Treadmill Desk

Ernesto Ramirez, Your Chair is Killing You, Ignite, San Diego

Sitting is the New Smoking

Spending a lot of time “walking” around a virtual world can be good for your avatar, and not so good for your typist. So a few months ago I put together a new computer, and new workstation featuring a “treadmill desk.” In yesterday’s post about VB/CO Villa on Marketplace I noted the inclusion of a Treadmill Desk:
• Free VBCO Roman Villa on Marketplace

As I say in the Site Plan post, our Villa is not a “real” Roman Villa, but an “inspired adaptation.” I tried to consider the qualities of that style in the 21st century and in a virtual world:
• VB28 Site Plan

The treadmill desk however is real! If by “real” we mean not a “virtual original” as the villa is, but a copy of something from the physical world. It’s actually my desk as set up in my studio a few months ago.

Like NicoleX and many others I have suffered from lag that sent me up into a skybox to work in seclusion. A while back NicoleX got satellite internet and I’m not sure what else, and changed her virtual life. VB/CO Casting Director macar00n earst also recently got a spiffy new Alienware laptop and Internet connection and has emerged triumphantly with the resurrection of his Macando Region of SL.

I still get occasional server lag, occasional network lag, and yes, occasional client lag, but in general, my experience with my new computer is overwhelmingly better. And I run standard at “Ultra” graphics, 1024m draw distance, anisotropic filtering, and 16x antialiasing.

Frame Rate is life.

To fill my screen with some of Carina’s bouncing hair and have a particle effect in the background and still have over 30 fps is an amazing thing. Carina’s big hair used to take my frame rate to 1 or less.

I guess on the mainland a DD of 1024 could really be dicey, but on the “private islands” it works well. IDK why, but to see to the other end of a single region, 256m more or less, you seem to need a DD much higher than 256 – can anybody tell me what that’s about? Drop a comment if you know, please! 🙂

So, I thought I’d geek out and give you the spex on my recent new “3D Virtual World” computer:

HARDWARE
Intel Core i7 950 Processor 3.06GHz Quad Core
ASUS P6TD Motherboard
Corsair Dominator PC12800 RAM 12GB DDR3
Cooler Master HAF X Computer Case, nVidia Edition
Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200 Power Supply
Western Digital VelociRaptor 300GB SATA HD 10K RPM
Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA HD 7200 RPM
LG BluRay Drive

SOFTWARE
3d VR: Firestorm Beta 2.5.1.16671
OS: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Web: Rockmelt
Animate: Poser Pro 2010
Photo: Photoshop CS3
Photo: Picasa 3

GRAPHICS
nVidia GeForce GTX 580 Video Card
Samsung 116cm 1080p LED HDTV

INPUT
Logitech wireless Keyboard, Mouse, Gamepad

AUDIO
JBL LSR4328P Bi-amplified Studio Monitors, 8″ Woofer, 1″ Tweeter, DSP Room Calibration
Primacoustic RX7 Recoil Stabilizers

DESK
Bieffe n.globus Drawing Table
Merit Fitness Treadmill

Everything except the Bieffe Drawing Table and the JBL Studio Monitors was purchased for this project. The Table & Monitors I “inherited” from my typist. Even for a “turbo gaming rig” the JBL LSR4328’s are way too expensive and way too “studio reference” to buy for gaming. Lucky me, I’m the benefactor of the typist’s radio gig.

I’ll write about my family’s lifelong adventure with Mr. James B. Lansing tomorrow.

 
You can already get your free virtual copy of the treadmill desk as part of the VBCO Villa on Marketplace. But for those of you that don’t happen to need dozens and dozens of classical columns, with tomorrow’s post I’ll also release a stand-alone version of the virtual treadmill desk, complete with “Sexy Walk!”