Maximum number of sounds?

Is there an upper limit to the number of sounds a parcel or island can handle? Would this likely be governed by the client or the server? I ask because I'm making a piece that has well over a hundred sounds, some triggered by collision, others looping. All use llPreloadSound.

Everything was going fine, but last few hours I'm getting a psycho stutter loop effect from all sounds including UI sounds. If I TP to another island the problem stops, but comes back when I return to the island my parcel is on.

I wonder if its the number of sounds loaded into memory or rather the number of sounds attempting to play at the same time. Previously, I made a piece with 256 different sounds and it never has this problem.

Any insights greatly appreciated.

Do you mean playing at the same time?

I hope not.

As for how many sounds you can string together or preload, I don't think there is a limit. Just realize that the more sounds you preload, the better the chance that some of them will be "de-cached" before you are done. The operation of the local asset cache on each person's system varies. Some might be able to cache 1000 sounds before garbage collection kicks in and starts the oldest ones out. Others might not cache more than 50 before that starts happening.

Unless your sounds are played non-linearly, your best bet is a cache-as-you-go algorithm, which caches the next sound while the current sound is playing.

As for the noise you are hearing, I have no clue. Turn on sound beacons, locate the object making the noise, and see what it is playing/looping.

Thanks for the tip Talarus,

Could you let me know how to turn on sound beacons? I didn't know there was such a thing. I don't think it will help, though, since all sounds on the island go psycho-stutter-loop, including UI sounds, so for example, the open inventory "donk" sound becomes "d-d-do-d-dooo-d-d-do-do-do-dn-d-d-d-d-nk-nk-do-do-d-d-d-n-n-n-nkn-nk-nk", as do all other sounds that are supposed to be playing.

What makes me wonder if its a matter of a per-island limit is the fact that it happens everywhere on the island, not only in proximity of the piece with all the sounds (which is 700m up in the air). If I go to some other island all is fine, but problem returns on return to my island

I will test by removing the suspected offending piece, but since I'm mid-build this will take some time and planning (it's big). I'm tempted to first remove all the llPreloadSounds, since its not such a big deal if the sounds wait until first access before downloading, and I wonder if preloading is contributing to the problem. Or am I misunderstanding how preload works?


Not all sounds are playing at the same time, but as a matter of interest, why would it be a problem if they were? Technical or aesthetic?

The sounds are playing non-linearly, based on avatar location, so a cache-as-you-go algorithm wouldn't really be possible in this case. However, I've seen you demonstrate this idea in another post, and it's a brilliant idea, I'll definitely use it in some situations.