Comments on Second Effects: Hide Your Products!

@Ari - sounds like a very interesting book, I'...

2009-09-23T23:15:16.344-07:00

@Ari - sounds like a very interesting book, I'll take you up on that!

Yay Google. First comment gave me an error and y...

2009-09-23T09:27:44.250-07:00

Yay Google.

First comment gave me an error and yet thar she is. Sorry for twice-posted (okay, thrice-posted with this one).

;)

This is funny. I actually recommend this very ...

2009-09-23T09:26:32.694-07:00

This is funny.

I actually recommend this very 'solution' in my SBSL book.

(www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1320108)

Hell, even you are quoted in there, you know. Throw me an IM in world and I'll toss a copy to you, ArminasX.

Hah! I actually recommend this very thing in my b...

2009-09-23T09:24:48.353-07:00

Hah!

I actually recommend this very thing in my book SBSL (www.xstreetsl.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=1320108) - and I have even quoted some of YOU in that book, ArminasX.

This is funny.

IM me in world, ArminasX - I'll throw a copy at you. Follow what's in there, your business will at least quadruple, if not more.

I first came across the "break up the scenery...

2009-09-20T08:38:59.058-07:00

I first came across the "break up the scenery" concept (maybe a bit less ironic than "Hide your Products!" *grin*) in a blog post someone was passing around in-world to counter the myths about causes of lag: Anatomy of Lag.

Since reading it, I've been paying attention, and seen it work -- and seen it work in reverse! A club I go to occasionally, which was laggy as hell to begin with, underwent a complete re-design -- in fact, the whole sim did. They created open space where none had been before. The result: attractive, and nowhere as visually claustrophobic as it had been... but you may never notice that, unless you're very patient about loading time.

Glad it worked out for you! However "hide you...

2009-09-20T00:47:43.453-07:00

Glad it worked out for you! However "hide your products" is a bit too simplicstic I think. The idea behind my suggestions was to make object occlusion work for you, in a way to give the client as little to render as possible. This can be done in the way you did it, but it can also be done with a clever made store layout with seperate rooms. No need for doors or such, but just smartly arranged entrances to the seperate rooms.

Another trick to save bandwitdht and have faster rezzing is to combine textures. Few products in SL require a single full 1024x1024 texture. Many products can easily be presented with a 512 or even a 256 texture. But instead of uploading 4 different 512x512 textures, it makes sense to combine them on one 1024x1024 texture. That way you have LESS textures to load (and even save 30L upload costs), and those large textures compress better too.

Another option is to simply spread your store out....

2009-09-19T22:25:34.852-07:00

Another option is to simply spread your store out. Too many people start with a small store and add more and more vendors to it as they add products. The result is a tiny room crammed with hundreds of hi-res textures, which results in the texture lag you note.

If you spread your vendors out, the SL client can selectively load the closer ones first. Then you don't need to add walls to separate things. As a rule of thumb I'd suggest no more than a dozen vendors per 1024 m2 floor space.

Btw, your 'Electric Pixels' link in the About Me is broken.

Yes, I saw that a few days ago when I was there. I...

2009-09-19T21:27:22.410-07:00

Yes, I saw that a few days ago when I was there. I thought you were just organizing the products into clearly labeled groups; the rezzing part never occurred to me.

Good job! Glad it's helping your bottom line.