How to get the most out of a fashion event.

NEW SHOOTS II (feat. GHOST! and Aphrodite Creations) was held this past weekend, and I’m pleased to say we had great attendance (Sunday’s show filled the sim) and the models, hostesses, and live MC/DJs did a spectacular job. It’s thanks to the great team at Metro Models that our fashion events run so smoothly and appear so professional.

Any event attended by large numbers of avatars puts strain on the sim’s server, and lag is inevitable. It’s unfortunate when this happens during a fashion show, because the entire point is for the models to rez. The good news is, there’s ways to cut down on lag!

Much lag is actually client-side, meaning, it’s on your computer, not the server. By understanding a bit about how your graphics settings in Second Life work, and tweaking them a bit for the show, you can have a much more enjoyable event experience. I’ll show you the settings I tell the models backstage to use… load up your preferences (Edit > Preferences, or, Ctrl + P).

Under the General tab, change “Show Names” to “Never”. You can just change this back after the show… turn it off once you’ve had a look around at the glitterrati attending the event.

Under the Graphics tab, change your Draw Distance to 64. If the runway or stage area is further away, you may need to play with this a bit… the Metro stage, however, will be visible at 64.

Lots of things to change under Graphics Detail! Turn OFF Vertex Shaders. Turn OFF Ripple Water (you won’t need it for a fashion show!) I leave Bumpmapping and Shiny on because some accessories will use them. Change Avatar Rendering to Normal. Set your Lighting Detail to Sun and moon only (the stage is ideally orientated to look good under either forced Sunrise or Sunset.) Change Terrain Detail to Low. Lastly, move all the Mesh Detail sliders to a mid-point.

Now, under Advanced Graphics, change the Max. Particle Count to 0. This will get rid of ALL particle effects for Second Life, including mist, bling, poofers, fireworks, and the like. You’ll probably want to turn it back on after the show, so when you do, just increase the count to between 2,000 and 4,000. You won’t believe the amount of lag particles cause on your computer.

You can also do your part by attending the show with minimal attachments and accessories. You won’t need your AO because you’ll be sitting down in a chair to watch the show. You won’t need your facelight because you’ve turned off local lighting anyway. You should check on your hair, shoes, and any jewelry you’re wearing to see how many prims it is… to do this, right click on your attached item, select “Edit”, and under general info that comes up it will tell you how many objects, and how many primitives your item is (if that info doesn’t show up, click the “More” button). But keeping your outfit low-prim and low-lag doesn’t mean you have to look like a new player!

In this outfit, my only prims are in my shoes and hair. I’ve avoided sculpty prims because they take so long to rez, and I’m wearing a non-prim skirt. The dress is by Paper Couture, and they’re a great choice for low-prim style because of their high-quality texturing and use of the skirt layer. PC also draws a lot of their jewelry onto the outfit, so you don’t have to wear anything else to accessorize. Because I’ll be sitting down to watch the event, I’ve put on some tights under my skirt for modesty and a layered look. To match the lace trim on the tights, I added some lace fingerless gloves. My shoes are simple black wedge Mary Janes I’ve had in my inventory for ages, and the hair is a 40-prim fashion-forward style by Calla. Full credits below.

hair: Calla Narcissus in Black
skin: TaP Vivant Lustrous 3 in Buff
dress: Paper Couture Railway in Ocean
tights: OPIUM Everyday grey lace trim leggings (tinted dark blue)
shoes: JHD Mary Jane wedges
gloves: homemade fingerless lace gloves (bug me and I’ll send you a copy.)