One of the challenges of creating the IML Island has not only been designing a space that is both functional and aesthetically pleasing, but keeping the range of hardware resources people have in mind. Not everyone has high bandwidth and powerful graphics cards that can make the common lag problems a little less frequent. On many educators lists a large topic is how to bring Second Life Education to K-12 Programs, many of them not as well funded and sometimes relying on donated equipment. This makes accessing some of Second Life's areas IMPOSSIBLE as heavy amounts of scripts, animations, particles, flexiobjects, etc. choke already strained resources. Students at the IML are taught how to optimize their project assets to make 2D projects smoother, but 3D projects are new to almost everyone and the same principals need to be applied. This optimization needs to not only be applied to objects and environments, but to YOURSELF... something not applicable in 2D spaces. Avatars have costs unfortunately and sometimes your special outfits, bling, and gadgets can cause others around you to get bogged down. Torey Linden and Linden Labs has posted some blogs and videos explaining AVATAR RENDERING COSTS. Check it out and lets do our part in making this transition from 2D to 3D spaces a smooth and pleasant one. bzzzzzrp!!!
Avatar sets from the Library Linden Labs Provides all of these Avatars are <1000. ARC(avatar rendering cost) >1000 is considered expensive.....so what does mine cost.... EEEEEEEKKKK!!!!! Mine fluctuated between 4900 - 5900!! Prim hair is a common expense as most people find the built in hair options less than satisfying. Flexi clothes (Gosurori fashion doesn't come cheap in SL or RL apparently) and my grappling hook add a lot of expenses too. However, this doesn't mean you shouldn't ever deck out your avatar. I spend a lot of my time in SL alone building, scripting, and exploring so without other avatars around the expensive costs of mine doesn't hinder performance.
Most of our offline and online audio experiences are the same. Whether it be listening to music while at an event, working with it playing in the background, music videos and films, etc, the sound is always whats being created by the media source and projected at you. However, on Ramonia - Garden of Immersive Sound & Vision Sculpture Art you experience something different where space, sound, and image are intertwined by the gorgeous installations created by Adam Ramonia. The Island reminds me of the first time I played Myst and started to explore the sparse alien landscape at once beautiful but spooky. The sculptures move around you and the sound changes as you pass through them... your speed, location, and camera all warp the sounds around you. Now if we could only connect this to 5.1 and 10.1 systems.....
Here are my first experiences playing in it. I uploaded to YouTube and Veoh. Veoh being full quality, but YouTube is more accessible to people with mobile devices. bzzzzzzrp
