chatlog MachinimaMondays December 19, 2011

Tpoic: making a wishlist for a machinima viewer/dropdown menu for excisting viewers.

MachinimaMondays whispers: Checking inventory items...
MachinimaMondays: Type a message you want to send to your subscribers on channel 95 (eg. /95 my message)
MachinimaMondays: Virtual Montmartre (154,169,31)
MachinimaMondays meeting at 1 pm - needs your input!! we are hosting machinima and trying to make wishes come true! Discussing a machinima menu in Second Life viewers; what would be your ultimate application or option? What would make your machinima life better? Come on over and discuss it with us!

NikoKito Aries: hello good night
Chantal Harvey: hello
NikoKito Aries: hi Chantal
Chantal Harvey: heyas!
Chantal Harvey: welcome
NikoKito Aries: welcome Bubblepop
Bubblepop Unplugged: hello!
Chantal Harvey: hi bubble!
Chantal Harvey: welcome
Bubblepop Unplugged: chantal im close to being able to broadcast and do audio video soundeffects anounce all at once, one take.
Chantal Harvey: ho
Bubblepop Unplugged: very close
Bubblepop Unplugged: hope to talk to you about that and other stuff someday
Chantal Harvey: ok, there is room for that today, plenty
NikoKito Aries: welcome Pixie
Pixie Rain: thank you
Bubblepop Unplugged: i do have a quick question though
Bubblepop Unplugged: you ever try or hear of controling audio with foot pedals?
Chantal Harvey: sure, shoot
Bubblepop Unplugged: the volume
Chantal Harvey: woo no i havent
Bubblepop Unplugged: if im controlling sound effects with one hand, cam with the other, wich i almost mastered....
Chantal Harvey: hi gabe, welcome
Bubblepop Unplugged: ... i was thinking maybe footpedals to control volume. 1 for each soundcard/player
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: Heeeeey!
핕리: omg gabe i didnt know u meant now
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: LAWLLLLLLL
Chantal Harvey: welcome, MinDBlinD, grab a seat

Chantal Harvey: I was wondering, can all hear voice?
Bubblepop Unplugged: i like both voice AND text, makes it more exciting
At this point, in voice, Chantal Harvey announces sponsorship for the 2012 contest 48 Hour Film Project Machinima; 4000 dollars prize money and a big chance of the winning film going to not only Filmapalooza, but also to Cannes.
Pixie Rain: That should excite Tutsy enough to enter! I'll tell him tomorrow!

Chantal and Michelle then talked about viewer 1 and viewer 2, and why it now really is time for machinima people to move to the new viewers. Soon the 1-viewers will not be supported anymore, so we best prepare ourselves and get on with it.

A huge advantage is the better framerate and the light settings, amongst many other improved things. - so apart from having to move over soon anyway, this should be a good reason to do it now. Machinima will improve, we need to move on.

After initially resenting viewer 2, I found that it took me 2 days to get used to the new viewer, and to my own surprise do not want to go back to my beloved old viewer 1. It is a learning curve, but well worth it. Now, who would not wish for better framerates...?
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
We then moved on to todays topic: a machinima wishlist.

Today, sadly, Kirstens viewer was abandoned - the crowdfunder halted at 28%, Lee starts a rl job, and our beloved machinima viewer is gone. :-(

Several coders/viewers have now come to me and talked about implementing a machinima menu, or even developing a new machinima viewer. And you know? MachinimaMondays is an excellent platform for collecting ideas. We agreed to collect these and make a wish list.

Mary Wickentower wish list: machinimatographewrs windlight bundle - expansive set of windlights and special effects including but not limited to Torly's windlights
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: yus
Pixie Rain: the new "Tex Refresh" option in FS 3 is fabulous
Ambrosia Lanley: one viewer for machinima
MinDBlinD Setsuko: a machinima dedicated viewer will be very useful
Ambrosia Lanley: stop all the applications that are not needed to reduce lag and smoother filming
Bubblepop Unplugged: saving every single setting so i jumop right back into filming after a crash
Ambrosia Lanley: derender is good
Pixie Rain: derender is essential for me
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: it's possible to make a viewer where all settings persist between logins
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: that's very easy
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: every setting has "persist" yes or no, we can just set 'em all to persist
Bubblepop Unplugged: well... would a higher quality voice audio possible? would save lots of time in some cases. Adjustible audio would be useful, even high tones, noise reduction, bass sliders?
Ambrosia Lanley: for filming we dont need an external browers cookies java scripts plugins web proxy
MinDBlinD Setsuko: i don't know how.. but could be nice have a function to record a camera movement track
LaPiscean Liberty: yes macro settings
Bubblepop Unplugged: a search engine that links me to props and animations with a slurl with 100% accuracy.
Mary Wickentower: as that controls/HUDS visable to us but not on film to the list chant - a coder migth be able to figure out a way
Fuschia Nightfire: yes , that would be very helpful
Chantal Harvey: having text and huds outside the window-option would be more than useful, it was suggested over a year ago by Toxic Menges. Or just a way to operate huds without them showing in the film.
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: two views? one with UI, one without UI
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: in theory it's possible, but i don't know if you would want to... it's the equivalent of running two viewers, you take a loss in framerateGᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but there might be a creative way around it
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: how does fraps handle dual monitors?
LaPiscean Liberty: not possible to take outside the portal
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: that's possible yus
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: yeah, that's definitely possible
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: UI on one monitor, world view on the other
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: that would be pimp
Mary Wickentower: fraps records the ACTIVE window
Mary Wickentower: there is a clunky workaround for that
LaPiscean Liberty: if they did, it would be like Gabe said
LaPiscean Liberty: same as 2 viewers
Ambrosia Lanley: two avatars - two viewers
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but if you have world view on one screen, UI on the other, that's good
LaPiscean Liberty: but perhaps you could log twice and have your avatar control the other avatars functions
Bubblepop Unplugged: i never tried it, its why i was asking if its been done
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: scripted camera tracking seems like the most obvious feature it would have
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: set your path and timing between points
Bubblepop Unplugged: i do a dual monitor, livestream/procaster, rhapsody to play music, VLC to play sound effects, recording/sound/voice all at once
LaPiscean Liberty: or perhaps a better text client like metabolt, that has more function for your avatar
Bubblepop Unplugged: im also using that cam hud that guy had here. i need to find out where to get more
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: it's possible - i can show you my scripted camera work
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: want to see a video i did using that
[13:28] Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: all motion is scripted
http://www.olpglobalkids.org/2011/12/lts_food_justice_show_full_vid.html
only the first 30 seconds -- the rest is not by me
Pixie Rain: very good
Mary Wickentower: workaround to using huds and settings in fraps that do not appear in film- Some huds and settings will still work, even tho they are not visable , so it you track where they are on the screen, before you click F1, you can click on those buttons, even thos they are not visable - they are still THERE
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: all the SL camera movement there is scripted
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but if there was camera tracking interface in the viewer, that would be awesome
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: i have my own scripted gadget for doing that
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but i'd love to see it part of the UI
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: Kinnect
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: it's Kinnect
Ambrosia Lanley: its open source so alot of hacks are being made for sl
Bubblepop Unplugged: where can i find that one hud someone had here? the StatiCam v1.1 PRO ?
Ambrosia Lanley: it will but limited only by the hacks made so far with body movement so far
Mary Wickentower: you can combine some expressions in the free adorkable HUD
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: i have something called BijoCam, it's pretty good, but still clunky
Bubblepop Unplugged: he had it here and was working on it, sold them for whatever we wanted. i think you got one didnt you chantal? Paramparam Papp!
Bubblepop Unplugged: i just have that one. and for this live broadcasing, im controling cam angles with left hand on keyboard.
Ambrosia Lanley: yea all pretty much the same
Mary Wickentower: you can also switch back and forth between hair bases to get eyebrow expressions
Ambrosia Lanley: smile frown ect. a drop down menu with basic emotions/animations would be good
Ambrosia Lanley: needs to be a smooth transition from one emotion to another
Mary Wickentower: I collect hair bases just so I can get different eyebrow raises frowns etc moving from one to the other
Ambrosia Lanley: crazy talk - it uses the mouse to make the face move
Arm Strom: dont look at me :-/
Ambrosia Lanley: called puppetiteir
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: also easy to do
Arm Strom: :-)
Ambrosia Lanley: crazy talk 6
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but crazytalk can only be used on static images
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: i wish it could be used on captured footage
Mary Wickentower: what would the software DREAM package(s) be to have to machinima if money was no problem ?
Michelle Leckrone: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/aDORKable-Poses-Emoter-HUD/1081190
Mary Wickentower: exterior software
Mary Wickentower: for productions
Mary Wickentower: and fine tuning
Mary Wickentower: like premiere etc
Ambrosia Lanley: ctrl alt left mous ebutton will control the eyes
Mary Wickentower: we need a difinitive list of all this good info
Michelle Leckrone: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/AnyPose-Expression/2613652

darx Taurus: people talks before about Kinect, have you seen this experimental video: http://www.nsl.tuis.ac.jp/xoops/modules/x_movie/x_movie_view.php?cid=2&lid=33
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: framerate is way better in the 2 based viewers! framerate should be the number one priority for machinima artists
Mary Wickentower: grumbles about bloody "new" viewer
Mary Wickentower: Im miss dyslexic and monofixator eyes - new viewer makes me crazy

Michelle Leckrone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9ujnzMPBoc&feature=channel_video_title

Chantal Harvey: I will copy paste this chat for references in my blog, tonight.
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: can i say the f word just to spice things up?
Fuschia Nightfire: lol
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: gotferdommen
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: i'm sure i spelled that wrong
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: LAWLLLLLLL
Mary Wickentower: rofl
Bubblepop Unplugged: awsom, please. how do i say 'you love donkeys" in dutch? - and i'll start using it in the usa
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: ijk how van donkeys
Chantal Harvey: ik hou van ezels
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: i was close
Mary Wickentower: there is a funny funny film where a prim & proper librian looking Dutch woman swears in dutch and translates it - it is funnay as
LaPiscean Liberty: As my Grandma would say, It;s all Dutch to me
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: As my grandma would say, "pass the dutchie on the left hand side"

Chantal Harvey: http://www.nsl.tuis.ac.jp/xoops/modules/x_movie/x_movie_view.php?cid=2&lid=33

Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: that video is amazing
Pixie Rain: very interesting, yes
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: a kinect costs about $150
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but worth it
LaPiscean Liberty: Ive had GOM player for yrs, but didnt know they offered a encoder now
Chantal Harvey: def, if i knew i could use it
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: would Glyph Graves share the code?
darx Taurus: it's open source, but you can move avatar only in your screen, because there is no LL server support
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: well you could host the kinect support on your own server
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: use HTTP to transmit the data
LaPiscean Liberty: that would require some pretty good bandwith to http the movement to LL
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: you could bypass LL
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: the avatars have an attachment to send the data to your server, and the machinimatographer picks up the data through their viewer
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: that would take a long time to make tho
Mary Wickentower: does ENCODER work with SL?
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: aside from better facial animations, that is the most difficult thign that has been mentioned today
Bubblepop Unplugged: wich type of media streams into SL again? i forgot
LaPiscean Liberty: Mpeg, MP4, MOV, MP3, SDP
LaPiscean Liberty: VOB is low enough resolution
LaPiscean Liberty: MP2
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: synching cameras in the next FS viewer? View angle numbers
Mary Wickentower: is ther a definative list anywhere of what you should have externeral to SL (software) & internal to SL to produce kicking films (if money was no object) ?
Pixie Rain: I like the idea of "preferences profile settings" ....1) High lag sims 2) Ultra 2) Depth of Field etc
Pixie Rain: so I call up the profile, not have to re-do it each time
Pixie Rain: 10 options, create your own presets, and an option to save them, like windlight settings now
darx Taurus: i have looked that DOF flickering strange way..maybe its just my viewer fault..have somebody experience?
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: definitely can customize all menus
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: definitely
Pixie Rain: and it automatically sets preferences to pre-defined graphics
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: yeah you can create new presets
Pixie Rain: exactly
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: right now it's only minimal --> ultra
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: those four
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: but you could make new ones
Gᵃᵇᵉ 게이브루니: yus
Pixie Rain: yes....but I mean user defined.....different AA, for example...different Draw, or shadows etc etc
Pixie Rain: * at the mo, we have to reset all the time..I change 5 to 10 times a day
Pixie Rain: if I go to a club...I want Impostors ON.....but if I go to an art sim, I want it OFF
Mary Wickentower: very productive meeting
Pixie Rain: Bye all, thank you
Chantal Harvey: second meeting at 7 pm, and I will collect your ideas all week long.

MachinimaMondays about LAG - 29 Nov. 2010, with Miro Collas

MachinimaMondays on November 29 (2010) - sim full, eye-opening meeting !!!


Recently I invited Miro Collas to share his knowledge about lag - and the myths and facts around it.


Rather then listen to a presentation or speech about something that affects our machinima's so profoundly, Miro and I had decided to do a Q and A for everybody present.

I cleaned up the chat a bit, to keep it read-able, and here it goes:

Miro Collas: There are 2 blogs about lag
Miro Collas: one in particular is VERY well written and is in fact cited by LL in their wiki.

http://analutetia.com/2009/06/22/anatomy-of-lag/

http://gwynethllewelyn.net/2008/02/16/lag-myths-dispelled/

This transcript is sent to MachinimaMondays group in Second Life too, if you want to attend our weekly meetings, join the group - or contact Toxic Menges, Phaylen Fairchild or Chantal Harvey inworld.

MachinimaMondays meeting, November 29, 2010:

Chantal Harvey: what is lag?
Miro Collas: ooohhh.... you start with a huge question.
Penumbra Carter: slows down and makes the camera jerk
Miro Collas: lag is not one thing, but 3 things, that are partly connected
first is client side, then network lag, and lastly, server lag.
Easiest to explain maybe is the second, network lag. That is essentially a measure of how good/bad your network connection is.
If you have a slow or poor network connection, you will lag.
Client-side lag involves ... well, things being drawn (rendered) on your computer screen.

Kit Guardian: can location have something to with that on any given day? Or hou much is being used around you?
Miro Collas: location matters yes. For client side, if there is a lot around you, then there is a lot to render, so more work for your computer to do
Kit Guardian: No I mean in RL
Miro Collas: Ah... it might, perhaps. Not so much distance as quality of connection, and speed of connection

Chantal Harvey: The distance to the Linden Lab servers, does that matter at all?
Miro Collas: there's a way to check your connection: visit http://speedtest.net/ and measure your bandwidth. Ideally, check it against Dallas
Georgianna Blackburn: why Dallas?
Miro Collas: Because a good part of LL's servers are now in Dallas
Georgianna Blackburn: ah, why?
Miro Collas: why there? That I don't know for sure, but it appears to be home to large datacenters
Dacob Paine: It's a co-location for redundancy and it is probably cheaper for their server farms.
Miro Collas: I'm afraid I don't have specifics on what is where, re: servers. But it is a good place to check against - better than a near-by city anyway
Chantal Harvey: Q even if u are in europe, as i am?
Miro Collas: yes. SL has no servers outside the US
Anyway, once you have checked your bandwidth, then you can determine an ideal bandwidth to set in your viewer
Chantal Harvey: ah i always wondered what my ideal bandwidht setting is

Inquisitive Loon: Dallas is not an option for the speed test?
Miro Collas: there is a star there for dallas, tho it is a tad hard to locate.
NicoleX Moonwall: i use a hughes net satlite so it floats
Miro Collas: Chantal: ideal is about 80% of the value that speedtest gives you
Miro Collas: 80%
Emmo Wei: Q is that 80% of the up or down?
Miro Collas: download
Miro Collas: upload is almost always far less
Dacob Paine: Q why is that?
Miro Collas: because generally, we download MUCH more than we upload, and 'net companies know this and allocate the bandwidth accordingly

Chantal Harvey: the burning question for machinima: what can we do to improve our framerate....?
Miro Collas: ok frame rate... that depends on many factors and so isn't easy to answer.
Most importantly, it depends on your hardware.
If you have a quad core PC with a high end vid card, you will get MUCH better frames rates than with say a dual core and a mid-range vid card.
(all else being equal of course) - a quad core will give better results than a dual core. And a faster processor better than a slow one
why is quad-core preferable?
Miro Collas: because then the work can be shared among the cores - which are essentially processors
If you enable it, it splits rendering off into another thread

Kit Guardian: Does our choice of software to film also effect the lag factor?
Miro Collas: it can yes. That's an external program which has to run at the same time as the viewer; it will use processor power.

is SL a multi-threaded app?
Miro Collas: multi-threading is enabled certianly in sl 1.23, snowglobe viewers; I cannot speak for Viewer 2
Miro Collas: or rather, *can* be enabled
Chantal Harvey: oh pls explain?

Apollo Manga: How many cores can SL multithreading use?
Penumbra Carter: Q what is multi threading :)
Miro Collas: multi-threading means that a single program can run several tasks at the same time (kinda); it boosts performance

Kit Guardian: which viewer is the best then?
Miro Collas: I have heard that Kirsten's is geared to machinima. Some I know use it for that specifically, and then revert to... whatever else for normal use.
Chantal Harvey: The LL 2.3 has a preset in graphics for 1920x1080, KirstenLee has shadows... each viewer has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Kayden Oconnell: -- Yes, would like a guideline for a new system, if we're looking to replace what we have -- not top of the line, but affordable?
Miro Collas: as for an ideal system: the more money you can throw at one, the better. It is that simple and brutal
Dacob Paine: lol so true
Chantal Harvey: think of it like this: a hollywood studio will cost a million, a perfect pc for machinima will cost 10,000 dollars
Miro Collas: it you want priorities for a system, then in order: CPU, video card, RAM, hard drive

Chantal Harvey: what will setting your bandwidth-slider too high do? does it influence?
Miro Collas: Chantal, yes it will - set it too low and you' you're throttling data
basicaly, slowing yourself down
Chantal Harvey: and setting it too high?
Kit Guardian: Crash perhaps
Miro Collas: that seems to also have negative effects, tho I confess to not fully understanding that part of it
Empirically, it has been worked out that 80% f your true bandwith is ideal for SL

Dacob Paine: can you give us an idea of the minimum computer someone needs for machinima?
Miro Collas: I lack the experience in that I'm afraid, it isn't something I have done. But let me give you an example....
I have a 3.2GHz quad core PC, 8GB RAM, and a GT240 vid card with 1GB RAM.
With that, I can have all my settings at ultra and a draw distance of 256m and not have issues
(well not usually)

Chantal Harvey: i have invited Ricky Grove to come and talk about computers, for machinima
Chantal Harvey: stay tuned... for that one, as he has agreed to do that for MachinimaMondays.


Apollo Manga: with a 64-bit system, is there a maximum RAM that can effectively be utilized? uhm... 32GB perhaps... not sure now.
Dacob Paine: That depends on the flavor of windows Apollo, it's up to 192 gigs at the most.
Dacob Paine: Some flavors are limited to 16 though
Miro Collas: btw, I'm on linux myself
Apollo Manga: Q but is there a limit on what can effectively be used? I'm building a 12gb system now but wondering whether to expand to 24gb
Miro Collas: that depends on the viewer you're using. All windows viewers (that I know of) are compiled in 32-bits
Note: go to: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/ram-memory-upgrade,review-32053.html

Apollo Manga: Windows 7 Resource Monitor says I'm not using the 8gb I have now
Miro Collas: some of those include versions that can make use of extra RAM ... those are the LAA versions
Otherwise, a 32-bit app will use 2GB, no more
Apollo Manga: LAA?
Miro Collas: Large Address Aware

Chantal Harvey: i am on windows 7, 64 bits, do you know if sl will be compatible soon?
Miro Collas: Chantal: no clue on LL's plans for a 64-bit viewer

Kayden Oconnell: -- There seems to be disagreement about ARC -- Does that affect our computer? Or the sim where you're filming?
Miro Collas: Anyway, ARC... it stands for Avatar Rendering Cost. The "rendering" tells you it is about client-side effects, the number is a measure of hwo much work your computer has to do to draw an avatar
Miro Collas: ARC has NO effect on a region
Miro Collas: so.. if someone says, "you have high ARC and are lagging the SIM", they are misinformed
Chantal Harvey: wow listen to that, folks
Kayden Oconnell: Yep, the ARC police will tell you otherwise
Chantal Harvey: avatar rendering costs, are not causing lag
Graycon Sonata: omg
Miro Collas: similarly, if someone says that you're wearing too many prims and are lagging the sim, they are misinformed
Chantal Harvey: are u sure about that, Miro, and what arguments can we use
Miro Collas: I am quite sure
Miro Collas: however...
Miro Collas: if you are wearing too many scripts, then yes, you are lagging the sim
Miro Collas: people often wear a ton of scripts without realizing it - and those DO lag a region
Miles Eleventhauer: i've shot video moving next to a heavly scripted av and you can see the frame rate going down in the video
Kayden Oconnell: Q So, if you're at a region with terrible lag, and many avs -- the main lag is on YOUR computer? trying to rez everything?
Miro Collas: but here it is important to distinguish between client-side and server-side lag
Nave Fall: Q: How do we measure how many scripts we have on us?
Miro Collas: Kayden: it is both...
Ok, let me explain in brief what a SIM does... (and this will therefore be incomplete)...
Miro Collas: among other things, a SIM keeps track of where everyone is... as well as running scripts that are on the SIM, delivering textures to you, and so on.
These things are prioritized. Keeping track of avatars has highest priority
So when a SIM is full of people, the SIM is going to spend most if the time, tracking people
When it has done that, it will then deal with scripts and then it will deliver textures
Miro Collas: so... if you go to hair fair for example.... ;-) you'll be familiar with it being gray for a LONG time... because the SIM is too busy dealing with all the people
Chantal Harvey: Q is there a way to improve this.... at all
Miro Collas: but of course you can cut back some by removing as many worn scripts as possible before you go
If you are holding the event, then keep scripts to a minimum
Miro Collas: also, a neat trick: provide seating
Chantal Harvey: oh?
Miles Eleventhauer: people sitting relieves a laggy sim?
Kayden Oconnell: one script for all the seats?
Graycon Sonata: who knew
Miro Collas: backing up... if you're sitting, from the point of view of the server, you become linked to the object you're sitting on - therefore, the SIM no longer needs to track your movements
Kayden Oconnell: ohhh, ok
Miro Collas: you also become phantom.
Bryn Oh: thats interesting
Miro Collas: meaning you can go through walls
Miles Eleventhauer: do that would include dance pose balls at a club
Miro Collas: yes
Nave Fall sits right down.........

Chantal Harvey: how can you see these scripts?
Miro Collas: some viewers, like Phoenix, have a built-in way of counting scripts on avatars
Miro Collas: right-click your avatar, and select S.Count from the menu
Counting scripts. Please wait.
Counted scripts from 13 attachments on Chantal Harvey: 42
Miro Collas: that show how many scripts you're wearing - except for HUDs
Miro Collas: 42 is a very good script count - nice and low
Ideally, you want to keep your script count under 100

Kayden Oconnell: aos?
Miro Collas: Aos no.
Kayden Oconnell: thanks, Miro -- never had it explained like that before

Bryn Oh: so miro i have just begun to get jerky filming where i didnt before. If i wanted to get it smooth again for my spacenav what are some things to do... for example lowering screen resolution etc?
Miro Collas: let me address another myth.
Miro Collas: Bryn: first I'd shut down any other apps that you do not need, like browers, etc
Miro Collas: that way your computer has less to do
Chantal Harvey: yea i find skype and youtube lower my performance
Apollo Manga: Firefox with multple windows can really slow down performance too
Bryn Oh: ok
Bryn Oh: i get a spike every 5 seconds or so and not sure what it is
Miro Collas: then I think much will depend on where you are in SL. If a place is graphics-intense, your frame rate will be lower
Miro Collas: also, just the sky takes a lot of effort to be drawn
Bryn Oh: oh but i love the sky
Miro Collas: basically: adapt to the location and situation
Bryn Oh: sigh
Chantal Harvey: but switch off the clouds in (advanced) rendering helps
Bryn Oh: ok
Miro Collas: example: do you need water reflerctions? If not, turn them off
Bryn Oh: and minimal draw distance?

Kit Guardian: So sky boxes are not necessarily less laggy?
Miro Collas: No Kit not necessarily. Again, it depends on what you can see
Penumbra Carter: sky boxes, if open to the air will get sky flicker, I found
Miro Collas: the more you have on your screen, the more work yoru computer is doing... ergo, the more client lag
Miro Collas: and a specific case of course is particles
Penumbra Carter: especially if they are above 300 m
Miro Collas: particles are like ARC: they are totally client side, and do NOT lag a region

Chantal Harvey: what is post process quality, there is a slider for that?
Miro Collas: Chantal: I think that's "empty" - meaning there's a slider but no code behind it. ;-)

Miro Collas: what questions did I miss?
Kayden Oconnell: the lottery numbers for the next drawing?
Miro Collas: LOL!

Penumbra Carter: do you then lower your fraps to match the area?
Does changing the fraps to match the region help, sometimes it does, but then I was told not to match it to close to go up? does that make sense?
Miro Collas: you're presuming i know what frpas is. :-
Bryn Oh: how do you change fraps to do that pen?
Penumbra Carter: I change the fraps in my frap settings to match the fraps I see being shown on the sim Bryn let me tell you specifically, one sec
Bryn Oh: ok thanks.. i have not tried that
Chantal Harvey: yea bryn that is hugely important
Bryn Oh: oh good
Penumbra Carter: in the movie tab of fraps:)
Chantal Harvey: set it to reality (the actual framerate of your location), or fraps will double frames to match what you have told it to do...and thus create jerkly images.
If you set your fraps FPS at 30, while your actual framerate is only 15 when recording, makes fraps double all the images you shoot till it is 30fps….and that, is jerky film.
Penumbra Carter: but the sim can be jumpy, so do you go up from what you think is the highest fraps of the sim?
Chantal Harvey: I would suggest go as close as you can, and try to stay a bit under.

NicoleX Moonwall: how best to shoot in dark place with out a flash light?
Miro Collas: play with the sky settings to increase ambient light
Miro Collas: in there, go to Lighting and you'll see Ambient - you can raise the intensity to make the scene brighter
Miro Collas: assuming you're on a V1.x viewer, go to World -> Environment -> Sky settings.
Chantal Harvey: Q is there a setting that creates lag??? or less lag???
Miro Collas: you get a window where you can select preset skies
Chantal Harvey: are the presets less laggy?
Miro Collas: sky presets? not especially more or less... no. Ones with more clouds might be a tiny bit more laggy
Chantal Harvey: so resume... what is your ultimate tip to reduce lag....
Miro Collas: When it comes to lag, overall, it is important to understand the difference between the various forms. From there, you can understand how to deal with them.
Miro Collas: If you're at a public place, busy, then reduce draw distance, or de-render stuff and people. ;-)

NicoleX Moonwall: is it true the higher you go up the less lag?
Miro Collas: Nicole: not that I know of - except that there tends to be less stuff high up, so less to draw

Chantal Harvey: lots of movement will cause lag too? animations?
Miro Collas: scripts run on the server - which affects the entire region, regardless of height
Penumbra Carter: scripts = animation?
Miro Collas: movement will cause server lag *if* the avatars are not sitting
Miro Collas: animations, interesting, are played client side

Penumbra Carter: we will have alot of seated machinimas:)

Chantal Harvey: kk - so, scripts are the worst regarding lag monsters?
Miro Collas: naturally if you need movement then you must have it. You can try to compensate elsewhere, like by cutting back on scripts

Kit Guardian: Does it matter what the Machinima person is wearing? or just the actors?
Miro Collas: Kit: script-wise it matters yes
Kit Guardian: like shouldmwe not wear any AOS or Huds when filming?
Chantal Harvey: avatar rendering doesnt matter, but scripts running does, i think
Miro Collas: AOs are not so bad actually. The worst offenders are resize scripts in hair and Shoes
Penumbra Carter: scripts = animation?
Miro Collas: movement will cause server lag *if* the avatars are not sitting
Animations, interesting, are played client side

Kit Guardian: Does it matter what the Michinima person is wearing? or just the actors?
Miro Collas: Kit: script-wise it matters yes
Kit Guardian: like shouldmwe not wear any AOS or Huds when filming?
Chantal Harvey: avatar rendering doesnt matter, but scripts running does, i think
Miro Collas: AOs are not so bad actually. The worst offenders are resize scripts in hair and Shoes
Chantal Harvey: Miro, this is an eye opener, thank you very much.



Picture made by Kit Guardian