Saturday, October 31, 2015

.tsg. Mesh Head Updates

For the past week I've been silently working on this major update for ALL .tsg. Mesh Heads.
Soon, Linden Labs will implement an update that basically makes it so that your graphics card determines your rendering complexity. You can raise or lower this depending on your own preferences. Anyone over your set render complexity amount will automatically rez in as a purple blob.   No one wants to be that blob, amirite?
Whew that felt like a mouthful...
Hope that made sense. More info about avatar render costs here, here and here!
To see your own avatars render cost you need to have your "advanced" tab open
Alt+Ctrl+D to do this!
Once it's open do Advanced>Performance Tools>Show Render Weights for Avatars. A red number will float above all avatars.
I've heard anything around 50-80k is an acceptable norm for a fully dressed avie... I personally never lagged or had any issues with my heads before but I now know that I have to think about the majority of SL and my customers. I want everyone to have a pleasant experience in SL.
 I've always known my heads have been way up there in render cost, but for a long time I didn't know I could do anything about it! Essentially, I just needed to be smarter about how I uploaded the meshes. (We live & learn, don't hate me! lol) and this upcoming SL update gave me the final push to buckle down and do something about my heads!  I'd hate to have anyone regret their purchases!!
So, if you're someone who used to lag wearing tsg heads or your significant other lagged you due to their .tsg. head, or whatever the case may be, now is the time to head to the mainstore and grab an updated copy of your head from the redelivery terminal.All our demos and dev kit makeup layers have been update to reflect the changes too!
Render Weight Before & After (heads only)
please note: some heads are higher than others due to having a more expressions!
Mizu
Before = 489,610
After = 3,740
Tsu
Before = 414,588
After = 6,126
Dakota
Before = 305,682
After = 8,042
Iris
Before = 78,386
After = 2,768
Mimi
Before = 36,752
After = 5,702
Yui
Before = 35,612
After = 5,720
Aya
Before = 35,516
After = 5,876
So since I was going back to fix things I decided it was a great chance to make some cosmetic updates as well.
ALL mesh heads now have a more realistic/shiny/cute tongue texture. (Iris already had this!)
Also, on the 3 oldest heads (Tsu, Mizu & Dakota), I went back and gave them a cleaner and more attractive eyebrow shape!
I also took the chance to remove the lashes..for a plethora of reasons. They were causing a lot of alpha glitching issues and loads of people complained. A lot of people liked that Aya didn't come with lashes to begin with, so I just implemented that change across the board. I do have plans for add-on lashes that will automatically change with the expressions though. So stay tuned for that!
If you read all of this, THANK YOU & go grab your update @ the mainstore!!

Syling Credits
Head.tsg. Dakota Mesh Head E Tone
Eyes: .tsg. Dark Skies Eyes - Light Brown (V.I.P Group Gift)
Hair & Hatmimpi* knit beanie / white &  mimpi* hair-12
SweaterALTAIR* aya sweater .banana. S @ Gacha Garden