Instructions for weapons checks

=1. Does the weapon listen on channel 0? You can tell this if people have to say something like "dcsb" or "reload" or "draw" in main chat. If it's on channel 0, the player needs to either switch it to a different channel (Blacksops allows this, other vendors it will depend) or get a new weapon. No channel 0 listeners, they are MAJOR lag producers because they have to parse every single thing that is said in the entire sim

2. If the weapon isn't made by a major manufacturer we all know (Carlos, Blackops or whatever) check to make sure it doesn't have a script in every single prim. A lot of novice scripters put a listening script in every prim for the purpose of making the weapon transparent when holstered, which creates a lot of lag.
How to test? Right click on something (anything will do) and select edit, then click on the weapon. Check the "edit linked parts" checkbox, then select the "contents tab". You should see a list of scripts, animations, whatever inside that prim. Select other prims on the weapon. Go through a bunch of them. If you see a script in every single one, odds are they are listeners. This is _very_ common with homemade swords based on the lightsaber construction kit.

3. Attach the mystitools hud (if you don't have it, IM me, i'll send you the cash to buy one. It's cheap and invaluable). Turn on transparent (CTRL-ALT-T) and have the owner test fire the weapon on you. Mystitools should tell you you are getting collisions and how many. It will say something like "Collision with Bullet owned by whoever". Check your dcs/rpcs hud to ensure damage is no greater than expected. That will be 5 points for dcs, 3 for rpcs. Some bullets will do slightly increased damage if they are dcs enhanced ... if its more than 2 points, they need to switch to different ammunition.

4. For bullets, arrows or whatever, it should die immediately on impact. If you see a bullet or arrow hanging around after it's hit something, it is using temp-on-rez and can't be used.

5. For guns... maximum clip size is 30. You should hear an audible pause or reload after 30 bullets have been fired.

6. We don't allow fully automatic weapons. Bursts are ok of 3 bullets at a time. Not that a fully auto weapon won't do any more damage than a burst weapon because the meter throttles bullet damage to 1/3 of a second between hits. Fully auto weapons simply lag the sim more.

7. If you are testing a sword or dagger, damage in dcs or rpcs should generally be 10 points (this will be as high as 15 in rpcs if they have a high strength statistic). Have them hit you while you are wearing your mystitool hud. If you see any collisions other than their avatar, make sure the sword isn't _also_ shooting bullets. Some rez bullets when they are swing, which means they are both doing extra damage _ and _ lagging the sim.

8. Does it have hovertext (soemthing like auto, 100000 rounds)?

9. Final thing is the animations. Some vendors include animations that throw the avatar around almost as if they are teleporting or have a movement enhancer. What this does is it throws the _appearance_ of the avatar outside of their actual "bounding box", which is layman's terms means they appear to be in a different place than they really are, which makes them impossible to hit.

10. If we were keeping DCS I'd also say we should get rid of any weapons that proc more than 25 points (such as the Dim swords) but that won't effect us once we've migrated, procs in the new system are throttled at a maximum amount.

11. Particle effects should be minimal. Small ones are okay, but if there are massive particle effects when the weapon is used or bullets hit, this is problematic. Best way to check is go to view menu, view statistics. The top item in the view statistics window will be FRAMES PER SECOND. That's how many frames your _client_ is able to draw per second, and particles (among other things) have a big impact on this. A substantial number of particles can actually freeze the client, causing you to lag out (and get killed by your opponent). So... have them fire or use the weapon or effect while watching your client frames per second. Is there a substantial impact? If it's more than a 20% drop it should go.

12. Finally, check if it has an impact on sim physics. In the view statistics, scroll down to look at the TIME section. In particular you are interested in the figures for sim frame time (should be 22.3 ms), and the physics time (some fraction of 22.3). Have them fire the weapon whle watching this. Do it several time, as much as they would in a nasty fight. Does this have a substantial impact on the sim? If so, they may need either different settings or a different weapon. Physics gets first priority in processing, so a weapon that uses a substantial amount of physics time can squeeze out everything else in the sim, literally.

Page last updated Oct-15-2009 12:00 AM by Colleen Marjeta