Avatar rendering cost cap?

I searched the blogs and forums for a bout a hour and just couldn't find anything definate and to the point.

I heard (I know I knowwww) that with the next viewer update their is going to be a cap of 5000 for rendering costs per avatar...which is fair but...

I have a ton of outfits that are expensive and also render high, some above 5000, yes. I know I'm beating on deadwood and banging silent knocks on doors if I complain. but it just sort of bugs me(as things like this in the past have) that first, you buy things from within "the Lindens land of wonder and mystery and be what you want in SL" then 5 %$^&ing seconds later you cant wear or use it because they decide...oopps...ooppsieeeeee.

Yes I love spending money in SL that eventually just goes to waste...really I do.

Why not just get to your point Lindens. Give everyone a newbie AV, playdo looking hair and a hobble of a walk and keyboard moving hands...you'll have what you want. A world where we can be what we want...oh wait, sorry..what YOU want.

I'll bet my right arm not 1 linden will reply, but isnt that how they do business?...


and if there is a blog or forum link to something definate on the rendering cost cap can I have it please

ok done b%$ching

I haven't seen or heard anything on this. Looks like your rather panicky today with this and the other thread.

With the curbs on scripts I wouldnt be suprised..............

Me either. I've never heard mention of an ARC cap.

Ask the person you heard it from for a source.

argh I did but got the "not online thing" i'll post when she gets back to me

oh, i make a big deal out of nothing, but i'm known for that

It's ok.

We are minds meeting in cyberspace.
Let's be clouds, or super-intelligent shades of blue.

Well hopefully I am wrong and was overreacting...which I often do.......to much at times.........

ARC is a client side score, how could they cap it at 5000?

Linden's generally don't post here unless they move a discussion here for the purpose of getting extended input. period.

but in case I CAN talk one into posting a reply, I'd like to know how I can collect on that bet in a timely manner? >=)

FWIW I don't even remember how to view ARC on the client.

No point to capping ARC. Leaving aside the fact that it's not even a very good measure of rendering cost, the actual score is fairly meaningless. What is "high" to one person may barely affect another, depending on your machine. Also, there are plenty of ways to mitigate rendering costs by adjusting your graphics settings, and in any event, muting someone will drop their ARC score to 1.

But yeah, since ARC is calculated client-side, there's no real method for capping it.

Most likely, your friend got this confused with plans to cap avatar script memory loads. This is what happens when you post things like this based on "I heard from a friend who may or may not actually know anything"

Don't quote me on this, but I believe this only applies to how ARC is calculated, since ARC changes to some degree based on camera prospective. Right now, the way ARC is calculated tends to be a little alarmist once you're already in astronomical territory. Capping the top end and refiguring the weighted scores for various rendering features should go a long way in making the ARC information less arbitrary and more consistent.

That being said, one should be making an effort to stay out of the red numbers when putting together a day-to-day outfit; high ARC avatars tend to take longer to rez and have a greater impact on client-side lag than low ARC avatars. This problem is especially pronounced for residents on lower end GPUs.

Which is why it was also color coded, so people with high end machines still have some idea what the reality of the situation is for everyone else. Though you're right about it being it playing a little bit fast and loose as it's presently implemented, it's still useful to get some idea about your avatar's individual impact.

Is there an object rendering cost feature I'm missing? This wouldn't be a bad tool for builders.



Assuming you have avatar impostors enabled, yes. If that's not enabled, then muting has no effect on how the avatar is rendered, or their score.

Advanced > Rendering > Info displays.

Funny side note, the ARC display causes a significant drop in framerate.

There was some discussion on this re proposed restrictions on parcel scripts/memory. As a result i tested myself and scored 5000...took off my hair and was 800. I went shopping and the new flexi hair makes me 1300. I did nearly faint however when i saw someone in the store with a rating of 135800....

Was that individual a teeny tiny pink bat like thing? If so that was me, and that ARC is caused by hiding the avatar mesh with a special prim. It's not the actual ARC of the avatar (the real ARC is in the green, though I don't recall the number offhand) Anytime you see 100k or more and the sim hasn't crashed, it's a mesh hider. Just one of the many things that causes the ARC calculator to be incorrect.

That would probably knock 1000 off your ARC right there. I say go for it.

What hair was she wearing and where can I buy it?

Haha! Like I said in my earlier post though, I have yet to see anything that can cause that ARC *except* the megaprim hider. And it causes less server/client stress than invisiprims do, so the ARC is way off.

I think they should have an option in edit - preferences - graphics to set a maximum ARC that you wish to see from avs.

When playing combat games in SL you need to reduce as much lag as possible on your client so you can react quickly
To do this I set the mesh detail and avatar detail and various other things low.
The more things they enable us to controll, the better.

I like this idea a lot. You should create it as a new feature request in JIRA if it's not already there.

ETA it would be a great setting to have for going to crowded live music events. I could TP in and not have to render all the high cost avatars.

I seen a guy come in my Place the other day . He had an ARC of 1. I made sure I invited him to stay a while lol

my normal arc is +7k Ive been that for a long time and seem absolutely no problem with it. I firmly bbelieve the only reason arc was created was to transfer lag blame from LL to each of us. Now, if you want a naked kid av running around I could prolly lower mine but I wont

I was attending a class yesterday....and just for giggles, I turned on the ARC thingy....the highest one I saw was 6000, the average being around 4000. I myself was a mere 1.. Mind you, I was just wearing a robotic skin and my AO.. With all the talk of 'adult content changes' etc I took a little 'guilty' pleasure in knowing that I was walking around PG areas totally naked....lol

There might be some debug settings that could help.

RenderAvatarMaxVisible leaps to mind. You can use it to limit the number of visible avatars.