AUDIENCE TIPS!

Any Live Performance in the Virtual World contains the possibility of lag and other complications that may challenge your enjoyment.  Where two or three are gathered, there will be lag!  Virtual Dance especially involves a lot of scripting and gestures that the Company are controlling as part of the artistic presentation.  Here are some great tips for making your experience more enjoyable at a Virtual Dance Performance.

• ARRIVE ON TIME OR EARLY ~ Many a performance is delayed because the landing area is raining avatars, all of whom need to get their stream running, allow things to rez, and find a seat.  Arriving a few minutes early and making sure all those things are accomplished will increase your enjoyment of the show, and help you and everyone else move to your next event in a timely fashion.

• CHECK IT AT THE DOOR ~ Like it or not, virtual performances are for the viewing, not for you to be viewed - the grid does not support that kind of splendor.  So it makes everything much easier for you and your fellow audience members by removing all blingy accessories, choosing lower prim hair, and wearing basic clothing that is not scripted.  Also, remove huds, mysti tools, etc for the duration of the performance.  

• WHAT'S YOUR ARC? ~ Most SL Viewers, under the Advanced menu and under "Character" allow you to check your ARC - your Avatar Rendering Cost.  A way to double check how you are impacting the accumulating lag created by the audience is to check your ARC.  A good arc is under 1200.  Better for a performance if it is in three digits.

• TURN OFF NAMETAGS ~ This can be done in your viewer preferences, and easily restored when the performance is over.  It cuts down on the number of things your viewer needs to process and is a handy trick at any highly attended event.  Want to know who someone is?  In most viewers you just roll your cursor over the avatar and it will show you.

• TURN OFF YOUR MIC ~ Virtual performances are not a place to arrive chattering away on an open mic.  Please be respectful, as you would in a RL performance, and keep it off.  No one wants to be the one to tell an audience member to "Shut it so we can start!"  and no one wants to be embarrased in that way in a crowd.

 

• KEEP CLAM TILL IT IS TIME ~ Most performances encourage audience reactions in local chat.  It helps the performers know that you are there and having a good time.   However, sound gestures, noisy pets and attachments, and other things that go "BEEP" and "BONK" in your viewer can be distracting to everyone around you, and to the performers.  Please save the such noisemaking till it is time to applaud. 

• SNAP QUIETLY ~ Most performing groups love to see audience members share photos of a performance they enjoyed.  If you are going to snap away during a performance, make sure you have set the Snapshots to "Quiet" in your viewer.  Again, it is just polite.

 

• **** HAPPENS ~ We don't have as much control over these amazing machines (i.e.computers, the grid, etc) as we sometimes think.  They sometimes do things we do not expect for reasons we do not totally understand. This happens most frequently with microphones and SL Voice. If someone is clearly having challenges with their mic and trying to fix them, and is not obviously someone who just has it on so you can hear them yell at the kids and the dog and listen to their TV blaring in the background, the gentle thing to do is to open your "Active Speakers" list or "Nearby Voice" list, select the person, and roll the volume slider at the bottom of the window down.  Then they can struggle in peace without everyone shouting at them in local chat.  IF YOU ARE someone whose computer decides to do a number on you, and if after a reasonable effort (including relog) to solve the problem it is not fixed, the discrete thing to do is TP somewhere else to fix it.  We all hate to lose enthusiastic, appreciative audience members, and we all hate to be disappointed when we were looking forward to something cool - but there you have it.  Technology is that thing that happens when you are making virtual plans.