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Avatar complexity and "jellydolls" support 
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
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In today's releases (v1.26.18.7 and v1.26.19.9), the Cool VL Viewer saw the (for now partial) implementation of the new avatar complexity limits and "jellydolls" auto-muting feature.

By default, the auto-muting is off for already installed viewers and dependent on the video card performances (it is part of the "Recommended" settings) for new installations. It can be changed via new settings in the Preferences floater, Graphics tab, new "Avatars Rendering" sub-tab. This new sub-tab now regroups the special features governing how avatars are rendered, with the settings for non-impostor avatars number limit and avatar Physics(*) (AKA jiggling boobs and buttocks :roll: ) also moved to it.

Unlike what happens in LL's viewer, you can use the avatar complexity and the attachments surface area limits independently from each other (in LL's implementation, the surface area limit is ignored unless the complexity limit is itself in use).

Note that for the visual auto-muting to work, you need to have the non-impostors limit active (when impostors are off, no visual muting can happen, but for RestrainedLove visual mutes, because the latter temporarily forces impostors on whenever it needs them).

New options have also been implemented for avatar "impostoring"/visual muting, via the tool pie menu you get when right-clicking on an avatar (or its name tag); the "Mutes>" sub-pie now contains three more entries: "Auto show" is the normal/default setting. "Always show" allows to force the rendering and prevents any "impostoring" of that avatar, regardless of any limit/distance from camera/etc. "Never show" forces the visual muting (the avatar will then be rendered as a light grey silhouette to distinguish it easily from other types of visual mutes). These settings are only active for the session (and reset during the session when the avatar object is removed from memory, e.g. when they log off or when a TP to a far sim happens). Of course, these rendering options are overridden (and unavailable) for fully muted avatars or RestrainedLove visually-muted avatars.

The "Avatar Rendering Cost" (in "Advanced" -> "Rendering" -> "Info Displays") has been renamed "Avatar Complexity", a new "Show Avatars Render Info" entry (showing the list of all rezzed avatars around with their complexity and surface area info) was added in "Advanced" -> "HUD Info", and a new "Report complexity changes" entry (causing any change to your own avatar's complexity to be reported as a notification tip) was added to "Advanced" -> "Character".

The "partial implementation" deals with the fact I for now did not backport the part of the code which reports to the sim servers what avatars your viewer got "jellydollified" and which asks how many avatars around you got your own avatar "jellydollified". I'm still thinking on how to implement this smartly regarding the code quality (LL's code is poorly written and totally inefficient) and the user interface (i.e. how to present this info the best, most useful and not annoying way to the user, LL's implementation not matching my standards).

(*) a Physics wearable should count for a large impact in the rendering complexity, but in LL's complexity calculation it doesn't count any more than a legacy shirt wearable !


2016-05-28 10:04:33
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Joined: 2012-01-19 03:18:40
Posts: 196
Location: Sydney, Australia (UTC +10)
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Having tried out the Avatar Complexity display, can I suggest that the word "complexity" be removed from the hover-text over each avatar? I think, if one has turned on Avatar Complexity, it is pretty obvious what the number indicates, and in a crowded place (which is where one would probably be most likely to use the display) the word "complexity" over every avatar takes up quite a lot of screen space.

Also, if I turn on both Avatar Complexity and Surface Area display in the Advanced/Rendering/Info Display, the Complexity number hides the Surface Area number. This is on a Mac, by the way.

I share Henri's opinion of "jiggle physics"...


2016-05-30 03:37:37
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
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linyifei wrote:
Having tried out the Avatar Complexity display, can I suggest that the word "complexity" be removed from the hover-text over each avatar? I think, if one has turned on Avatar Complexity, it is pretty obvious what the number indicates, and in a crowded place (which is where one would probably be most likely to use the display) the word "complexity" over every avatar takes up quite a lot of screen space.
Agreed. This will be done for next releases.

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Also, if I turn on both Avatar Complexity and Surface Area display in the Advanced/Rendering/Info Display, the Complexity number hides the Surface Area number.
Yes, this is the expected behaviour... Hover-text debug info displays are not cumulative, in the v1 viewers and I don't plan to change that (such displays slow down the frame rate anyway, so better not accumulating them and inciting the user to turn on only one at a time).

I'm also debating whether to reintroduce the attachments geometry bytes limit, because the surface area limit is not really something discriminative enough (its variation between truly complex avatars and others is not that large), and the geometry bytes (sometimes counted in dozens of megabytes) *does* impact performances and the viewer memory usage (the latter being an issue for 32 bits builds only)...


2016-05-30 08:50:35
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Joined: 2009-03-17 18:42:51
Posts: 5523
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In today's releases (v1.26.18.8 and v1.26.19.10), I implemented (from scratch, so to keep the code efficient, unlike LL's code) the "AvatarRenderInfo" statistics reporting/fetching.

I also opted for a discreet reporting of the number of residents not fully rezzing your avatar; it appears when necessary only (i.e. only when your avatar is being rendered as a "jellydoll" by some residents) in the status bar (where the red shirt "rebaking" icon also appears) as an orange shirt; the number of residents not fully rendering your avatar is also displayed next to that icon.
Clicking on the icon provides you with full statistics in a notification: number of "reporters" (i.e. number of residents actually using a compatible viewer reporting your avatar as rendered or not), number of residents rezzing your avatar as a jellydoll, your avatar complexity, attachments memory usage and equivalent surface area.

I also re-implemented the attachments memory usage limit in excess of the avatar complexity and attachments surface area limits for the "jellydollification" criteria. The corresponding setting is in the "Preferences" floater, "Graphics" tab, "Avatars rendering" sub-tab.

Finally, I updated the "Info Displays" features ("Advanced" -> "Rendering" -> "Info Displays") for the avatar complexity (now shows the complexity and visiblity rank) and attachments info (now shows the attachments memory and area).


2016-06-04 10:30:58
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