Why do script "packages" take forever to refresh?

I have a large collection of scripts (a grateful thank you to everybody who makes their scripts available free).

I have organized them into packages, each containing anywhere from ten to 100 scripts. All scripts in each package have been set to Not Running.

When I rez a package to look for a script, it can take forever to finish refreshing. All of the contents will show up quickly but the scrollbar keeps jerking, making it impossible to scroll down the list until it finishes, which may take five minutes with the larger packages.

Anybody know why this happens and if there is something I can do about it? I offer this collection on Xstreet (for free, of course) and would like to make it more friendly.

Right now it just takes a really long time to transmit the contents of a prim to the viewer. You can put fewer items into the prim, put in some sort of index script that offers a menu or chatted listing and llGiveInventory to work around the slowness, or live with it until LL finds a real solution.

Well, for one thing, the problem isn't with the contents per se. As I pointed out it is only when the contents are scripts. This issue doesn't occur with any other type of inventory.

And loading isn't the problem either. As I mentioned, the package does load quickly -- the contents show up right away -- the window just keeps refreshing.

And a Give Inventory would require my customers to unpack the entire box every time they want one particular script. And reducing package size to only 10 scripts (the size necessary to stop the problem) would defeat the purpose of packing them. Again, as I pointed out, I'm trying to make the packaging more user friendly.

Assuming the average script is around 8K, the math for a box of 100 scripts works out to 8 megabytes.

That's a lot of bandwidth to chew through. Consider how long it takes textures to load, and most of those are sub-100K with only a very few in the 1 megabyte range.

Yes, it certainly does happen with other types of inventory. It is not a script-specific thing at all.

That's because the viewer is still waiting for the server to send its message saying "I'm done sending the inventory for this prim." It has nothing to do with them being scripts. It's because the current protocol for talking to viewers about inventories is flaky and unreliable.

You are certainly free to pretend that there is no bug in simulators when they send large prim inventories to viewers, and not offer workarounds. LL is working on fixes, they aren't out there yet.

If these are scripts where you can see the text of the script, might posting them somewhere on the web be a suitable alternative method of distribution? Copy and paste is pretty simple, and scripts on the web can be found with a web search engine.

It certainly does not happen with all other inventory. Perhaps you get a jittering scrollbar with all types of inventory but I get that only with scripts.

Soen: Thank you. I think you have addressed the issue. If the server has to communicate the entire text of the script, that would explain things. I thought that setting the scripts to Not Running would prevent that but I guess not.

As for why I don't have a problem with anything else, it makes sense that the server must assume a script will need to be functional while inside an object whereas objects, textures, etc don't have to exist as anything other than a UUID until they are rezzed.

So there is no bug and no resolution. I will have to take Viktoria's advice and learn to live with it. Now that I understand, I can do that.

Thanks everybody.

I get support questions about this all the time, primarily involving objects containing many animations. It's not a script-only thing, period.



No, you do not get the text is the scripts with an inventory listing. Inventory listings are just pointers, not the assets themselves.



The entry won't change until you save a new version, or twiddle permissions or running state. All asset types have flags that can change.

You wouldn't have this problem if you copied the scripts to notecards rather than using non-running scripts.