A Sim "preload" option

Say you want to visit the Galleria Mall, for example, or any other prim-intensive area. allow a user to "preload" all the objects in a sim. Rather like caching a websites base content. That way, when we do teleport there, we do not spend the next 30 seconds to 3 minutes rezzing everything under the sun. This would be beneficial both client-side and server-side.
I realise this could result in mass "preloading" of all the sims, so give it some sort of limit, perhaps 1 sim every 48 hrs, or something like that. I don't think in the long run, there would be a lot of mass preloading going on, since the world is so dynamic, examples of uses? Some of the privately owned themed sims, that are visually breathtaking, and bandwidth suffocating. I want to go visit one of these, I preload it and then can show up and ENJOY the sim, instead of walking around in a perpetual state of lag for the first 5-10 minutes.

just my .02 Lindens worth...

problem: what if you preload a sim, and then by the time you teleport there, it's radically different? What about physical prims? Prims that otherwise move?

LF

read the words "base content" Like a website, things change, but the "base content" remains the same.

please define base content nothing in SL is permanently 'static', that's why we have to stream everything.

LF

Lordfly, I think he is talking about something like an MMORPG. Even though it could NEVER work in SL.

HOWEVER, for SOME projects (EX. Tartarus) it would be an amazing asset on our side. So maybe allow this option only to sim owners?

I think the way this could best work would be just like browser's cache, with some tweaking.

First off, let us specify a NUMBER for how big we want the SL cache to be - many of us would like to go well over a gig. Secondly, and this is just a maybe, let us specify which SIMs or land parcels we want to cache textures/sounds/objects for. Then the only things to be downloaded / updated in the cache would be things that changed from the last "save to cache" by checking object/texture/sound keys.

Just an idea. I think increasing the local cache size is an easy first step though; I'd gladly give 10 gigs of my hard drive space to SL. Hard drives are cheap... server bandwidth is not in comparison on performance.

-Flip

I think this is a cool idea. It could work by only having your client load what's changed between the time of your preload and the time you arrive.

I like Flip's suggestions a lot too. I would love to be able to assign cache preferance to certain sims and be able to have a bigger cache. I'd go buy a 100 gig drive just for SL!