Negative Primitives

I want to build a hollow sphere with 4 round holes around it. Two perpendicular tunnels shall traverse through the sphere and cross in the center. How can I do that in 2ndL?

Probably the answer will be "you can't", and this is why I am suggesting the negative primitives concept (explained below). Or probably this feature already exists but since I am completely n00b I haven't figured out how to use it yet, or probably there is another building technique that I am not aware of. If that is the case, then I am sorry for posting this here, but several in-game people told me it would not be possible, at least with a low primitive count. Anyway, and assuming there is no positive answer to my problem, I'll continue.

If you've ever played around with UnrealED you must be aware of a feature called "Subtract from World". If you are aware of that feature and used to it, you can safely skip the rest of this paragraph. For those unaware of that feature I will explain. In UnrealED there is a building brush that, as the name says, is used to build. That building brush works almost the same way as primitives in 2ndL, except for that nothing is rendered in the world until we decide what to do with the brush after setting its properties. When we are done setting properties for our building brush, we can then add or subtract it from the world. Adding to the world has a similar effect as creating a primitive in 2ndL, but as said earlier, the properties for the said primitive are already set before creating it. Subtracting from the world allows us to remove any existing matter that our brush happens to be overlapping at the moment (which is good if we want to make punch-holes, dents, or the example mentioned above).

With the current primitive options plus negative primitives I could do the example at the top with no more than 5 primitives (1 positive hollow sphere, 2 positive cylinders, and 2 negative cylinders). So what about adding an option, a checkbox, maybe, to switch between positive and negative primitives? The textures applied to negative primitives could then be used in the resulting dents thus integrating the concept perfectly well with the current interface.

PS: I am in no way a 3D modeler, a game developer, or any other thing related to multimedia development. My experience with UnrealED is minimal and I just mentioned it because my idea came from there. Although I really have the problem mentioned at the top.

Thats a good idea and have been thinking the same thing myself. I do solid modeling sometimes with primitives using Boolean methods to use one primitive as the "tool" to "cut" the other primitive.

I've been mentally screaming for that.
I'd be nice to cut holes in objects, or just cut more interesting shapes.

Brace yourself - the reason why subtraction cannot be done using prims posts will be coming shortly, don't take them personally We have been asking for subtraction since beta.

Main reason is, it would kill the physics engine.

-Adam

What Adam and Cris said. Yes we have asked for that for 2years. We have asked that Merged Primatives could have a PERMANENT Shape Ie you build something out of prims link it then Merge it as a new mesh to create a truly unique Item. However this wont happen untill the inception of Havok 4....at least.


So, Breath in ....breath out...breath in and repeat I will not get angry I will not get angry.

Shadow

Is there some grand design roadmap that I'm not privy too?
I won't complain that I can't get killed by the level of detail on that static bitmap the naked geisha flashed in my eyes if I had a clue what the plan was.

This particular thread is posted AT LEAST once every couple months.

Yes, it would be nice.
No, it isn't going to happen any time soon.

As was explained in 2003 by Andrew(?) Linden, arbitrary concave objects are difficult on the physics end. As far as importing Lightwave etc. objects is concerned, and I know some are thinking about it, SL is not likely to permit this at any time in the near future. We are given prims instead of the ability to upload meshes for a reason. Meshes are too memory-intensive.

Doing CSG with the current paradigm, as you have suggested (i.e. subtractive prims), is a much more attractive option... but to my knowledge, the work required to do it and do it right is, as far as anyone as LL has let on, prohibitively difficult.