Reducing a display quality of an area in a virtual universe to conserve computing resources

A computer system for modifying an appearance of an area of a virtual universe, the computer system comprising:

• one or more processors, one or more computer-readable memories and one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to evaluate a significance of an activity that occurs in the area of the virtual universe;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to generate a significance value based on an evaluation of the significance of the activity that occurs in the area;
• and
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices for execution by at least one of the one or more processors via at least one of the one or more memories, to reduce a display quality of the area using the significance value, to conserve use of a computing resource.

A computer program product for modifying an appearance of an area of a virtual universe, the computer program product comprising:

• one or more computer-readable, tangible storage devices;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to select the area, wherein a computing resource processes data for presenting the area;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to evaluate a significance of an activity that occurs within the area;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to determine a significance value;
• based on an evaluation of the significance of the activity;
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to reduce a display quality of the area by an amount that corresponds to the significance value;
• and
• program instructions, stored on at least one of the one or more storage devices, to reduce usage of the computing resource to process data for presenting the area in response to a reduction of the display quality of the area.

A method for modifying an appearance of an area of a virtual universe, the method comprising the steps of:

• a computer determining a number of avatars that occupy the area;
• the computer determining a display quality of the area that can be reduced to conserve a computing resource that processes data for presenting the area;
• the computer reducing the display quality of the area proportionally to the numbers of avatars that occupy the area;
• and
• the computer reducing usage of the computing resource to process data for presenting the area in response to the reducing the display quality of the area.