You probably know about SSA – Server Side Appearance by now. But, as we move into it and more people try it we are finding an oddity here and there. Today I heard of a new one.

As things are planned your viewer will handle your appearance during editing in Appearance Mode ( as right click on avatar Edit My Outfit ) always has, baking things locally and quickly. But, when you go into Appearance and pop on an Outfit, does the SSA system try to find a cached bake of the Outfit? Or does it just start baking the Outfit? Either would take some time. Does the viewer have to wait on the server?

The answers are not clear. But, it seems Edit My Outfit and the Appearance panel are handling things differently. Some are saying that it takes some time for an Outfit change to register. And if one wants to edit their appearance after an Outfit change it can be a bit of a problem.

I’m not sure how it is going to work. But, Kitty Barnett, RLV Dev, is looking at the problem. In this week’s Content & Mesh meeting Kitty asked, “For server side baking (SSA), would there be any issue with turning on local baking to make getting dressed more pleasant? It could be ADITI (the preview grid), but wearing something it takes a very long time before the server bake comes through, particularly reordering clothing or taking something off?”

So, it is apparent Kitty is looking at having the viewer handle baking appearance anytime the user is changing appearance. At some point the viewer will give up control and allows the SSA process to take over. But, I think we are going to want the ability to edit an Outfit or any item of clothing quickly whether we are in Edit My Outfit via a right-click or go through the Appearance Panel.