[sldev] Cache speed experiment & results...

[Buckaroo Mu]

Ann Otoole wrote:
> Time Warner is going to try forcing metered bandwith on the cable 
> modem community they serve.
> So the ugly head of the end of unlimited bandwith use raises it's head 
> once again.
>
> The reason I mention this is because, although I am also a fan of 
> reduced compression overhead, there will no doubt be trade offs 
> required. Perhaps there is a way to make compression/decompression 
> more efficient?
>
We're not talking about downloading raw, uncompressed data from SL 
across your bandwidth - we're talking about how the client currently 
REcompresses (or only saves the already-compressed) textures when 
storing them to the local disk cache. The change I'm talking about won't 
affect your bandwidth, but it will require more disk space for your 
cache. We've established that the real bottleneck with rendering 
textures from cache is decoding them from the JPG2000 format - so if we 
could decompress them once, after they come down the wire, then cache 
them decompressed, we would get rid of one of the major bottlenecks to 
texture render speed. No more grey blobs every time you turn around.