QUESTION: How "laggy" are flower-generators?

Greetings. Need some well-informed opinions.

We've all seen the "flower field" generators that create vast fields of pretty flowers. The question: how "laggy" are they?

From what I've been able to tell, what they do is create "textured particles"... which basically appear up front to be phantomed prims. They're created by the dozens constantly, live, die.

Someone has mentioned they are "just particles"... but it seems like a different type of particle than the normal "light shows". I also know that some particles seem to lag immensely, while others lag pretty much zero. I don't know enough about how the system works tech-side to estimate drag.

I know the particles are generated client-side, but client-side or server-side, lag affects the end user. So... thoughts/ opinions/ experience?

Script-wise, the "Field of Dreams" style of field generator is slightly more intensive, as it uses a timer and randomly sets a distance from the emitter for the particles to appear. (Try turning off the script on it, you'll see why easily.)

Client-side, it's really dependent on your machine; some rigs handle particles more poorly than others. Mine, for example, can look unflinching at three of Siggy Romulus's "Apocalypse Cows" exploding; other people are instantly jerked to seconds-per-frame even when they have otherwise fine SL performance. In any case, they aren't particularly *worse* than any other particle generator.

Have done further research.

In actuality, seem they're a bit worse than other particle generators because they appear to generate temporary prims rather than particle effects. Their scripts are constantly running (like particle generators) but as Aliasi pointed out, use random time and space placement. So script wise they seem to be major laggers and the fact that they are constantly rezzing new particle "prims" and then killing those to replace them with others puts them on my "high lag" list.

For any uninitiated readers (as I'm pretty sure you two know this already): A generic particle script is a near-zero load on the simulator and its server. That is, any particle display, no matter how intense, is sent to the clients as one small command.

i.e. "Draw this many particles in this shape going from here to here, and make new particles X times per second." That's it usually; one short message and the client will keep drawing that particle stream until you leave the area. The client doesn't get any further messages about the particles (it doesn't need more information to keep drawing them), and the server more or less pretends they don't exist. Thus, there's no real server load or network load, but depending on the display being drawn, there's often a client load.

The complication, of course, is when a script starts doing scripty things... creating multiple particle displays with temp-on-rez objects, rapidly changing the particle stream, etc. In general, this is like most things a script does; it makes the server work harder on the script, and causes more updates to be sent to clients. Thankfully, Show Updates is a great way to see if a particle script causes more load than you'd expect. Like other applications of Show Updates, it doesn't show every operation a script performs, but it shows operations that cause something in the world to change.

Thanks Lee. Appreciate the input. That's often been a question among people I speak to: are particles generated server side or client side? I had always heard they were client, but appreciate it right from the horse's mouth.

Of course, as you pointed out, server or client side, they can slow down a client's system. Fortuantely, that can be adjusted by reducing the # of particles rezzed on the client screed by adjusting preferences.

One thing I'm curious about is when particles seem to not be particles. for example, with "standard" particles, I can't see any shapes or prims, nor select them. But with the flower generators... they seem to be generating prims rather than particle bursts. When I edit the area I can see the square outlines of the basic prims and one can see them turn on and off (rez and derez). That's part of the concern... do these behave like normal particles or are they behaving like constantly rezzed-derezzed prims?

They don't generate prims of any kind (or at least the sort I used for the field of roses at the Field of Can'-Ka no Rey didn't). They DO update themselves once every second or so with a timer, but in the time I used them (I had five or so set up) they did not move very high at all on the total script time meter. (Some "memorial candles" in the sim were actually higher!)

That said, the ones I used were not the original Field of Dreams, but my own tweaked and fiddled version so your mileage will almost certainly vary.

Yeah, we tested the Field of Dreams at one time. Hard to tell with the limited tools we had, but some areas had banned the device.

One thing I have noticed about the "Major Script" function of Estate Tools... it seems to just not work at all. It reports a different script list every time I click it (of course, understanding that different scripts operate at different levels). But it apparently reports even non-active scripts. Two of the "top scripts" it reported were SIT RIGHT scripts, which aren't even active... and weren't being used at the time. It also reported a new-model Jevn Vendor that I was standing right next to... totally unused. So I have to question that "top script" function. Seems broked.

Heya Wayfinder

I have two of the flower generators running too carpet a hobbit area with proper foliage, and I have regarded them as horizontal plane restricted poofers albeit with a bit more going on in the background too spread em out.

I have seen no appreciable slow down or nasty effects on my landladys sim (and she hasnt approached me with regard too them, as she promised too keep an eye on performance when they were running).

In the same package I also have a full set of the undersea fish poofers running with no problems, and a couple of nature effect ones (leaves etc) too.

Darn I sound like a particle fiend now.

And NO pies yet, too bad

Nah, if you saw Lex Neva's findings, even "inactive" scripts take a tiny slice of script time as the scheduler must check on them.