Link messages, or Listens, which should I use?

I am developing a product which reqires simultaneous communication with about 40 linked prims.

I want speed of response, but also want to conserve server resources in case the product sells well. Dont want to be a bad neighbor.

In my current prototype, all listen on a hidden channel, and I shout at them from a non-linked controller.

Would it be better for only one to listen, and then pass the message to the rest as a link message? Would the elimination of 39 listening scripts be good for the server, or is looking for a link message just as bad?

Which would be faster?

If the link messages are as bad, is there some way of alerting a prim that communication is imminent, which takes up zero server resources? I presume that sensing a touch with touch_start meets this criterion, but touching a linked assembly only touches one. I cant touch all 40.

Any advice from the more experienced would be very gratefully received.

Try reading this thread from about here:/54/f8/34253/2.html

There still isn't 100% consensus, but most people will say use link messages whenerver you possibly can. Especially remember, depending on what you are going to be passing you can use both the message and the key part to pass string data, so with a bit of forethought you can set up fewer link messages.

Touch started listens with timers are also a well liked feature nowadays, if possible.

Link message, definitely.

Why:

Case 1: Listens.
40 listeners, one speaker.
Even if the listeners filter on a seperate channel, they still have to sort out all the other speech in the sim.

Case 2: Links
40 linkers, one speaker
While 40 messages have to be trasmitted and filtered, there's no interaction with the speech in the sim.

Thanks to both.

Eloise - I read the long thread you referenced, and ended up little wiser, due to conflicting opinions.

There is one poster (Tcoz Bach) who claims that for rapid substantial data delivery link messages are significantly slower, and that after extensive testing he has abandoned them and reverted to listens.

I don't think his posting hass received much attention, because a brain-failure in his first sentence means he summarises his conclusions as exactlt the oposite of what they are.

Thus: from Tcoz Bach:

"I can show you, extensively, that listen messages are slower. I have been through this in great detail......
.......I have overwhelmingly and with many, many examples, concluded that linkmessages can not be used for rapid real time updating of information. "

Also, it seems, counter to prevailing opinion, that the impact of a listen is possiblythe same regardless of what channel it uses, or what filtering. These factors only reduce the script's decoding load when a message arrives, not the effect of listening.

I'll wait in the hope of a few more replies here, otherwise, I'll go with the link messages. unless its slow for me, I'll stick with it.

I wonder if there is a Linden out there who understands the server code, who could give us some guidance on these questions straight from the horses mouth. Surely its in their interest to help us conserve server resources?