rhet0rica Resident
As discussed briefly at the Server Users Group on 2025-10-15: it is apparent that the graphics team is interested in exploring the possibility of integrating certain virtual reality features into the standard SL viewer (again). Attendees brought up concerns including challenges maintaining a high framerate and the low market penetration of VR hardware.
This post was revised on 2024/10/24 in light of Crexon's remarks that telemetry already exists in the SL viewer via the tracy library.
To substantiate these anecdotes with concrete data, I'd like to propose a strategy for collecting and sharing information:
  1. Conduct a hardware survey to assess the market for adding VR features. This could be as primitive as a Google Forms page with voluntary data submission, or something more sophisticated like adding a hardware profiler to the viewer itself. An explicit poll might be useful for gathering data about VR hardware deployment or the potential of buying VR hardware.
  2. Open up basic aggregated data gathered by the profiler so SL residents can see what counts as 'typical' performance. Present average FPS, normalized by polygon count and m² of visible textures, as well as standard deviation of framerate (FPS stability). Segment on teleportation or graphics setting change.
  3. Also aggregate performance data on a per-region basis. (No idea if you guys do this already—sorry if this is redundant.) Prior to anonymization, aggregate data on a per-region basis, allowing establishment of a performance index for each sim. This can then be used to normalize data over a certain time period, correcting for biases in data caused by popular or overdecorated regions. Present alongside figures for mean region FPS (time dilation) and population to establish a sim performance score.