Showing posts with label Megaprim. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Megaprim. Show all posts
26 January 2010
30 April 2009
Another way to be invisible
Turns out you can hide the basic avatar by wearing a huge megaprim (the 65K one) as an attachment. This is being used as an alternative to invisiprims that doesn't interfere with the display of alpha textures (or linden trees or water.)
The wise script it to die if it finds itself unattached. ;)
A couple Lindens have said they consider this to be a bug and to not count on it to work in the future. 1
Keep in mind being completely invisible is a serious no-no. It's treated as stalking usually.
The wise script it to die if it finds itself unattached. ;)
A couple Lindens have said they consider this to be a bug and to not count on it to work in the future. 1
Keep in mind being completely invisible is a serious no-no. It's treated as stalking usually.
16 March 2009
Playing with the map
When your building out a new sim, sometimes you want to keep it a secret until opening day. But you can't hide from the map! Or can you?
I've taken a 256x256M megaprim, textured it with the "nothing here" color from the SLurl maps, and covered a sim with it at 375M. (400M seems to be the cutoff height for the map.) From this, I should know in less than two days if it "works". SLurls would still work, and I expect the pointer on the map would still show the sim's name. But you won't be able to see the build from the map.
I've never done any skywriting before in SL. From what I read, it seems the map averages the texture (and color) on a prim's face into a single blob, so you have to use individual prims to "write" things.
I've taken a 256x256M megaprim, textured it with the "nothing here" color from the SLurl maps, and covered a sim with it at 375M. (400M seems to be the cutoff height for the map.) From this, I should know in less than two days if it "works". SLurls would still work, and I expect the pointer on the map would still show the sim's name. But you won't be able to see the build from the map.
I've never done any skywriting before in SL. From what I read, it seems the map averages the texture (and color) on a prim's face into a single blob, so you have to use individual prims to "write" things.
15 May 2008
14 May 2008
Megaprim Creation Time Limited
Make those new megaprim sizes while you can! Andrew Linden confirmed today in his office hours that the ability to create megaprims will be disabled again in the next server update.
10 May 2008
15 October 2007
Megaprims, we'll miss you.
The traditional path of the grid ban-hammer is an announcent that the Lab is "considering" something, a wait of roughly a month, then the something is no longer allowed on the grid. This seriously saddens me; I've seen a lot of lovely builds that use megaprims responsibly. They're part of the Caledon sims, they're core to the Greenies sim, several "desert" sims use them to remove the ocean view that's a default part of islands without neighboring sims...
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/12/the-big-prim-problem/
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=216541
Anyway, here's what I commented.
You want to solve the megaprim problem?
- Let us make prims up to 256x256x256 in the editor.
They're common in large builds as walls and floors, and for large spheres the only other option available takes a lot of prims. Experiment with the physics to find out what sizes give the physics system trouble - I've seen no signs of sim problems with the common 20x20x0.5 prim.
- Allow island owners to "texture" the view off the side of their sims
This is the main use of megaprims over 256M^2. With WindLight in development, would this be a good time to consider adding this feature?
- Make prim parcel encroachment impossible.
I've had MANY more cases of this from the standard Linden trees than from megaprims or anything else. It is a common user complaint, and I suspect the Lindens who do inworld support would love for parcel encroachment to be impossible.
http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/10/12/the-big-prim-problem/
http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=216541
Anyway, here's what I commented.
You want to solve the megaprim problem?
- Let us make prims up to 256x256x256 in the editor.
They're common in large builds as walls and floors, and for large spheres the only other option available takes a lot of prims. Experiment with the physics to find out what sizes give the physics system trouble - I've seen no signs of sim problems with the common 20x20x0.5 prim.
- Allow island owners to "texture" the view off the side of their sims
This is the main use of megaprims over 256M^2. With WindLight in development, would this be a good time to consider adding this feature?
- Make prim parcel encroachment impossible.
I've had MANY more cases of this from the standard Linden trees than from megaprims or anything else. It is a common user complaint, and I suspect the Lindens who do inworld support would love for parcel encroachment to be impossible.
05 June 2007
REF: Mega Prims, Huge Prims, Giant Prims
This is a reference post. It may be updated.
Mega Prims, Huge Prims, Prims with dimensions greater than 10M.
They're a child of the libsecondlife project. The grid used to not validate object sizes that were passed to them in some cases. That has been fixed, so all existing mega prims are copies of the ones created on the grid before that time. They currently can't be made on the grid.
They can't be resized, but you can twist, hollow, cut, etc. Twists and other modifications may be ignored during collision calculations, making them interesting to interact with. You can change the cubes to cylinders. It has been said that some of the curved mega prims are treated by the physics engine as cuboids. They can be used with sculpted prim textures.
There's conflicting information about hollowing them; some sources claim that they only appear hollow, others claim that they hollow as if they were 10M versions of the shape. I've had no problems hollowing basic ones myself, but I've only worked with the smaller ones.
I have one that hollows strangely - it visually hollows as both a box and a cylinder, but it is phyically hollow only as a cylinder.
There's a trick used to make tiny prims where you dimple a sphere, then convert it to a box. Several of the huge box prims available were created from other huge prims using this technique. Their "center" when you edit them is far away from what you see of the cube, and several of the edit controls seem strange (hollow acts as cut, etc.)
Larger ones can upset the physics engine, causing sim lag and crashes when things collide with them. There's also talk that some of the largest ones can cause a "pull" - avatars nearby find themselves moving toward the prim as if it had its own gravitational force.
Object culling in the viewer can do strange things to them. Culling is based on the prim's center, so if the viewer's distance is short, they might not see the prim. Sim borders and object culling require special consideration. A sim only looks so far into another to find prims, so don't depend on a megaprim to be a bridge across sims.
If you use them, you're advised to not us them as physical or flexi, and to use them as phantom. Respect parcel boundaries, and make sure they aren't intruding on the neighbors.
LL's official statement on them has shifted over time; if you plan to use them keep yourself informed. As of the last edit here, they're allowed on both mainland and island sims. Builds using them that are perceived as "causing sim problems" will be deleted without warning. Requests to remove them entirely from the grid have been refused with the comment that it would break existing content.
Mega Prims are freely available on the grid, and from SLExchange.com
Links to SL Forum threads about mega prims.
183213 166217 181082 57194
Second Life Insider article about the 2006-2007 mega prim controversy.
Second Life Insider article about megaprims and making a case for unlimited prim sizes.
EDIT: April 2008
With Havok 4, megaprims are now treated as they appear for collisions.
Mega Prims, Huge Prims, Prims with dimensions greater than 10M.
They're a child of the libsecondlife project. The grid used to not validate object sizes that were passed to them in some cases. That has been fixed, so all existing mega prims are copies of the ones created on the grid before that time. They currently can't be made on the grid.
They can't be resized, but you can twist, hollow, cut, etc. Twists and other modifications may be ignored during collision calculations, making them interesting to interact with. You can change the cubes to cylinders. It has been said that some of the curved mega prims are treated by the physics engine as cuboids. They can be used with sculpted prim textures.
There's conflicting information about hollowing them; some sources claim that they only appear hollow, others claim that they hollow as if they were 10M versions of the shape. I've had no problems hollowing basic ones myself, but I've only worked with the smaller ones.
I have one that hollows strangely - it visually hollows as both a box and a cylinder, but it is phyically hollow only as a cylinder.
There's a trick used to make tiny prims where you dimple a sphere, then convert it to a box. Several of the huge box prims available were created from other huge prims using this technique. Their "center" when you edit them is far away from what you see of the cube, and several of the edit controls seem strange (hollow acts as cut, etc.)
Larger ones can upset the physics engine, causing sim lag and crashes when things collide with them. There's also talk that some of the largest ones can cause a "pull" - avatars nearby find themselves moving toward the prim as if it had its own gravitational force.
Object culling in the viewer can do strange things to them. Culling is based on the prim's center, so if the viewer's distance is short, they might not see the prim. Sim borders and object culling require special consideration. A sim only looks so far into another to find prims, so don't depend on a megaprim to be a bridge across sims.
If you use them, you're advised to not us them as physical or flexi, and to use them as phantom. Respect parcel boundaries, and make sure they aren't intruding on the neighbors.
LL's official statement on them has shifted over time; if you plan to use them keep yourself informed. As of the last edit here, they're allowed on both mainland and island sims. Builds using them that are perceived as "causing sim problems" will be deleted without warning. Requests to remove them entirely from the grid have been refused with the comment that it would break existing content.
Mega Prims are freely available on the grid, and from SLExchange.com
Links to SL Forum threads about mega prims.
183213 166217 181082 57194
Second Life Insider article about the 2006-2007 mega prim controversy.
Second Life Insider article about megaprims and making a case for unlimited prim sizes.
EDIT: April 2008
With Havok 4, megaprims are now treated as they appear for collisions.
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