50 - 100 crossings in 1 run at wide open throttle. To put this in perspective a typical run might be from the Cividale pyramid south through the Blake Sea, west past Nautilas, then south again to Kingpost. I only explain all this to place some context and perspective for my point of view. This is in no way an indication of the performance you might or might not have with any given vehicle/computer/connection, etc. Just try yours in various situations and locations and find what works for you. I don't have a super computer, just an average out-of-the-box store bought PC with a decent connection speed and mildly upgraded graphics card. YMMV and good luck.

Always on; use it a lot. It's in the lower corner of the screen and slightly larger than a postage stamp, but invaluable for orientation on land, sea & air; locating rez areas & ban lines.. About the only time I remove it from the screen is when a HUD overlaps enough to be annoying, but usually the mini map wins out & the HUD gets ditched.

...not to mention that my family members have no interest whatsoever in hearing me talking to my computer.

In RL I use text over voice on phone approximately 90:1. In other words I prefer to text 90% of the time in RL over using voice on the telephone. Texting fits my lifestyle, so that's my choice. One thing that I find interesting is the number of times I've heard people say they prefer to voice because they are too lazy to type, usually accompanied my various ambient noises reflecting off bare walls and ceilings, "ummm", "and", "like", "ok", "you know"... The wide range of equipment used and the quality, or lack thereof, regarding mics, speakers, headphones, earbuds and not to mention the acoustics of the room just spoils the whole immersion/fantasy virtual world, for me. I have no patience when someone is on mic while chewing, fiddling, chair squeaking, coughing, dog barking. I like to set the mood, play some tunes, RP and just get into a groove. After all, it's a fantasy. You don't need to hear me laughing, snorting, spewing a soft drink out my nose or eating a Cheetoh I found in my hair. If I want RL, I'll just go back to RL. If you spend hours tweaking, adjusting, defining and refining your avatar, image, wardrobe, persona and lifestyle in SL, why not make an effort on your voice quality too? At the very least, try making some simple, sample recordings of yourself, live, online interacting with others so that you can play it back and actually hear what you sound like. It's no different than looking in the mirror or looking at your avatar, it's simply verifying that you reflect the image you attempt to portray. If none of those things matter to you, then it's a moot point and makes no difference to you, but you'd still be surprised at what an open mic 'picks up'. The fantasy and immersion of the virtual world for me is likened to reading a novel. I create the image in my imagination based on the information presented to me. Seeing the movie version is the less preferred method, but can still be entertaining if done well.

Finds cheese puff in hair and eats it.

Oh by the way, you can find a few HUDs on MP that will locate available rez areas in a region. Try search words like 'rez', 'rez locator', 'rez finder'.

Aethelwine is correct. This can actually happen anywhere. Rez areas are often small 'boxed areas' and you have to rez your object directly in that box, but you do not have to have your avatar in the box itself. The problem is that we tend to rez at an oblique angle and we are actually missing the rez area by that angle, even though we think we are aimed at the rez area. Like she said, try viewing it overhead and rezzing directly in that rez area. The larger the rez area the less likely you are of rezzing at an angle that misses the 'box'. An example is when you rez in a region that allows open rez anyplace in that region. You are still rezzing at an oblique angle, however since the region is open rez, there's no chance of missing the 'box' as the entire region is one.

Are we there yet?

I'll admit to having a "Black Friday" outfit that I still wear if I happen to be online that day. Every year I drag it out and wear it that day if I'm inworld. It consists of an odd mix of layer clothes like you might see in the typical stereotyped Wal-Mart shopper. It's even my old non-mesh avatar for the full effect; looks a bit like a bag lady.

Actually, the crosshairs are very fine tuned. Where the crosshair lands is more a matter of how it's being used. If someone clicks on your name to see you from across a region, their crosshairs will usually be on your neck with their name over your head. However, if they focus on your crotch for instance, the crosshair will usually be directly under your skirt. I love wearing underwear when it fits properly under clothing, but it's not a given that I must. Depends on the outfit or the situation; I just like having the option.

A bonus or 'plus' from this side effect is that you can safely remove the rotating script from those objects, thus reducing the number of running scripts on any given region. The part(s) or object(s) will still rotate and you've reduced the region load by 1 script. Granted the reduction in and of itself is very small, but it can add-up quite a bit when many objects are on a region. Some particles are like this as well such as rain, fog, snow, smoke, mist. If able to modify it, you can lower the running script count and still get the benefit of that object moving or whatever. YMMV

For objects to move/function correctly in SL a few basic 'rules' apply regardless if it is KCP/ACS motor vehicle scripts or any other brand. The first and most important being that the root prim must be oriented to zero rotation facing east. Other parts can, and likely will be oriented differently, but as long as the root prim is set properly when scripted the vehicle will respond properly. Root prim orientation and rotation is X = 0.00000, Y = 0.00000, Z = 0.00000 with the 'front' facing east representing the front of the vehicle. The root prim orientation in this manner allows the vehicle to operate correctly from keyboard commands. Many parts builders/creators in SL do not follow the east facing forward orientation as they create their parts. However, the key part for the assembled vehicle is scripts in the root prim itself. The orientation of the root prim is what sets the proper orientation & direction of the entire vehicle after it is scripted. That being said, there are some other issues that affect handling that might cause some consternation if not fully understood regarding creating parts and bounding boxes but that's a separate topic from this.

Frederika, I also sent you an IM in-world. Good luck in your quest & happy riding!

I don't use KCP/ACS scripts much anymore as I have my own proprietary script system. However, that being said, this is what I remember about the KCP/ACS script system. Go into the menu & you'll find the following buttons or something similar. After making changes you'll need to ride it to see if you achieved that to which you are seeking regarding performance & handling. Some things will be rather simple & straight forward, others might take considerable seat time. Try it & see if it helps you. Good luck. The main menu: Turbo: Basically increases your speed in each gear. OPTIONS: Takes you to a secondary menu for fine tuning with the choice to select: Controls: Enables you to adjust your Gears, Brakes, skid, banking, steering and gravity Gears: Will let you and add and subtract gears in your vehicle. Brakes: sets your stopping distance. Skid: determines how your bike drifts in a turn. Banking: determines your bikes lean in a turn. Gravity: Gravity aka down force applies a strong additional gravity to the vehicle. This is usually helpful for keeping racing vehicles slammed down onto a track. Extreme gravity is smaller vehicles may result in unwanted side-effects. Steering: Enables you to change the steering parameters at the lower speeds, it is the main power applied to the vehicle for turning: VelMult: This is probably the most important setting on a vehicle if you intend to race, or ride at higher speeds. VelMult is a steering velocity multiplier level. Increases turn power with speed to counteract centrifugal force steering loss at higher speeds. The faster you go, the more you need to increase your turning setting. VAttrac value controls how quickly a banking vehicle tries to spring back to normal alignment. NOS/RECVR changes which buttons shift gears up or down. Either the PG-UP/PG-DN, or the Shift A & D Drift adjusts the amount of sideways slide on corners. Bonus is an additional steering power that increases the longer you hold the control key. A very low amount can be helpful for high speed handling. May want to set to 0 for tiny vehicles. Resist: this works like a kind of friction for the turning rotation axis. Adjust this if your vehicle oversteers or does not steer enough after adjusting steering.

I started building motorcycles before mesh came along & at that time builders were either purchasing parts from other creators or making parts themselves from prims & sculpt maps. We would then assemble the motorcycles piece by piece from a mix of those types of parts and apply textures and color accordingly. Builds were typically original style creations from the perspective that each builder was making their own finished creation from an assemblage of parts, much as custom builders in RL build their bikes using parts created by other custom builders, an original manufacturer or they fabricated them themselves. Bikes in SL at that time were either an original style or a recreation of something seen in RL. As mesh came along, talented parts creators continued making parts that we could assemble to make into our own original design or style of bike or we could recreate to the best of our ability those styles that we see in RL. We also had the ability to create our own parts using various tools available to us in SL. Now, with mesh being so prevalent, we're seeing most parts sold in-world are uploaded from models and sold as individual parts or as kits that are assembled as complete motorcycles. There are some creators making their own parts from scratch, but these are fewer and fewer as time passes. Plus, there's quite a few products that are simply stolen or 'ripped' from games. The appearance and resemblance to their RL counterparts is amazing by comparison and sometimes the attention to detail is outstanding. Some creators are making truly original parts using in-world tools or tools offline then importing them to SL. If I create a part, my favorite method is to create a model in-world using prims, then converting it to mesh & it remains a truly original part that I created & I find that to be most satisfying. I have tremendous respect for other people that build using that method as it's very demanding & time consuming, but again it's an original. The uploaded models & stolen content from games tends to retain all the original RL trademarks, names & branding associated with the item (such as Harley-Davidson, Indian, Honda, etc. to name a few), rather than any attempt to follow the few & simple rules here governing use of RL trademarks. Personally, I still like to build a bike piece by piece as an original design or style that I developed or envisioned using mesh parts, prims & sculpt maps as a combination of those parts to the final product, regardless as to whether I created the part from scratch or I purchased it in-world from others in their legitimate stores. That is & will always remain my favorite way to build as it's the most creative (to me) & provides the best overall performance in the end. There is a demand by customers for factory-looking motorcycles that they see in RL, so for those customers the many bike kits bring great detail & realism for them (proper trademarks being removed if you are doing things as you should, but often other builders are not so scrupulous). There is a trend, however, among builders or creators to upload mesh models that they find on the internet, some legit & others stolen or 'ripped' from games, & they are sold as original creations or judged by bike show judges as being original parts simply because the creator or builder in-world uploaded something they found on the internet. These are not truly originals created by that builder by any sense of the word or definition, but simply something found & uploaded. Several bike shows have a category for original creations & any build where all the parts do not have that builders name on them are not allowed & considered not to be originals, even though not one item was originally created, but again, simply uploaded from another source. I do not enter bike shows so it matters not to me how they handle them; this is just an observation on that trend. This is not to be construed as any sort of complaint & I'm not looking for any sort of solutions or changes to be made. Rather this is my observation over time from a content creator that has been building since before mesh & continuing now with mesh. I enjoy what I do & will continue to use my best practices accordingly & appreciate all the support received for so many years from many loyal customers. In some ways I miss the old days of prims & sculpt maps as they were generally originals & you had to build everything piece by piece. On the other hand the mesh parts & kits available now can be very detailed & beautifully put together if good practices are utilized & the end result is the customers have wider choices available to them. Sorry this went on so long.

Depending on the item being created, materials and parts are sometimes needed even here in SL. As a builder of motorcycles, powerboats and GTFO! vehicles I often use a combination of parts created by others as well as parts I create myself. Building regions is no different with a multitude of objects being created as well as being purchased from other creators.

The quote from Wimpy in the Popeye cartoon comes to mind: "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today". Content creators in SL are a vital part of our enjoyment and the SL economy. That being said, and again saying this as a content creator (full disclosure), we create and build products to sell. I'm a firm believer of trying demos before making any purchase and always provide a demo. We should expect this from other creators, but such is not always the case and we've all been burned on buying something without trying it first. Buying it before it's been created is the ultimate risk in my opinion. Research, development, cost of materials and time spent making said creations is the risk we take as creators when we enter a consumer market for profit. The end user should not be expected to bear the burden of something that someone has dreamed-up without something tangible. If the product is good enough and is marketed accordingly, people will respond in-kind by making purchases, but only after trying that same item. Just my opinion, YMMV.

As a content creator, my advice would be no, do not pay in advance for a new product prior to it being released.

I build quite a bit on a daily basis and see something similar to that on occasion, sometimes more frequently than others. In my circumstances it tends to be after I've been working in-world or online for a long time, performing a lot of editing of objects and suddenly I'm unable to move objects much in the manner described and precipitates an impending crash. I've found that if I relog it cures the problem. While logging out too, I'll notice that the log out procedure happens much faster than normal to the point that the log out will begin, then bang, I'm offline very suddenly, rather than the usual slower length of time that I would normally see. And, I've been seeing this quite frequently lately, in the past week. It's not related to any particular region's performance as I've been seeing it lately on a new region that I'm in the process of building and there are very few scripts running in that region at this time, with spare time being 20mps or better. It seems to 'build-up' over time as I work more and more editing and placing particular objects. Not sure if this is what is occurring in your case, but it does work for me. When it occurs, try a quick relog and see if that helps. Good luck.

I just came across this thread , so I apologize for a late response. I figured if someone else reads this it might help them in the future. I'll attempt to contact Catalina in-world with the fix for it. There is a free item in-world called a Tiny Cam HUD that corrects that problem. I provide one on my regions in front of my bike store & know a few others bike builders that also provide them. That issue is in the script in the bike itself. Many builders do not know scripting and just use whatever defaults come in the engine script. It's not just a KCP/ACS script issue. A builder that knows & understands scripting can easily change correct that prior to releasing their build. It's often seen in both the rider (driver) seated position & also in the passenger. Catalina, if you happen across this, I'll attempt to contact you in-world & send you one.