METAbolt has to download appearance related textures/images to be able to display your avatar to others or your avatar will appear as a cloud. All downloads are only done once and cached so that they don't have to be downloaded again unless of course there are changes in the appearance of your avatar or changes to the surrounding your avatar is in such as avatars arriving/leaving, objects changing, being added or deleted etc.The more the activity and objects in a SIM the more the download.
The amount METAbolt downloads depends on your requirements. You can adjust how much METAbolt downloads (uses bandwidth) by setting a few settings in the "General" tab under the Application/Prefences menu option.
Preference Settings
The settings that affect bandwidth usage are as below:
General tab - Radar/Range
General tab - Options
1. The "Enable radar auto update" checkbox. Having this checked means the radar is updaded in real time i.e. the avatars around you and their distances etc. On top of this the objects in the area along with certain events are also updated/communicated. Disabling this option will save bandwidth.
2. The "Radar range" throttle. This in effect is the "Draw distance" option in the SL viewer preferences. It basically defines the distance in which all avatars and objects are visible (not visually obviously) and the ones outside it are ignored. Decreasing this setting will limit the number of avatars and objects being displayed hence saving on bandwidth by limiting the amount of communication between METAbolt and the SL network.
3. The "Object select range" (under the "radar range") checkbox. This is the same as the "radar range" but only applies to objects and not avatars. The idea is that by using the "radar range" you can get a larger coverage of avatars and via this setting you can limit the range of objects i.e. if your radar setting is 64m it would mean that all avatars within a 64m range will be displayed but at the same time you can set the "object select range" to say 20m which would mean although all avatar within a 64m range are displayed only objects within a 20m range is displayed and the rest are ignored. Thus giving you greater control and flexibility.
4. The "Connect to multiple SIMs" checkbox (on the second image on the left). This controls the display of certain events and child avatars in neighbouring SIMs to the SIM your avatar is on. It also control crossing SIMs. If this option is disabled your avatar won't be able to walk across the borders of SIMs. So unless you have that need you can keep this option unchecked and save on bandwidth.
5. Do not clear your cache unless you really have to. Clearing the cache would mean all the textures that was cached will need to be downloaded again! METAbolt caches the textures below:
* Avatar apperance (skin, clothing etc)
* Maps
* Profile pictures
* Group Logos
* All the textures and pictures in the inventory that you have opened
NOTE: Apart from the "avatar apperance" everything above is only cached if you open to view them. If you open them again the texture from cache will be used so that you don't waste bandwidth and also don't use up SL resources.
6. The "Bandwidth" control under the "Options" will allow you to fine tune your connection. Depending on the type of internet connection you have you can use this slider to find the setting that works for you best.
NOTE: AS OF V 0.9.27.0 BANDWIDTH THROTTLE IS AUTOMATED (I.E. IT IS AUTO REGULATED DEPENDING AND THE CAPACITY OF THE CONNECTION YOU HAVE) AND THIS SETTING NO LONGER EXISTS7. Notice the "Optimise settings for Dial-up" checbox under the "Options" tab. Checking this checkbox will adjust all METAbolt settings to the recommended levels if you are using a dial up connection to connect to Secondlife.
Network (Bandwidth) Monitor¶
As of V 0.9.38.0 you are able to monitor the bandwidth usage of each METAbolt instance you are running by selecting the "Network Monitor" tab on the Debug Log window which can be accessed from the main Logs menu option. Using this tool you can see the affects of the setting changes (described above) you make in real time.