Ghost avatars

A way to overcome the limitation of the maximum number of avatars per sim:

http://lindipendente.splinder.com/post/17095800/Ghost+avatars

The way that that is described doesn't seem plausible, it seems as though the avatar would still be "physical", i.e. - the physics engine is responsible for moving it around. However, this will contribute to the lag. Also, considering network lag; a ghost avatar would still need to receive all of the same updates as a regular avatar.

If you are streaming music or something then the best way to get more people listening/watching is to distribute it so people can watch/listen outside of SL, or at any location within SL.

Unfortunately I don't think that crowds of people in SL is likely to happen any-time soon.

The main problems are:
- Physics; avatars generate physics load
- Network; avatars need to receive data as they move etc.
- Graphics; avatars are very complex and can be very laggy to end-users

Possible solutions are:
- Physics; when avatars are sitting they shouldn't generate much physics lag at all
- Network; could include controls to throttle the rate at which updates are sent to residents when it comes to object-updates etc. Or perhaps a way of performing them better in batches.
- Graphics; could have options to limit attendance by avatar-rendering-cost, or even force people to appear as standard male/female avatars with no attachments, since they have less rendering cost.

Well, English is not my first language, so I was not probably be able to explain my proposal. The avatar is not physical at all. You can imagine it as a camera that moves around but that does not interact with anything else. The ONLY control should be in terms of lands/access. I do not expect the same contribute to lag of a real avatar.



I am not speaking of streaming. I am speaking of a show. So, you must SEE it, not simply listen. But also an expo. The difference is that when you stream, you decide what to see and from which point of view. By ghost avatars, it is the user to decide what to see and how.



This is exactly what I said: by "physical" avatars we cannot expect a significant audience in any SL event. But if the audience is not significant, why should I use SL to perform?




These are not real solutions, since in the best of cases you can have a minimal improvement. You will never have 1,000 guests in any event unless we give people a different way to participate to SL events.

My proposal is to define A DIFFERENT WAY to access SL, a "browse" only access rather than an interactive access, just like the viewer would be a window on SL world. You could invite 1,000,000 guests (worldwide) to an event, which is not science fiction in the web.

I kinda do things like that sometimes... There are times when events I want to visit get packed, so I just land once sim over and cam in to the excitement. If there is a stream, I let Winamp handle it. If there is chat, I'm too far away, and it's build-allowed land, I have a chat repeater HUD that I use so that nobody has to shout. (^_^)

Though... I've only had to do that once. If the event is bigger than that, I kinda stay away, because there is usually more than one 'howler' in the crowd. (=_=)y

...and what is keeping the "camera" bouncing off those access lines? We currently have no way of making the actual camera as it exists now from bouncing off those lines.