what gates the updating of an avatar's appearence?

That, and what gates the inventory list?

IE, does the user's computer (client side of SL) control the speed at which these things happen?

If so, what part of the computer: CPU clock , amount of RAM, speed of bus, speed of RAM, on-chip cache, upload/download speed, Etc.?

(I have no idea what this all is -a friend gave me these questions to ask, because my avatar changes clothes VERY slowly (and I change a lot!) and the inventory directory seems really slow to scroll up and down )

~Jenni~

The appearance is a server-side process called "baking" which puts all the skin and clothes together into a single texture. No change of your client machine will change how fast that happens. Although a faster machine or network connection might make them display more quickly once baked, but I'm guessing not that you'd notice.

For inventory, the biggest limitation is how fast the asset server can send you the data - again over which your client machine has no control. If you were dying to speed that, adding RAM and a faster hard disk to your machine might help, but I'm guessing that the server time dominates here as well.

As an aside, many find that SL performance suffers greatly at under 1 GB client RAM and 256MB video RAM. Your milage will likely vary.

sooooo, based on what my friend says after reading your message..... the slowness I see and experience is mainly server side, so it's LL hardware and software?

How fast do other people experience clothing changes and inventory scroll times (I have about 5,500 items in inventory...is that a lot?)

Thanks a lot for your answer!!!

~Jenni~

My partner easily has a wardrobe the size of yours or larger. "Make outfit" in Appearance helps a lot. It is not unusual to wait see a clothes change "rough-in" take 30 seconds or more and we've seen some changes take tens of minutes to fully bake. And as our clients are in the same room, it is anyone's guess as to which of us will see the bake first.

Do note that you may sometimes appear naked while the baking is happening; this bothers some people although I can't explain virtual shyness, personally.

My solution? Wear the same outfit for six months, but I'm a guy, like duh!

with the size of the textures that were used to make their cloths. most makers (-good- makers, may i opine use 512 textures. some - while being justly proud of their designs - leave their textures at 1024 size... which takes at least four times as long to deal with.

multiply that by top, bottom, undercloths (top/bottom), jacket, gloves, socks, what have you - and some maker's outfits just won't rez properly, even if there's no one else around to have to wait.

p.s. as i've understood it, it's not unlike how animations have to wait for everyone else in the room to get a dl of, before it'll start. not sure whether it's client- or server-side, but -someone- has to dl your chosen worn clothing, render them together 'flattened', then resend it back out for all to see.

If I am in my house, and everything has stopped being grey and everything is as clear as it's gonna get, does the number of prims in the sim (????) have anything to do with it?

The info on the texture is pretty intesting.. I'm going to try using no hair (or SL hair, ugh!) and just put on a pair of SL shorts from starkers....

~Jenni~

( I am running 512 Ram and a 128 Intel display system on a Dell D610 laptop.. I know, I know, but a new 'puter costs money....)

Hi Jennifer,

I operate on a laptop and used to get around 3 fps, now halved my viewing distance (in preferences) and now get about 6 fps, directly proportional. However, rezzing times don't seem affected. At least I don't seem so clumsy moving around, but my long range view now pretty well equals my rl long range view.

Ed

This thread would suggest otherwise:

/142/81/99410/1.html

Notice how everything else can rez but the clothes of a particular avatar sometimes ? If this is the case, the limiting factor maybe the quality of the connection of the person changing clothes rather than the components of their computer, but whatever, there's a possibility the problem IS client side.