Effective script "distance" on a sim?

I am SO not a scripter but here's my question:

I want to have a function (specifically, a fashion show) on a private class 5 island. Virtually no scripts are running at the current time. I'm worried, however, that with all those 'arteests' showing up wearing their bling and animation overriders, that the sim will be swamped. I don't want to turn scripting off, because the models need to run animations (which would be classified as scripts, yes?) on the catwalk.

I've noticed that in previous fashion shows, it's extremely difficult for the models to change clothes and especially add attachments (hair anyone?) in a super crowded sim.

My question is this: Would it reduce lag and would the models be able to change quickly and efficiently if I set up a platform 700 m in the air and just teleported them up to it? I've heard somewhere that lag is caused by what the client acutally has to process, which, 700 m in the air, it wouldn't have to do. Am I wrong in this, or would this be a clever thing to do?

Would a secondary option be to limit scripts to group members and assign all models to the group? I've been to sims where I'm perfectly able to run my AO even though scripting is turned off.

Thanks!

Nope. Lag effects the whole sim.


"Lag" gets assigned different meanings depending on who's using it. Sim lag can be caused by excessive script or physics processing, or a glut of resource requests being processed at once (i.e., someone TP's into a crowded area surrounded by dozens of avs and thousands of prims, and all of the associated textures, prim definitions, av shape definitions, sound clips, etc, must be sent to their client. Get numerous people TPing in at about the same time, and that gets multiplied), the latter of which might be what you're thinking of. Some also use "lag" when they really mean (whether they realize it or not) a decrease in local rendering framerate, but I specifically avoid using the term to mean that.

There are alternate methods. Like, as an example off the top of my neko head, runway disks that do the animations and moving around for the model. Being up at 700 meters would vastly reduce the strain on thier client, helping them get dressed, but as Deanna points out, once thier back in the mix they'll suffer the slow frame rates like anyone else. Haivng a singe object to sit on that'll take over for you would help. Plus, that also allows you to turn off scripts for everyone else, running only your own or the groups.

Lots of work, yes, but potentially worth it.

OK, cool. Thanks for the advice! I think I'll run a test on an empty sim; bring in 40 avatars or so, then take the models up to 700 m to see if it's any easier for them to get dressed... quickly is the key here. Do you still think it would be smarter to have the models get dressed in an empty sim, then teleport over to the catwalk sim, or to use the 700 m platform? They all have everything set to minimal, anyway, re: draw distance, music, particles, etc, so the models themselves aren't going to need to see anything beyond 20 m in front of them. The audience will all be seated. I just want the models to be able to dress quickly and thoroughly.

The catwalk amimations that I've seen so far aren't super impressive; choppy, slow, and awkward. If there was a decent one, I'd use it.

The 700m sky platform won't help much for the reasons already given, and any means of getting up and down from there could become difficult on a really busy sim and would itself contribute (slightly) to lag.

Do any estate owners know: how much would it help--and how weird would it be--to turn off physics for the sim during the event?

If that would be too strange, it would at least help to make sure everybody was seated (hence non-physical). (Maybe, if the animation in the seats were selected for strange interactions with AO sits, it would even get more attendees turn off their AOs.)

I suspect, though, that the sim will be spending most of its time processing image downloads for the n-squared combinations of clients viewing each others' skins, clothes, hair, etc. (Somehow I doubt a fashion-show/Ruthfest would be a big hit, but it would save a lot of lag! )

The models might find it easier, client-side, to turn off a lot of their own texture rendering--or even be in wireframe mode--but this won't save them from sim lag effects like the dreaded drifting off the end of the runway (which itself might be a reason for controlling their movement from the runway rather than from their keyboards).

How about creating a parcel that covers the changing are/runway and turn scripts on there, and off everywhere else.. that the blingsters cant bling, but your models can run anything...

Or..

create a group, deed the and to the group, join all who are allowed to runs scripts and turn it off for non group members (that can be done.. right?) .. if no my 1st suggestion will work for sure

Depending on the way it's scripted, the bling may not contribute to sim lag; if it's pure llParticleSystem (no timer), it will only hit clients, and won't be affected by a no-scripts parcel setting anyway, because the bling will be in the prim, not dependent on a running script. (Of course it won't help if the bling has an open listen on channel 0 for "bling off"--but we'll just have to hope those llListen()s are filtered to owner-only, at least.)

And the AOs... if they did an llTakeControls in advance, I don't think no-scripts can stop them, either. And AOs *do* contribute to sim lag; the first time I looked at the ZHAO source, I couldn't fathom how the author could claim it to be low-lag--but that was before I saw the source for some other really brain-damaged AOs. We can only hope ZHAO and similar have supplanted most of the other crap by now.

But I still think image loading is gonna be the make-or-break factor. And a fashion show won't be much fun if the clothes are no-texture gray. While it may be traditional to keep the models backstage before their grand entrance, it would be better if their skins were visible in advance, so they'll be cached on the audience's clients. Actually, it might also help to force caching of the clothes to be modeled, by putting in view tiny transparent prim faces painted with the clothing textures (a trick often used these days to force sculptmap caching).

I suppose event planners have adopted standard practices for this; seems to me it would be a big win to schedule the event with a fairly long introduction, killing time while everybody rezzes everybody else before the real show begins.

Heh... point taken. But there's only so much you can do before an AO stops being an AO. And the last time I measured it, a ZHAO-II was pretty low (in the 0.005ms range, IIRC). I have chairs on my sim that show a higher script time than a running ZHAO-II.

If you have any ideas for improving it, I'd love to hear them

/me agrees that textures are the killer. If it's an invite-only affair, I don't think scripts are something you're going to have to worry about much.

Are you sure about the skins part? I thought the baking process only uploaded the final baked texture. I could well be wrong but if not, I'm not sure having the models naked would help at all.. Unless the show is heavy on prim clothes and light on 'real' clothes, I think every model is going to rebake/upload on every change.

I think you'll benefit from having a strict plan for the models when they change clothes. As soon as they get out of sight from one run, they should change to their next outfit. It might (or might not.. not sure) be a good idea to force a rebake once they're wearing their next outfit. Since baking is on the client side and can take time on slower machines, it might be a good idea to ask them to minimize SL for 10-15 seconds so their machine has more cycles to build their image.

Getting somebody who really understands the baking process would be a big help. Like, if they run thru all their outfits before hand, will the server have them all cached or does it get a new UUID for every rebake?

Have the models watch each other closely for Missing Textures and make sure they all know how to rebake (and _not_ do it thru edit appearance).

Discouraging people from coming & going will help with the textures stuff. Also, try to keep the setting a low-texture as you can - SL has a nasty habit of downloading everything in (or out of) sight and the more you can cut back, the less people will have to download.

Might also want to have an experienced (and polite) builder sitting around with Show Updates enabled to watch for people in crowd wearing things that are causing tons of updates.

Plan for models crashing. They should try to relog right away then wait 1 minute from when they get the 'region is logging you out' message - if they try the 2nd relog quicker than that, SL will keep them out for 5 minutes.

Yes, since each client contributes to the simulator lag.
Your models will have to teleport by siting on a prim because other methods might not be efficient at that time.
Better, you can have them go in another region at 700m