Texture and File Sizes in URU

[Calena]

Holy Moby Dick, Cap'n AHub -that looks like a whale of a huge drive - for only 250MB! It's scary big!

Hub, if you owned that HD at the printed manufacture date of 1993, you would have been one of the elite of the elites! 256Mb in '93 was almost incomprehensible to the general population. If memory serves me correctly, I had just taken possession of my new "big" computer that had 4Mb of RAM and a 40Mb HD. We're in a different world today.

Calena, thank you for the info on compression...do you have any estimates on the loss of texture quality with compression, or the gain when we don't?

Sorry, all I have right now is the anecdotal evidence of my own eyes. I can see the difference. One thing I've learned though is that the effect of compression can differ from image to image. The more colors and subtlety in the original image, the more likely compression will have an increasingly negative effect on what Plasma ultimately renders.

If I had a bit more time, I'd set up some side-by-side panels, texture them with identical resolution charts, put a "normal" setting on one and "do not compress" on the other. I wonder what they'd look like after Plasma export.

I'd test what this looks like using a 1024X file, a 512X file, and a 256X file applied to the same size panels. I bet compression would start to become apparent at some point...but knowing where could help builders know when to economize and when to splurge on file space.

I agree that more concrete facts would be helpful when decision making time comes in age-building.

I'd like to see a chart that clearly illustrates what does/does not contribute to lag and the percentage of each - something along the lines of animations contribute 50%, collision contributes 20%, real time lighting adds 10% (numbers completely made up here) and so forth. For online installations, bandwidth is also a big contributing factor.

All I've ever been able to find is admonitions to be careful! Okay, but could you be more specific ? Be careful where, how, why, what and when? And could you please put that information in a simple to understand chart and post it somewhere obvious?

If I ever get a good understanding of all of this, I'm going to take the time to make and post that chart .