My apologies to all if I was too aggressive in sharing my hysteria about the wall of lag I hit in our opening night’s performance.  My reaction was probably right in character, and so Barnardo apologizes as well. I spent some time at Ahern Info Center last night, fighting some serious lag, and have been doing some reading.  I’m still not sure how the client side is impacted by population on neighboring sims, but that will keep.  I do have some ideas that I think will hep us all going forward, not just with these mini-productions but on to November and the whole enchilada. While we are engaged in this experiment, we should be assembling what we learn into some form that can be used by actors in future productions.  We’ve already learned a lot about acting in SL — Enniv’s work with us on the timing of lines (another lag problem), the directions on de-ruthing a character, setting up client software to minimize lag, moving using shift and by holding the AV firmly by the neck, making the AV’s mouth move, making the body move (hands etc) for expressive purposes, using animations, and more. I’d like to pull this together in a handbook (Tips for Actors in SL) and I volunteer to collect, edit, and assemble our collective insights.  I don’t think this information is going to come from anywhere else but our experience doing these performances and acquiring it is probably going to be painful, so I’d hate to see it lost. Perhaps this blog is a place to start, but I imagine lots of other issues will get raised here and I want to see something aimed at the actors very specifically.  A re-defintion of the craft in these new circumstances.  If you think this is a good idea, send me stuff to include. And I have a two questions (one is really a request). Could the technical folks select client software and specify settings in detail?  After all, our AVs were delivered all made up and costumed!  I think it would help us a lot to just be told what will work best in our conditions. My AV got stuck in a pose early last night (I think he was using the running or walking animation from the AO and got lag shocked).  How can I unstick him if (when) this happens again?  I wonder specifically if the trick of using edit Appearance and then quickly closing that window would do any good. And again, sorry if I was a little prickly after the show yesterday.  I really am enjoying this experience and working with all of you.  I should have known when I stood up and was launched into the air by my chair, that the night was going to offer a few lessons.

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