Today's helpful tip is from our friend Usher Piers. I know I have a photo of him. One moment...
(I think that's Usher. I suck at labeling photos.)
Okay, his tip: when you can, please arrive as early as possible to shows.
Yes, arriving early allows you to load up textures and get a good seat and maybe dance along with the people in the Winds of the Sahara pit, but there's more to it than that.
(But some days, I just keep the camera on Eva for the whole show. No, not creepy at all.)
If you arrive late, each person has to load your avatar and appearance and textures and telemetry, which can overload a person on a slow or limited connection, or on a slow computer. This sometimes disrupts their connection to the music stream, disrupts their ability to load textures and other resources for the act, and causes other issues.
It's like being out on the water in a little boat, and a bunch of ships pass by quickly, and you swamp out from their combined wake. It takes a while to recover from that.
If you arrive at a reasonably early, it gives them time to load all of that... or derender you after you drop into the lobby.
Happy little ships out at sea. Yay.
Yes, I know, sometimes the calendar is packed tighter than a can of sardines in a hydraulic press (MY GOD THIS WEEKEND AUUUUUGH!), but when you can, please arrive early.
And, I suppose, cutting down on your scripts and textures and rendering cost before you teleport in is also a good thing. I mean, who doesn't already know about the "Please remove any unnecessary scripted items, facelights, attachments, or HUDs" speech by now, right? It's like the seatbelt speech before an airplane flight. We all could recite it by heart, but... do we really take it to heart?
Especially those of you who are performers out there in the audience. You know the mushy hell that is lag and slow rezzing and slow-loading sets and messed-up movers. You hate it. Don't you think your fellow performer up there on stage hates it too?
You love to perform and perform well. They love to perform and perform well. C'mon, people. You, them, and performance. Share the love, make it a threesome, and drop the load. (Feel free to shout PHRASING! in the comments.)
I have an outfit pre-prepared for going to dance things. It's not completely stripped-down, but it's a balance between looking good and "EVERYBODY LOOK AT ME, NOT THE STAGE!" diva-mode.
EXCEPTION: If I am on stage, it's okay for everybody to look at me. You can aim the rotten tomatoes better that way.
(Hit me with your best shot. Fire Away.)
If you have tips on how best to enjoy a dance performance or want to share some thoughts you want amplified out to the dance world, hey, just drop me a line. My display name is "R." and my username is "crap.mariner" - I probably have photos of you. No, you can't have the negatives.