Time Delays in Object-to-Object Email Communication

Hi all,

I'm curious to know about any delays that occur when two objects communicate through email.

I've read the Wiki and understand that calling llEmail will delay the script for 20 seconds. I also understand that calling llGetNextEmail will delay the script for 1-3 seconds.

What I'm not sure about is how long it actually takes from when Object A sends an email (llEmail is called) to when Object B can actually access that email.

For example, if Object B uses a timer event to call llGetNextEmail every 10 seconds, and Object A sends the email halfway through one of these cycles, will Object B get it on it's next call, ie in 5 seconds? Or will it not be there yet, and Object B won't see it until the next call after that, meaning 15 seconds after Object A sent it?

Just trying to get a sense of how quick the email communication is other than the built in delays.

The actual delivery time can vary from a few seconds upwards - it depends on server load. The typical time is 10-15 seconds based on my experience.

A lot of well-known products use email for object-to-object communicaiton including vendors, so it is fast enough -- most of the time.

If your script must have a response within a given time, you may have to reconsider your design.

Scripts in SL run at a low priority - almost on a "best effort" basis. So even if you have your script check for email every second, your script could simply not be scheduled to get any run time - so there *will* be a delay. You need to consider limited processing time as part of your design.

It's also possible that your timer event could be delayedif your script responds to other events (like touch, or sensor, etc) if they do non-trivial work in the other event handlers.

-2fast

My experiences is that object to object email takes less than a second. But the sender scripts gets delayed for 20 secs which can be annoying. llGetNextEmail (or what's it called) need to be called upon frequently to avoid even more delay. Maybe once every 0.5 sec. Not sure how much lag this causes.

The 20 second delay is easily circumvented, just think about it.



If your requirement is for that fast a communication then you really shouldnt be relying on email. A few second here or there shouldnt be important.

I've been thinking about it but maybe I have to think more It's not an issue if the objects are in the same SIM. But if you wanna communicate across Sims? Only way I can think of is to use the web http/rpc to communicate between objects. Still some delay but lot faster than the 20 secs. Or do you have another solution?

Use multiple slave email scripts and a master script which sends linked messages with a counter to direct it to a specific slave script.
(linkmessages and multiple scripts is the way to circumvent most time- and memorylimits in LSL)

Ah yes of course! Thx