To clear cache or not to clear cache that is the question

I’ve been told hundreds if not thousands of times “Aza, clear your cache it will fix everything”. I hate clearing my cache. I honestly do, it takes forever to load, my bandwidth screams at me not to mention that it costs me precious data use, which I get charged per month based on what I use. So, anything to cut down on that I’m happy to do! I recently attended a Firestorm class and this subject in particular caught my attention because I’ve heard this more than I can count, especially dancing every week.

Clearing your cache can do more harm to a sim than good. It adds extra lag, which is what you were trying to avoid doing. It draws the sim resources to retexture and build your cache that you just dumped thus causing high bandwidth use and just a big domino effect. Just think if 10 people did this every week an hour before the show, or even just to do it. They all do it at the same time and log back in at the same time; the sim would flat out hate life having to repeatedly send out the information to each of the 10 avatars that dumped their cache.  So I’m gonna give you the list of Do’s and Don’t that Ed provided at his class. I’m not even gonna take any credit for the information because it can easily be found on their wiki site.

THE DON’T

-won’t help for teleport issues

-upload issues

-movement or communications

-most lag issues

-crashes

-most kind of bake fails

THE DO’s

-texture related – aka crash due to texture failing to load.

If you do have a texture “memory leak” crash,  you can dump just your texture cache and it should fix the issue. To get to your texture cache go to avatar>preferences>network & cache …there you will see Cache location, click the open button and the folder will open in a new window. Once there you want to look for a folder that says texturecache.  You can delete everything in there and it will re-cache them all when you log back in. BUT only do this in extreme cases. Don’t dump your cache just a s a routine habit. It’s better to run on a full or fuller cache than an empty one.  For more information on how this all plays out please check out Firestorm’s wiki page at http://wiki.phoenixviewer.com

Knowledge is power….and power is knowledge so the more informed we are the better off our experience will be on SL.

Well I’m blogged out right now lol…I felt I HAD to pass this on…I hope Ed doesn’t mind too much cause THIS was an important issue that needed to be brought up for us all cause it’s important for our sims integrity and ours as well.

MUCH LOVE!

AZZY XOXOXOXOXOX

ahhh Inventory how I loathe thee....

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Oh inventory…how I hate you some days.  No matter how hard I try to keep it sorted it’s like it grows a mind of its own and begins to just exploding everywhere. Trying to keep it organized is a chore. One we all should keep up with. Think of it this way, your inventory is like your house would you let it go for months and months? No, probably not. Then again there are plenty of people out there that haven’t sorted their inventory ever, finding stuff some days is like a huge shopping spree, only you haven’t spent a penny –THIS- time…. instead you’re finding boxes of stuff you bought months ago and never opened!

            I’m not going to even begin to lecture on why you bought it if you weren’t opening it that moment, I’ve had days like that myself. Later on it’s like oh my, I guess I forgot about you…and look how cute it is! We’ve all done it, I see you shaking your head at me saying I have not! I’ll give you a peek into my inventory kinda, at least so you can see how particular I am about sorting it. I have main folders, then sub folders and even more sub folders inside. Some things I have sorted by colors some I don’t. It just depends on what I wanted for a system.

            As you can see, I almost everything is sorted and put away, I have a few odd ball things out that need to be put in their place but for the most part everything is put in its place.  I saw you eyeing my inventory count. I hate it even being over 22K, which at the moment it is. Not much but, its enough to drive me crazy trying to cut it down. So, I thought I’d do a re-blog about how to I sort my inventory. You’re welcome to try a few tips and tricks I give you, heck that’s why I’m doing this. I spent a good three hours this morning having a come to Azzy meeting with myself about how dumb I’ve been for pack ratting a bunch of stuff I’ve never even worn. Not ONCE. So, I started boxing stuff up…gave myself a list of rules to follow which I will post below.

                        AZZY’S INVENTORY RULES

Rule 1. – BOX UP PAST PURCHASES IF YOU’VE OPENED THEM  ALREADY

Rule 2. – IF YOU’VE NEVER WORN IT…CHANCES ARE YOU NEVER      WILL…BOX IT, DELETE IT OR PASS IT TO AN ALT.

Rule 3. – IF YOU HAVEN’T WORN SOMETHING IN THE PAST 5 MONTHS GET RID OF IT AKA BOX IT UP OR GIVE IT TO AN ALT.

RULE 4.  LOOK IN YOUR INVENTORY BEFORE GOING SHOPPING

RULE 5. SORT YOUR STUFF AT LEAST ONCE A MONTH

            Not too many rules, I tend to break them especially that last one. I’ve been slacking badly as of late but things have been a bit crazy, still no excuses. You must be willing to set aside some time once in awhile to keep your inventory clean, just like your house, if you keep up with it then it won’t look so daunting or intimidating.

            So now to get to the task at hand, which is sorting the monster called inventory. So first things first, create your folders, the main folders for everything. Once you’ve gotten things broken down to what you wanted, the fun task begins. Don’t worry about sub folders right now; we just want to get everything in its new home. BUT, before you even begin that, go through the folders and delete any nonsense you don’t need. Scripts, poses, land marks, and note cards all add up quickly. Besides that, if you went to the store chances are if you like it, you’ve got them already land marked.

            Now, once the folders are all pretty and clean from the crude you don’t need to hang on to you can sort them into the folders you just created.

I suggest turning on some music, a movie, just something to keep you slightly entertained cause it does get boring to do.

I think I’ve had enough of your time this blog, I’ll continue on the next one with tips and such to get that inventory count down, cause trust me having a low count helps out, and having back ups of things you can is always a bonus.

Love you all!!

Azzy XOXOXOXOX

The Dread of Not Knowing...

                  Builder’s block is the worst, it’s worse than writer’s in my honest opinion. Typically, with writer’s block it’s a matter of thinking of the right word, or even coming up with the next chapter. With builder’s block, you have no CLUE where to find inspiration. If you see me just sitting around the sim listening to music trying to find that one oh my god moment then you know I’m at that point myself. It’s rare I build a set without a song in mind already or have a vague idea of what song I want to do. It happens to everyone, so don’t panic! That by far is the worst thing you can do. So, I’m going offer a way to get past that moment of frustration.

            Do listen to music, stuff you listen to on a daily basis, see if something clicks, if not youtube is your best friend. Type in your favorite band and see the recommended list to the right and see if there’s something else out there that might help make it click. Do, however note, if your troupe keeps a list of used songs, make sure that song isn’t already done. If it is, again DON’T PANIC…keep looking. Music is meant to be an inspiration. And sometimes even going to the good ole classics (and no I don’t mean classical rock…I mean actual classical music) will help relax your mind enough to think. You don’t have to dance to it, but use it as a relaxation tool. Trust me it helps.

            If that doesn’t help you too much, next step I usually take is watching movies, take ideas down, but remember you don’t want to replicate the movie, just take some ideas from it. Movies and music videos are great places to get ideas for sets, but just slapping the whole scene down on a set and calling it good doesn’t work. It’s a theft of the original person’s concept and just pure laziness. We don’t want to go down that road…ever.

            Still stuck? Don’t worry; I’ve had plenty of days like this. That’s the point I turn to my partner or my friends and ask for ideas. Trust me, your friends have plenty of inspiration to offer. Asking for an idea doesn’t make you bad people so don’t be afraid. You might get overloaded with ideas so make sure to limit yourself with youtube links and ideas. DO take notes write down the ideas on a note card or something so you can look back at it later on when you get stuck again.

            It’s very rare if nothing clicks, after this point, sim surf, image surf or just step away for a while tends to help. Staring at a blank stage for hours is overwhelming and frustrating at the same time. Get out, walk, go to the store, heck play a game just something to clear your head for awhile then when you feel ready to try again you can go back to your stage building area and hopefully have an idea of what you want to do. Building should be fun, and honestly it’s not when you don’t know what to build. It will feel like a chore at that point, so before you get to that frustration level try some of these techniques to see if maybe it helps. I’ve done it plenty of times and it’s amazing the ideas that start to flow, just don’t overwhelm yourself …*giggles*

That’s all for now, I’ll chat at you again soon…

XOXO

Azzy