Friday, October 7, 2016

Ankle Locks: Achilles Heel? - The Rest of the Story...


The following article was written by and  submitted to me by Usher Piers. I think it speaks for itself. I have no concrete opinion at this moment by my eyes are wide open and I am leaning towards 'the facts' as presented since I currently have no reason to doubt until I do my own due diligence... which is unlikely to ever happen.

 So going forward I expect that I will trust that what he says has worthy merit going forward.

**************************************

ANKLE LOCK BLUES
=================================================================================

Ankle Locks keep your ankles in a certain position. There seem to be two types of ankle locks

=============
B-ware ankle locks
=============
B-ware ankle locks use a script that causes 27 or more script events per second. (* see references)

That makes 1620 script events per minute. This makes 97.200 script events per hour on a single avatar.

[ Let's say at an event six avatars are using these ankle locks, they would cause 582.200 script events per hour.

Lets say there are 50 avatars in the audience. This means roughly 30 million script events p.h. sent over the web ]

Beware ankle locks are HIGH LAG and a huge waist of individual bandwidth and general sim resources.

=============
A-ware ankle locks
=============
These use a higher priority ankle pose (pr. 5 or pr. 6), started just once or twice per session, causing next to zero 
script events per second.

[ So let's look at the A-ware ankle lock that causes 0 script events per second
0 events x 60 sec x 60 min x 6 ankle-lock-users x 50 avatars in sim = 0  = ZERO LAG ]

Should not the choice be clear?


=================================================================================
HOW TO CHECK

To see what your ankle lock does in Firestorm Viewer go to Developer menu -> Avatar -> Animation Info
* to show Developer menu press ctrl+alt+q

In Singularity: Advanced menu (ctrl+alt+d) -> Character -> Animation Info

Example of what you would see: 



If you see a column of text over your head indicating a huge stack of active priority-4 poses playing simultaneously, you know your ankle lock is B-ware.

If you see a steady text displaying just a single or even a double priority 5 or priority 6 ankle animation your lock is A-ware and you're good to go.

If not convinced you could go to an empty homestead and check in stats / sim statistics - Script Events per Second  (eps) before and after attaching your ankle lock. Doing this you'll find out that B-ware ankle locks use 27 (some up to 45) eps.


Or for a quick comparison you could simply right-click your attached ankle lock and select: Script Info from the menu to compare this value with values of other ankle locks you might own.

Examples:
A-ware:
Alu - Ankle Lock (wear me)': [1/1] running scripts, 16 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.000572 ms of CPU time  consumed   ~ this HUD can be rotated to make it smaller or moved to a hud location just off your screen.

B-ware:
StrawberrySingh.com Broken Ankle Fix - Ankle Lock v1.0': [1/1] running scripts, 64 KB allowed memory size  limit, 0.034079 ms of CPU time consumed. ~ this ankle lock is to be avoided when you go to crowded regions.

Vestige Fix AnkleLock  64 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.045808 ms of CPU time consumed. (this one is does not show as an obvious repeater in Animation Info) 

=================================================================================

B-ware - HIGH LAG - ANKLE LOCKS are: 
Strawberry Singh v1 - 64 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.034079 ms of CPU time consumed

Strawberry Singh v2 - 64 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.004522 ms of CPU time consumed

unbra - 16 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.020546 ms of CPU time consumed. (36 times as much as aLu

sam's - an obvious animation repeater

Vestige Fix AnkleLock  64 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.045808 ms of CPU time consumed.

A-ware - LOW LAG - ANKLE LOCKS are:
alu - ankle lock Hud - 16 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.000572 ms of CPU time consumed  == TOP FAV == 

spot on - 64 KB allowed memory size limit, 0.002209 ms of CPU time consumed

=================================================================================

* Reference: On the SL-wiki we can find an example of a 'B-ware' script starting the animation every 0.05 secs.

=================================================================================

Hint: take the high lag ankle locks out of your outfits and replace them by links to low lag ankle locks.

- revision 2016-10-07 - Usher Piers