Tag Archives: ACI

Second Life ACI is SO Screwed…

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This week has seen discussion on the ARC/ACI values and how broken they are. See the SL Forum thread: Rigged mesh LoD bug. I knew ARC/ACI weren’t all that accurate. But, I thought they were reasonable comparisons. I still believe once up on a time they were. But, in light of this new information I can’t prove that.

ARC = Avatar Render Cost
ACI = Avatar Complexity Index

Comparing ACI in LL, FS, and BD viewers

The purpose of ACI is to influence users and designers to buy and create more efficient mesh content. Something along the lines of Consumer Reports, but free and in your face.

A couple of things have happened that has not only changed ACI’s usefulness but distorted it and pushed us away from its goal. Possibly even making it counterproductive Continue reading →

Second Life Content Creators’ Meeting 2018 w10

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Getting video of these meetings is a PITA. Medhue (1:27 PM) and I (1:08 PM) both were late getting to the meeting. Medhue’s audio has reverb… which generally comes from room echo… the combination of the sound source (talker) and reflected sound from walls reaching the mic at slightly different times. There are no echoes or room reverb in Second Life™. So, the computer’s speaker output has to be fed back via an open mic or duel channels in the recording app. Neither appears to be the case for Medhue…

I got there a bit earlier. I recorded the meeting, so the source is on my computer. I can edit it and clean up the audio. So, this week I’ll use my video. It takes some time to clean up the video and audio. Plus, Thursday is a busy day for me, RL. So, mine comes out later, like Saturday or Sunday.

The first thing you are likely to notice in the video is Vir Linden’s voice is messed up. In Medhue’s video, Vir Linden’s voice is also messed up but in a different way. So, the problem is in the connections or our computers. I have yet to figure out what’s up with mine.

I’ve cleaned the audio up a bit. But, there is only so much repair work one can do.  Continue reading →

Content Creation UG 2018 w07

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First meeting in a couple of weeks.

Alexa Linden announced that she will add a description to the Aditi regions (Animesh1 to 4) saying they are for animesh only. They Lindens will be returning things that are not animesh and setting an auto-return time cycle for the region.

Medhue made a video, Thank you, Medhue. My Thursday was spent fighting with Microsoft while they ran me in circles.

I’ll provide short summaries of the various topics discussed in the meeting and provide a time mark for the beginning. If you want more info than I provide check the video.

02:40 – Vir Linden tells us the Lab has hired a programmer specializing in rendering. He has worked for the Lab on Second Life™ before, Graham Linden. He is full time. So, things in the rendering pipeline will be changing. There is already a Project Viewer for a branch of viewer changes to the render pipeline. See: Second Life Project Render Viewer version 5.1.1.512446.  Continue reading →

Second Life – How to Lower ACI – A Script

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One of the complications in 3D rendering is working out how to blend the objects with transparent parts. Think of windows and SL hair. Designers can reduce the complication by how they use alpha layers and blending. I’m not going to try to explain how to set stuff up because I have yet to get it figured out. But, I came across a handy workaround for things we already have.

I buy hair, dresses, and other things that use blending modes. Most are no-mod. But, the script below can be used to modify them.

In the beginning of the video, I am wearing Magika’s Dreamy as purchased. This is hair that in the Linden viewer has an ACI of 4,699. Using the script reduces the ACI by 702. That is a saving of 15±%. This is my first try, so I have no idea if this is typical, minimal, or a max. You may find that high ACI items benefit more.

There is some degradation in the appearance. When zoomed out, it is barely noticeable. Only when zoomed in can you see the difference. Personally, the 702 ACI saving is not worth the loss of appearance. Continue reading →

Second Life News 2016 w42b

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Last week (41) Simon Linden told us about the new Sandboxes for the Premium members. I am just now getting around to writing that up. This week the new forced sit (llSitOnLink) for Advanced Experiences rolled to the main grid.

Yellow

Yellow

Premium Sandboxes

Premium members can now visit the “Sandbox Premium Weapons Testing” region. Plus, another group of regions is set up that runs all 4 groups of server packages. These are side-by-side, adjacent.

Simon says they are named, “Main Channel Sandbox A, Magnum Sandbox A, LeTigre Sandbox A, and BlueSteel Sandbox A. Those 4 I just listed are … they’re in a 2×2 square on the map.”  Continue reading →

Second Life: Third Party Viewer UG 2016 w38

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Oz Linden reviewed the status of viewer development. He pointed out that the Visual Outfit Browser (VOB) is now in the main release version of the Linden made SL Viewer.

They updated the VLC RC and Bento RC viewers with VOB.

✧◦ Waldelfen ◦✧

✧◦ Waldelfen ◦✧

Both RC viewers are doing well in the crash rate stats. Oz expects the VLC version to release to main viewer in week 39. That will leave the Bento RC as the only RC. Seems like the pipeline is emptying out…

Oz pointed out the Lab did block a few old viewer versions. Saying, ‘Only a few thousand users…’ would be affected. That number can sound bad. But, as a percent of SL users it is way small, likely way less than 1%.  Continue reading →

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How is Avatar Complexity Doing?

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More and more viewers are adopting the latest Linden additions to the viewer. The RLViewer just added the Avatar Complexity feature. So, more and more people are noticing the pop up messages generated by the Avatar Complexity feature. Merchants are starting to respond to the feature also. I suspect for now that concern is anticipatory rather than reactive.

Never Stop Dreaming.

Never Stop Dreaming

I have always suspected the majority of Second Life™ users have a level of concern about the amount of lag they add to the system and take some steps to reduce it. Of course most of us want to avoid lag. A few entitlement types put off on the Lab. But, I think that is a small percentage.  Continue reading →

Second Life: Jelly Babies Grow Up

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That little baby girl grew up into the cutest DOLL… that is sort of what has happened with Second Life™ Jelly Babies. Earlier I wrote about the name Jelly Babies being trademarked. So, the Lab is not going to use that term for muted avatars. And I certainly am not going to call muted avatars muted avatars… ugh. That give no one an intuitive sense of what is being talked about.

JellyDoll and Fully Rendered Avatar.

JellyDoll and Fully Rendered Avatar.

I follow Mesh Body Addicts, a blog by LilDaria resident, Daria for short, which is all about mesh bodies and clothes. Love it. Daria is using the term JellyDolls in place of the trademarked Jelly Babies, which I like. So, we may have a new name for them.  Continue reading →