Oh, seriously. Now that we’re getting script limitations (understandably) I think the next step for LL is to attempt the ever-horrific fashionista’s nightmare… inventory limiting.
Posted by Babbage Linden this afternoon:
Second Life is a rich and engaging interactive world due to scripts. Every time you open a door, fly a plane, sail a boat, use a vending machine or dance in a night club a Resident authored script is interpreting your interactions to make things happen.
Unfortunately the current scripting system does not include any mechanism to limit the number of scripts that can be added to the world or attachments on avatars. This allows both malicious Residents to cripple simulators by running huge numbers of scripts and well meaning Residents to accidentally run more scripts than a simulator can cope with.
When too many scripts are running in a region the server simulating that region runs out of memory, dramatically increasing the lag experienced in all regions running on the same server. This is especially noticeable in homestead regions as more homesteads run on a single server. In addition, when an avatar with many scripted attachments enters a region the simulator has a lot of work to do setting up the scripts to run in the new process, causing a lag spike that can be noticed by all Residents using that region.
At Linden Lab we are working with Mono developers to reduce the lag spikes experienced when scripts enter a region, adding scripting functions that allow more efficient scripts to be authored and building a system for limiting the resources used by scripts on a per m^2 and per avatar basis.
We’re also working very hard to analyse the current memory usage by scripts across the grid to determine the best values for script limits that minimise the lag caused by simulators running out of memory while affecting as few Residents as possible.
We’re planning to make script memory usage along with our proposed script limits visible to all Residents for an extended period before enforcing any limits. This will give us time to gather feedback on the proposed limits and identify any situations where we’re going to be imposing unreasonable restrictions and give will give you time to compare your usage against the proposed limits, give us feedback and have plenty of time to prepare.
I’m looking forward to working with you all towards a lag free and more efficient Second Life in 2010.
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Inventory limiting? Hush your mouth!
Of course that is coming next.
Thats going to be bad bad bad bad bad news for the economy. People will be forced to get alts and creators will be forced to make things transferable. Many will limit what they buy. And creators will limit what they make.
And when is LL upgrading all to class 5? Havent heard another peep about that one.
All mainland sims are now class 5.
really? As of when? If so, that was fast.
They said they were upgrading Private Islands though, too.
Yes really – This question came up in another forum so I asked the question of a Linden in Live Chat and I was told all mainland sims are class 5. Estate sims created before 2006 may not be and the estate owner would have to request an upgrade as well as possible pay a higher tier (not 100% sure about the cost of an upgrade for estate owners). This quote is from a wiki about sim performance… “The newest class of Regions is class 5 and was introduced in November of 2006 as described in Ian’s blog post. All Regions added since November 2006 have been class 5
They certainly didn’t take into account those of us that have stuck around for over 5 and 6 years with them and it would be a shame to reward our loyalty by punishing us by limiting our inventory just because we have been here longer.
The inventory thing is just a romour, that no Linden has actually come out and verified at ALL. It goes around every few months, and so far no one can point to ANYTHING other than vicious rumours about it.
The script thing though, has been in the pipe for a while. And while you don’t see it as directly, it’s not something that should be buried in the scare tactics of OMG they’re going to steal my inventory.
My main problem with it is the same problem I have with most of these “solutions” lately: instead of fixing the problem on their side they impose limitations on how people use the system because they won’t fix the underlying problems. Things like imposing limits on openspaces or even just stating they were more than a suggestion before knee jerk raising prices. Or like improving searching and organization and any of the other dozens of ways in which software they already _own_ (because they bought onrez too, which had a lot of backend improvements over xstreet even if it wasn’t as “popular”) before deciding to “fix” xstreet being difficult to work with by making people cull their products from the market regardless of quality, and turning it into a marketplace that I personally have no use for, as I used it as an alternative to lousy in world searching (less products on xstreet = less likely for me to find what I’m looking for = why am I even going to bother trying in the first place since I know I’ll fail? So I won’t see all the shiny pretty distractions that catch my eye that I need to have, aside from just giving up in frustration on what I’m looking for in the first place).
In this case instead fixing Mono implementation and making LSL a language that actually has the functions people need instead of requiring them to write inefficient code to get around arbitrary limitations of the language, as well as including necessary functions like AOs in the _official_ client, where it can have far less impact- they went for script limits. They may even be perfectly reasonable limits, we’ll see once we have more information- but still, to me, this should not have been the first step. The first step should have been fixing the problems you can fix on your side, and THEN evaluating what else needs to be done. Sadly, it really needed to be fixed years ago, because there are a lot of extremely useful products out there that have been coded under the, quite frankly, awful language that LSL is, lacking so many key functions that would have made scripting efficiency so much more possible.
How about fixing some of the problems on your side? Ever? Sorry. I’m just getting more and more disillusioned by the day, because the new trend appears to be imposing limits on the users, as an alternative to actually bothering to update/improve/fix the system.
Yes, we know the inventory thing is just a rumor.
Maybe you do. A crapton of people are panicking over it right now who are treating it like coming directly from the Lindens.
They would be crapping pants faster if they saw the April Fools joke run on an italian sl blog lmao. Had a nice Linden Lab graphic showing free accounts had a 10K limit. Wish I still had that link to stir up the hornet’s nest. But the revealing at yesterday’s commerce office hour by colossus that the xstreet wishlist will require you to reveal your real life identity because it will be in facebook should pretty much drive the final nail in the coffin.
You know, I think I just saw what you’re talking about… can’t blame them for running with it like it’s gospel.
Oh hell no, I don’t blame them, it’s not all that inconceivable with how LL’s been functioning, especially lately.
But, it’s a good “oh hey, look at me wiggling my fingers over here while I pull this rabbit out of my other sleeve” distraction tactic: that’s NOT the problem right now, people need to be actually paying attention to what’s really going on instead.
Many people see more immediate danger to inventory limitations- so it’s a damn good distraction.
What Allegory said, times 1000000389293892.
Instead of fixing the base problems they impose some sort of limit on the user.
My inventory sits around 5-6k, I can lower it, no biggie
After being in a packed sim with fashionistas refusing to change into unscripted hair/shoes/skirt/jacket for even a few moments I am not too upset about the script limits thing
I only worry about the vendors who have to redo EVERYTHING because they already have had to deal with so much crap from LL recently. 
If things become too complicated the creators will just start quitting.
They currently cache inventory into 2 seperate pools — recently used and not recently used. Often your whole inventory doesn’t load (mine is over 25K) and infrequently used items can disappear from your inventory for months — then suddenly reappear after maintenance on the asset server for your avi. Knowing this, it is not likely they will impose inventory limits anytime soon or anytime in the foreseeable future.
What is MUCH more likely is to limit the amount of prims your avi is wearing — I’m talking the non-scripted prims. Some shoes — like my oxfords — are over 150 prims each and do probably cause a spike in lag when entering a new sim.
I always try to add some useful scripted functions to some of my clothes, and try hard to keep the scripts performance-efficent. I SERIOUSLY hope LL won’t force me to go back and remake all my script (or worse, pull them), because in that case I won’t be an happy camper. In 5 years, I can count the initiatives from LL that were actually beneficial to the residents on the fingers of a maimed hand.
I hope hair/belt/shoe creators will start making it possible to delete resize/color/texture changing scripts in their items. Would be sweet if prim items with scripts were copy with a delete script option in the menu, like i have seen some boots have, if scripts are gonna be limited.
I have a big inventory
I don’t believe for a moment that LL are ever going to make me shrink it. What I would believe is that they might come up with some kind of virtual closet where I could store some of it, so I don’t have to drag all that data with me everywhere I go, but which I could pop back to to swap my currently ‘active’ and limited inventory items. I’m no tech-head, but wouldn’t something like that help with TP lag etc and therefore be A Good Thing? Someone tell me why I’m wrong 
Well now that LL has their hand in the cookie jar (xstreet profits) I doubt we are going to see crippling limits on scripts. More likely than not it will only effect places that are swamped now. As far as per avatar limits that will be interesting to see as most script peak usage once in a while so I don’t know how they are going to do the math on that one. I’m guessing the real pain will come to us evil homestead sim owners since we have been waiting for that other shoe to drop since the price hike.