[sldev] Asset Optimizations

[Stickman]

I was putting together an animation, and was faced with a choice. And
I realized I have none of the information I need to make the best
choice.

Is it possible to see the "size" of an asset? Size may exist in
various forms, such as "in memory" size, "on disk" size, and
"bandwidth used." Are textures stored in memory in a compressed state,
or do they have a a byte per pixel?

What assets are cached? I thought everything was cached, but I heard
on the list recently that actual prim/object data was not cached, just
their textures. Are animations cached, or do they have to load the
first time they're seen that session?

What's the "seek time" for the cache, as well? Is it pretty much as
fast as disk access to load an asset, or are there a number of hoops
that must be jumped through? Is any part of the cache held in RAM, or
is it on-disk unless the asset is currently shown inworld?

Thanks,

Stickman