Linden Lab just announced a new feature in the Release Candidate viewer called Avatar Rendering Costs. A.R.C. will let you gague how an avatar and all their attachments is effecting your graphics rendering performance.
What an abosoltely wonderful idea! Finally we have some concrete in-world evidence that ‘hoochy hair’ really does lag up an area. :) Seriously though, I think that this tool will really encourage people to be a bit more aware of how they are constructing their content and a bit more careful about how they dress up their Avs.
Check out the LL blog post for more specific details, then download the new RC viewer to try it out for yourself. The post hints that there will be more similar features in the future. Here’s hoping that there will be something similar for every in-world object. Can you imagine the improvement on the grid if low-lag was the new buzzword?
So what is your Avatar Rendering Cost score? I’m going in-world right now to find mine. :)