Rendering complexity feature

[ChinRey]

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Qie Niangao wrote:

It's kind of a conspicuous omission, too. We get OBJECT_SERVER_COST, and _STREAMING_ , and _PHYSICS_ but not _DISPLAY_ weight, except for the _RENDER_WEIGHT which explicitly works only for avatars.

 

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It makes sense in a historical perspective. Before mesh avatar render weight wasn't that much of an issue. Well it was of course, but it was predictable. Just count the number of avis int he scene and you had a reasonably good idea how much lag they induced. (Or so people thought at least - there was significant texture abuse back in those days too, perhaps even more than now.) Today, with all kinds of mesh attachments, actual render cost (as opposed to the increasingly misleading "render weight") can vary wildly from avatar to avatar.

Linden Lab failed to predict that and it took them a while to even notice. The result is that avatar render weight has now become one of the biggest issues in SL and possibly the most important cause of lag. The whole system hasn't been updated to reflect this yet but it is going to happen. What the jellybean feature shows is that LL finally has started to realize the problem and although it's clearly going to fail the way it is now, they are bound to come up with either an upgrade of it or a different feature that actually works soon. It's not as if they have any choice.

[Poenald Palen]

Hhm, where is that article that people don't do much else in SL but log into the same plot of land and hang out for a short period of time with the same group of people?

Sounds cool for peeps with older hardware who just want to get through an event for something other than the avatars there. But avatars are a HUGE part of the experience for some activities and peoples socialization, so I doubt they will use any optimizer much but it is nice to have options and choices.

[Evolving Yin]

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If more people understood that they were their own walking lag bombs then they'd demand that the creators do a better job of optimizing content.

My opinion is the average resident is oblivious to their own impact.

This is one reason that I maintain that it should be mandatory that the render weights for all wearables be listed in the Marketplace.

In SL the idea that more is better is generally counter productive.

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Perrie, you stated what I searched the forums for.  I was going to suggest that the marketplace list render rates just as they list LI for non wearable items.  If I find a vendor who does not bother to list the prims of an item, I don't bother buying it.  However, since listing render weights on wearable items is not a standard I feel like I gamble when I am purchasing any new hair or outfits these days.

I agree, I think the majority of offenders are oblivous to being render offenders.  I was until I saw my character on my hubbies computer screen.  I had no idea I appeared this way.  I spent alot of time and lindens putting that outfit together only to be disappointed that I was the only one seeing it.

I have no idea how to check before I purchase something what it's render weight is going to be. Since the above event, I do know how to check my complexity rating now, but I have already waisted so much money on items that have a huge draw weight before I discovered this. With mesh being the main standard for clothing these days, it seems that at least the Marketplace can protect oblivous consumers by making render weights mandatory.

What is the best way to get Linden Labs to address this?