Survey of 16 Popular Mesh Bodies for Second Life: Nearly All Are Poorly Optimized -- Even the Bakes on Mesh Models

Pictured: Total graphics detail of a leading SL mesh body brand models. Note: Well under 50,000 triangles total (including hands and feet) is optimal.

SL YouTuber Cassie Middles just did some amazing work analyzing 16 of the leading Second Life mesh bodies, and documented their graphics detail in this huge Google Spreadsheet.

The results, as you might have expected, are appallingly bad in terms of being extremely resource heavy and poorly optimized -- with some exceptions.

Take a look and keep in mind the following metrics for a well-optimized mesh body:

• 20,000-30,000 triangles for a body is good
• 2,000-5,000 for hands and feet is good

These figures come from Black Dragon viewer developer NiranV, a passionate advocate of a better optimized Second Life. And as you'll see, many of these bodies are nowhere near that number, but instead, well into the mid-six figures of triangles. These bodies are so poorly optimized that (as a Linden Lab engineer once put it), "[Wearing them] is effectively like launching a DDOS attack on other players."

By NiranV's lights, only 3 bodies on this list of 16 qualify as well-optimized:

• Slink HG Redux
• Physique Redux
• Signature Bakes on Mesh.

That's it. However, note that I say bodies. When you add the hands and feet, the optimization starts to slip -- heavily.

"The other things are completely different stories," as he puts it in his typical diplomatic fashion (which I am slightly editing to be even more diplomatic), "they are all over the fucking place. The hands for Physique redux are okay, the feet are [not]. They are all high [triangle counts], double as much as necessary... zero consistency. Optimization is all over the fucking place on these, and you would have to mix and match these (if even possible) to get the best result."

So there's that -- then again, maybe mixing and matching to be better optimized should become the new meta game for Second Life.

More on this soon, including some videos Cassie made for this project; in the meantime, do subscribe to her on YouTube.

Comments

[Nobody]

Gotta wonder why Nirranv complains all the time when the rest of sl is happy with how things are, if he's so fucking unhappy why not make a body to compete and see how well it sells? The whole optimization thing is sl is a minority who are mostly furries. SL isn't a AAA game, it was never meant to be, if that's what the moaners want then fuck off and go play on steam.

[TDGunner]

For the last time, WE DO NOT CARE IF THE BODY IS OPTIMIZED! We just care that it looks good.

[anon]

I dont know what their wearing, but ive been going between redux and classic for weeks now with same outfits. its just a difference of complexity 10,000. so at 160,000 versus 170,000 not really a big deal for lost of features that worked before.

[Chris]

The lag is why I don't play SL that much. People don't give a shit about performance, it's kinda selfish.

[Ai Austin]

It could be useful to include entries for the open source Ruth 2.0 RC#3 (with the open source male Roth 2.0) in the table. It is designed as a freely available specifically low poly count body.

Its available in both Second Life and Opensim... e.g. at
SL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Blumfield/107/176/28
OSGrid: hop://login.osgrid.org/RuthAndRoth/142/104/22

More information and links at
https://github.com/RuthAndRoth/Ruth
http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2018/01/21/ruth-2-0/

[sirhc desantis]

Furry thumb up for ser Ai Austin there. Its not a bad base and we have made a few for fun (since G+ went away I sort of lost track). Personal note I have been rigging for one not on the list (Altamura) but right now - seriously going to Dinkie =^^= So much easier

[Florian]

I wish aesthetic bodies were included in this data. I know every body can't be included, but aesthetic is not a minor body for men. Men tend to be an afterthought in sl, but we exist, and many use aesthetic for day to day, and many more have aesthetic for photos or specific occasions.

As I understand it, aesthetic has always come in with relatively good numbers, and I would love to know if that is really true, and how they measure up.

That said, I really appreciate the work put in on this report - well done. It's a lot, and I thank you for it.

[Lina Pussycat]

The bakes on mesh stuff on a lot is just a translator for it on their normal bodies atm that works like an applier for the baked stuff. Frankly the slink ones looked blocky for some stuff and of that's optimized ya that'd be a hard no from a lot of people

[Amanda Dallin]

I've been playing with a version of Ruth 2.0 that was just released in a Baked on Mesh version. I'm trying it as a low resources body for sailing. It's working pretty good except for the neck seam. As long as I have an alpha layer for the clothes, Maitreya clothes have even worked. It'll work for what I want it for but unless that seam can be removed it can't replace Maitreya for me.

[Tonia Thraw]

I don't think anyone is asking anyone to stop using these bodies but for the developers to take a moment to optimize the bodies. There's A LOT OF ROOM there for optimizing without losing a speck of detail or glamor. It is somewhat of a beginner mistake to not optimize the meshes, and the developers should be on top of that by now, is all.

Over-optimising is a thing, too, that is what happens when you start losing detail in the object. Nobody is calling for over-optimization.

I'll still use my Maitreya, no doubt, but I would wish for an update. AT LEAST for visiting crowded sims, what magic would it do if the bodies there would be optimized...

[sephsol]

They're not going to optimize for 60 FPS at the expense of optimizing for alpha cuts, skin weights for clothes, how everything bends in different animations, how everything area of the body looks 0 to 100 on dozens of different appearance sliders, and whatever else they DO optimize for.

The meshes are optimized, just not for FPS. FPS doesn't matter as much as these other things do.

It'll take Linden Lab building a suite of features for developers much more involved than hacking the old baking system into Bakes on Mesh. This sorta tackled onion-skinning but there's still a bunch of other reasons mesh creators use a lot of vertices.

[Cindy Brady]

He always comes a with his attitude like he has a dog bone wedged up in his arse

[Phillip Beeswing]

Maybe this guy would be happier moving to IMVU or something. Second Life's mesh bodies are not made by game designers. They are made by people who have had to learn it mostly on there own. It's "Player Created Content" and that is never "optimised" in any game. Don't like it go play Doom or something. Constant complaints like this make you look pretty, and ignorant. You keep comparing SL to AAA games. Might as well compair Pong to Mortal Kombat.

[Alex]

I want to look good, but I always observe the complexity, when I try a demo and see how much my complexity goes up and the product is not really good... i dont buy it, that's why there are some stores that I don't buy many things when the creator makes products with high complicity. There are also some shops that make jewelry accessories with a very high complexity, but their products are very popular and their ears are absolutely exquisite. I don't have a Gamer computer (I5, 8GB ram, 2GB video and 250GB SSD) what I do to improve my performance on SL? I have deactivated the advanced lights (I am always in daylight (Nam's optimal skin and prim)), I have reduced the flexiprims to a minimum, the ground 2000, distance view at 150, avatar 500, without water reflections and obviously without shadows, everything else is active and some to the top. On occasions I spend long hours in SL, sailing on blake, flying my planes, riding my motorcycles... changing my clothes ... and I don't have a killer lag. I have created a configuration of graphics for each occasion, to fly, sailing or driving motorcycles and cars I do not need to see bouncing boobs, nor a high complexity for the other avatars around me (who in a right mind will sail to blake with a completeness exceeding 200,000?, with my gianni body, hair, accessories and a short from a excellent store, my complicity does not exceed 65,000, so I reduce the complexity and deactivate the physics, If I go to a club to dance with my girl, if i a go to a event, if I am with my friends I manage the graphic options according to the activity and the type or place (Default, Fly, Sail, Race, Events, Club/Party, Sex, photography)... if you do not have a gamer PC, you must use your creativity to enjoy SL, point your finger and say that SL is lag blaming everyone.... look... you have options to deactivate thousands of things and solve the lag in some way

[Amanda Dallin]

Alex is right. There are a lot of things individuals can do to reduce their own lag and other issues in SL. Graphic presets are wonderful. I have them for most any activity I do in SL. I'm also glad people like Niran and Penny point out problems in SL. I don't think anyone should be forced to use a particular body or scaling but the information they provide enable me to make educated decision about my SL.

[Pulsar]

Good job! My only perplexity is with the reported values for SLink Redux feet:
43,000 vertices and 65,320 triangles (still an impressive improvement compared to the 128,790 and 138,716 respectively reported for the classic version).
Are those the combo feet? Which would be 5 pairs of feet joined together.
SLink also sells individual body parts. You can just wear the flat-only version, for example, and I can see that the numbers in that case are way lower, although still higher than 2,000-5,000.

[Skua]

The third party viewer directory says that black dragon uses .. well let me screen sht it http://prntscr.com/pkq6aj

Uses non-standard and misleading values for avatar complexity

[Ai Austin]

Stats for Ruth 2.0 RC#3 and Roth 2.9 RC#1 Bakes on Mesh versions now on the web page near the bottom at

http://blog.inf.ed.ac.uk/atate/2018/01/21/ruth-2-0/

Bottom line...

Ruth 2.0 complexity approx. 8,000 for mesh body, hands, (flat) feet, fingernails, toenails, eyes and a very simple included head. This includes 2,000 for basic 4 body parts (shape, skin, base hair and eyes).

Roth 2.0 complexity approx. 17,000 for mesh body, hands, (flat) feet, fingernails, toenails, eyes and a very simple included head. This includies 2,000 for basic 4 body parts (shape, skin, base hair and eyes). For some reason Roth hands are considerably more complex than Ruth’s. That needs investigating.

[diddle]

thanks so much for these stats. some may feel the look and feel is all the info they need, but nobody caan make an informed choice without context and experience. the slink redux is the biggest temptation yet for me to join the mesh side, though still hesitant to get the whole bundle just for the asymmetry, since that seems to add back all the complexity the bom just saved! oh and if anyone just wants to try a low lag bom avatar, ruth2.0 is a brilliant start and free, though it currently has an annoying shelf-butt that no slider can fix. nobody has to consider all the options, but then again nobody has to turn up their jellydoll limit for others either!

[Wagner James Au]

> thanks so much for these stats

All credit goes to Cassie who put incredible amount of work into this spreadsheet -- please follow her on YouTube, she's great!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNWTrMFcdcS4_Uj3haBYj2Q

[Cyberserenity]

Mesh body's look nice but they are a problem. Linden should upgrade the default body. Both for optimization and creators can make new stuff for it.

[sally waldon]

is there a list of the different mesh bodies available on second life? a simple list??