Theme types

This page aims at clarifying the theme types, their advantages and drawbacks and give you hints on when to use one or the other.

In the current version 3.0, there are three possible ways to use themes:

• by loading them from a notecard (in the prim's inventory or through its UUID, but see caveats)

• by using preloaders (new in v2.0)

• using object internal storage called LSD (Linkset Data, new in version 3.0).

For those who don't like to read long text, let's get straight to the point : if you can, use LSD themes as they are a good compromise between speed and ease of use. Notecards are nowadays reasonably fast to be used for the majority of themes, and need not reside in your prim's storage (inventory or LSD) if you use their UUIDs. If you need extra speed for almost instantaneous theme applying with a large number of properties, then preloaders are for you.

A demo object (table) ships with the Theme-O-Matic as of version 3.0 that lets you compare the theme application speeds as the same themes are configured over the three methods.

For those who like to compare and understand before making a decision, the following table tries to sum up the advantages and drawbacks of each method.