Reading the coffee grounds

I realize that I have taken on far too much in SL (and in RL too, but that is another story: who can resist squeaky toys?)

A friend from the club where I dance IM'ed me last week to ask what was up, as I never come around any more. On consideration, she's right. It has been several weeks since I was there. Not a conscious decision, I just drifted out of the habit; because I was seldom there, the boss hesitated to call me at short notice to cover for her, which she often had done before, so that I didn't have that prompt to return either.

The Cushicle has been on hold for a month, though that was intentional. Another friend gave me some good advice ("Stop beating your head against the wall, take a break and return to it with fresh eyes") which I have taken. I'll be getting back to that mid-month.

The PlayAsBeing group is making unhappy noises about the autorecording system which I am supposedly ringmastering into existence. I have kickstarted that and assigned us a deadline of October 1 — yes, this year. It's tricky though: given that all participants are volunteers, all I can really do is encourage them to take their own promises seriously.

I have been dropped from Pulse because of a failure to communicate, which I can't really discuss here. It was at least 50% my fault, though, so no hard feelings from my side though I fear there may be such elsewhere.

I'm not sure how to go ahead with all this. I need to reorganize my life, but don't quite know where to start.

Playing

It's been a busy month. I have joined a meditation/discussion group called Play as Being and have been quite caught up in the conversation. And in working there too: I am Ringmaster of a small team that is implementing an automatic recording and publishing system, to simplify and speed up the process of logging discussions at PaB on their website.

I will probably have more to say about PaB in future, for now I am still feeling my way in and learning the peculiar ropes of Taoism- and Buddhism-based existentialist debate. (A recent example: "There is no 'I'." — followed in the next breath by "I'm reading the notes." How droll.)

The biggest perk of being a Guardian at PaB (impressive title which means that once a week I am greeter and recorded of notes for a discussion) is that one may claim a parcel of group land to build on. I found a lovely little sandbar with some palms and a few large rocks at the shoreline, and have built a tent there.

That will have to do for now, my dears, it's feeding time and after that is my exercise hour. I hope you are all happy and healthy, and that your collars do not chafe.

About the Avatar Rendering Cost

A public service announcement

Readers who have updated to the Second Life™ 1.20 viewer may have noticed a new feature, or perhaps rather a tool, called Avatar Rendering Cost (ARC). This is a representation of how hard the system has to work to display your avatar including all its clothes and attachments, as a indication of how much your av contributes to lag locally. It's in the Advanced menu, under Rendering/Info displays (press CTRL-Alt-D to call up the Advanced menu). (Torley introduced this in a short video tutorial a few weeks back. There's also an article by Pastrami Linden on the SL blog, for those who prefer facts to frothy enthusiasm.)

When you activate this option, it displays a number (the rendering cost) above each av's head. The display is colour-coded: green is good (low cost), yellow medium, red is high-cost. Note that these are approximations, mere rule-of-thumb estimates, not definitive and absolute values. As both Pastrami and Torley emphasize, the ARC number is certainly not a reason to yell at people.

The calculation doesn't consider the cost of scripts in your attachments or AOs, which do contribute to lag (if not to rendering as such). Surprisingly, if not downright suspiciously, it treats slider clothes as being "free:" the cost of rendering your av butt-naked is 1, but the cost of rendering you wearing every single type of slider clothing is also 1! I find this unlikely, because slider clothing is a texture that has to be downloaded and displayed.

However, be that as it may. The tool exists, let's try it out. (By the way, the constant updating and calculating that this performs will slow down your viewer. The Lindens recommend keeping it turned off generally, and activating it for brief periods when needed.)

In the spirit of scientific enquiry I chose three favourite outfits and had a look at their rendering costs.

    

First up, a Pulse pantsuit. The total rendering cost of this appearance was 1397* (yellow = medium). Here's how it breaks down piece-by-piece:

Pulse outfit Unit #29		174
	Slider clothes	0
	Prim belt	20
	Prim palazzo pants (both legs)	154
Pulse Orfilia jewelry set		562
	Necklace	345
	Bracelet	162
	Earrings (both)	55
Flexi hair ("Abyss" by Oxygen)		435
Sculpty prim boots ("Dune" by Maitreya)		178
Lip ring (by Avolve)		33
Pulse facelight (by myself, see previous post)		14
My av (shape and skin)		1

The next outfit is "Shadow" by AVid, one of my favourite designers. The total rendering cost is 601 (green = low, good).

AVid "Shadow" slider pants, socks, gloves, shirt	0
AVid "Shadow" prim boots	82
AVid "Hermia" thigh knife	77
ETD "Dierdre" prim hair	388
Matrix sunglasses	34
Pulse facelight	19
My av (shape and skin)	1

Finally, the "Grand Juji:" a wildly over-the-top feathery fashion statement from Serene Sensations. This truly magnificent dress consists of 334 half-transparent flexi-prims! It should therefore be no surprise to learn that its rendering cost is 10302. Let's say that again slowly, shall we, letting it roll around on our tongues? Ten thousand three hundred and two. (Don't get me wrong, I am not criticising or mocking. This dress is worth every single one of those ARC points, I love it dearly and will continue to wear it. I might be a little more careful of where and when I wear it, though.)

Feather boa	239
Feathered upper skirt	2671
Feathered lower skirt	6939
Slider pants, socks, gloves, shirt	0
Desire "Writer" prim hair	339
Freebie stiletto prim shoes	113
My av (shape and skin)	1

What do we learn?

1) Flexi-prims hurt.
2) Flexi-prims with alpha-channel transparency hurt real bad.
3) Your hair will usually outweigh the rest of your clothing.
4) Your jewelry might outweigh everything else including your hair.


* For comparison, one of the fancy newbie avs out-of-the-box costs around 275; the traditional Ruth costs exactly 1. Based on a rough sample observed while walking about today, male avs typically seem to be under 800, the majority of females are under 1600.

Workin' nine to five

Well, working anyway. I am delighted to announce that I've been hired by Pulse as their store manager / assistant / fixit-girl. This means that I will be spending even more time hanging out at the shop than I already do — but getting paid for it.

In the interests of clarity and disclosure of interests, I should point out this is a new development. My mentions of Pulse in previous posts were not paid for or directed by Eidolon and Lorac, but simply outpourings of my own enthusiasm. I wrote about their clothes and skins because I like them.

In other news but further in the same vein of own-horn-blowing, the Cushicle is damned nearly done! Woot. Stand by for photos.

Facelight

I made a menu-driven, adjustable facelight for Pulse this week, and I'm quite pleased at how well it has worked out. It will be distributed free of charge at the Pulse store in Nip Tuck Island (the dispenser will be there quite soon, in the meantime IM me in-world if you want a copy right now).

Making it was something of a public service, really, because SL is over-full of people with facelights that are just hideously bright. I've seen some that light up entire clubs, and others that were so badly tuned that you couldn't see the wearer's skin at all: the over-bright light washed all the detail out of their skins.

I am surprised to infer how few people really look at their avatars, when I see such things. Why would you spend thousands of L$ on a skin, then wear a badly-made facelight that obliterates all its details? How could you look at yourself wearing it and not see that your skin is utterly featureless and bleached out? Odd.

So, we are distributing dim facelights! They cast just enough light to let people see your lovely features, without blinding other people or spoiling the lighting effects of the sim where you are standing. They are free, adjustable by on-screen dialog, and they work really well. Come and get them!

Time in

Well, that was a long week! My apologies for the delay in getting back online. I hope you enjoyed yourselves in my absence (but not too much).

I am uncomfortably aware that I have been less than fully present in recent weeks, and have not been as good a friend to you as I should have been. I've been in an odd mood this month and have often looked at the list of friends online and thought that I just didn't have enough energy to talk. I felt quite unable to say anything worthy of your attention, and feared that I wouldn't even be able to come up with a "yes" or "no" while listening. My apologies for this, and I hope to be more outgoing and forthcoming in future.

What else is new? The Cushicle is nearly ready for prime time (as we in the industry say), it flies much better than before though still not entirely properly. I have started giving away copies to beta-testers, because it is always good to get other people's opinions and observations. If you would like to be a beta-tester, speak to me in-world and I will give you a copy. All beta-testers will of course get a fresh final-release version free of charge once the last bugs are ironed out.

Time out

I shall probably be offline for the coming week, my dears: the scientists who run the research centre are going away for a holiday, and I overheard them telling the support staff not to let me out of my kennel in their absence. Now, there is a certain amount of games-playing that goes on here: I know that they knew that I could hear them, and I suspect that they may just have wanted to "encourage" me to behave particularly well. We shall see.

However, just in case it is true: Have a great week, everyone! I shall miss you terribly. Spare a thought for me, as you cavort and gambol in the fertile pixelly fields of SL.