Lag is just part of the Second Life experience and it always will be for folks who don't have the latest and greatest in computers. Complaining about it is like swimming in the ocean and complaining about getting wet. But still, it can be incredibly frustrating when you get locked in place and textures aren't rezzing. Sometimes even the most patient of us give up on going to notoriously laggy areas or events.
There is much debate on what really causes lag and it's true that it can be caused as much, if not more, by the user-side computer as the SL server side. Some blame scripts, some blame megaprims (at least the old ones), some blame gluttonous prim usage, and some blame the LL entity as a whole. It's hard for me personally to deny that at least scripts and an abundance of prims appear to play a big part in lag.
Now, I am a prolific shopper, as many of us are. I buy something almost every day: scripts, textures, sculpts, clothing, hair, and furniture are among my most often purchased (I also go on a skin demo binge every few months but never can find anything I like better than what I have). The bane - bane I tell you! - of my shopping existence is lag. I am usually careful enough to wear one of my many outfits with a low ARC before I go shopping, both out of consideration of others and in hopes that I may decrease my lag. But always - always! - some bastard shows up in a crowded store with a 9,000 ARC. And the majority aren't much better sporting 4,000+ ARCs. I think to myself, "surely they know that THAT hair and that necklace and that dress are primmy and/or chocked full o' scripts." (Quite frankly, I am baffled how anyone can even wear enough to get up to a 9,000+ ARC.)
But what if they don't know? Or what if they think higher prim count and scripts=better quality and are just all lag be damned? And the truth is that it's not really their fault, any of them.
I admit that I will sometimes go for a primmy/scripty (P/S) rezzable item over a modest one because it just looks better. I go for realism with my virtual experience and that sometimes requires P/S stuff. But when it comes to what I put on my body, ARC plays a big role in where I spend my money.
I'm too long-winded to explain ARC so I will just direct you to this link so you can read about it. I'll still be here when you get back.
Got an idea now? Ok.
I'm all about minimizing ARC with my clothing. In fact, some of my outfits (minus the hair) are composed of nothing but layers, not a single prim attached. You will find that there are tons of cute shirts, jeans, shorts, and dresses that are wonderfully textured for realism. But how can you really be sure? It's not always obvious because the pictures of some clothing can be deceptive in that it can be hard to tell if there's a sculpt or flexi prim(s) attached. And if you look for the item on Marketplace, under prim count it says "0." What gives?
Whether you are rezzing something on the ground or wearing it, you are still introducing data onto the grid to be processed and that causes lag. For scripts, you can sometimes tell if something is scripted from the description, like if you are told you can resize or change the color of something. Fortunately, many of these items are copiable and contain kill features in the scripts so that you can for instance keep the original hair intact, but modify a copy to your liking and then kill the script to decrease lag when you wear it.
I would like to see creators beginning to list the prim counts for attachables like hair, clothing, shoes, etc. It makes no sense to me that it's not already. And I'd also like script information in the description. I try demos as often as I can before purchase, but often times the scripting is disabled in the demo so you can't get a real idea of what you're in for with the real thing.
I fantasize about a virtual world where people can look great without compromising the quality of the experience via lag. And I think it's possible - I've seen the amazing works of very P/S conscious creators.
To put a point on it, from time to time I will post pictures of outfits that I own with an ARC under 2,000 and even under 1,000 in most cases, along with the store names of where I got them. I promise that you don't have to compromise cute for quality. There is some really awesome stuff out there that will be kind to you and others.
Stay tuned!
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