Day: November 15, 2010

An interesting post popped up in the official blogrum today concerning confusion about Mesh objects and prims counts.

While the technical ins-and-outs of the main discussion largely go right over my head, Lightscribe Infinity raises a point that, if accurate, could lead to a lot of additional angst in-world in the coming months:

ARC is high for any av mesh. The default av, simply smoothed and brought inworld, increases ARC dramatically. 91938 versus the 0 of a present av, with everything detached.

ARC – or Avatar Rendering Cost – is a misleading “measure” introduced by Linden Lab some time ago that was designed to provide a loose – one might say entirely arbitrary – measure of the “cost” to the SL Viewer in rendering your avatar, based on the number of textures and primitives (or indeed, sculpties and (soon) Meshes worn by your avatar. The basic value for an unadorned avatar is 100 (and not the 0 mentioned by Ligtscribe, in fairness), but the more prims /textures your avatar wears – and the higher the resolution of those textures – then the higher the ARC count generated.

ARC itself appears as a number floating above avatars’ heads once the option is enabled from Advanced > Rendering > Info Displays > Avatar Render Cost, and it is perhaps one of the most misunderstood information displays available in Second Life, and one of the biggest causes of unnecessary drama. This is for two reasons:

1. People look upon ARC is absolute terms. That is, a) the look at it in isolation of other factors; and b) they treat it as if it is an entirely accurate measurement in and of itself.
2. People believe ARC lags the simulator, and thus directly impacts everything.

In fairness, the first item – ARC being viewed as an absolute measure – could be said to be partially LL’s fault inasmuch as the ARC count is “colour-coded” when displayed, with “low” lag counts (approximately up to 1,000) being shown in green, “medium” lag counts (between around 1,000-2,000) appearing in yellow and those above 2,048 appearing in red. These colours alone send out entirely the wrong message to the uninformed, given that most us of automatically associate green with “good” and “acceptable” but red with “bad” and “dangerous”  – and something that “must” be avoided.  However, as the SL wiki entry on the subject itself states:

ARC isn’t the end-all for pinpointing Viewer lag. It’s a useful estimate which should be used in conjunction with other tools

The second point is completely and utterly wrong. ARC is a factor – as the name states – of rendering. Rendering is a function of the Viewer, not the simulator. As such, rendering is dependent wholly on the client end of the equation – what computer you are using, what graphics card / system, the amount of memory it can utilise and so on, and has nothing whatsoever to do with the the simulator itself.

These basic misconceptions have resulted in a wide range of myths sprouting up around high ARC counts – such as:

• a high ARC count is indicative of an avatar carrying a high script load.
  • No, it isn’t. Scripts are not, and cannot be, rendered ergo they have absolutely no impact on an overall ARC count
    
• a high ARC count directly affects your ability to teleport.
  • No, it doesn’t. Teleport failures are largely related to how many scripts your avatar is carrying and/or server-side issues entirely unrelated to ARC)

While it is true that ARC can provide a measure of the overall cost of rendering an avatar by every single Viewer that can “see” that avatar, the point that people forget is that it is not, nor has it ever been – and the SL wiki states – the only measure. More importantly, its not even an accurate measure in any way, shape size or form; it is simply an estimate. If only those who bow down before the Great God ARC would actually understand this!

The fact that LL openly admitted it to be a subjective measure, entirely dependent on a wide range of factors entirely outside of their control, at the time it was introduced went almost entirely unnoticed by those who use now use ARC as a club to batter people with, and who have reached a point where no amount of reasoned argument will sway them from their entrenched view that those displaying a high ARC count deserve to be shouted at, badgered, and / or banned from sims. Not even perfectly obvious demonstrations of the ineffectiveness of ARC as an accurate and reliable measure can break many of these so-called “ARC Police” from their misguided views.

For example, if ARC were truly an accurate measure of an avatar’s impact on things, then one would expect all ARC counts to be constant for any given combination of clothing and attachments worn by an avatar.

But it is not. For proof of this, simply get a group of friend together, or go to a shop or mall where there are a number of avatars and turn on ARC. You’ll get a range of counts appearing above people’s heads – but if you cam around, zoom in or out – the counts will change! Simply teleporting from sim to sim can increase / decrease an individual’s ARC, simply because the need for the client to render everything else in the view is impacting on the count ascribed to the avatar itself; and before anyone starts telling me the error of my way, yes, every single object you see in your world view also has it’s own rendering cost as well.

So how does this relate to worn Meshes? Well, if Lightscribe is right, and Mesh attachments end up sending ARC skyrocketing, then doubtless the ARC Police (which is perhaps the politest name for them compared to others I’ve seen) are going to be bludgeoning a lot more people with there ignorance and creating even more unnecessary drama and angst.

Which is a shame, because one gets the feeling that Mesh is going to have more than its share of drama, upset and misunderstandings once it arrives on the main grid, without anyone stirring the pot even more.