Parameters and Seams

Parameters -

You can change almost everything about a prim's parameters, including whether it's flesh or wood... But what about something basic like reading and setting the hollow, cut, and dimple parameters? Were these omited for any particular reason? Being able to do these things would help me out a lot in a few of my projects.

Seams -

Also, if you have two particularly thin prims placed adjacent with NO gap and NO overlap, you still get terrible seams at a distance. Apparently, it's not a problem with having a cheap video card. It's a problem with the way SL renders prims. Can this eventually be remedied... or do I have to use thicker prims?

I'm curious, could you clarify what parameters you're looking for? "I want buttons to push" just seems too broad to be constructive. There are already parameters to specify levels for these. Or are you talking about within the script interface?

This bugs me, too, but this is a rendering engine issue (read: delicate). The way light is rendered to "bounce off a face", particularly with object bump enabled, takes each edge of the prim differently for some reason.

However, more often than not this isn't a lighting or bump-reflection issue but rather a texture alignment issue. I personally would like to see texture alignment controls, such as in selecting two textures and clicking an "align" button, as with the texture editor in UnrealED.

Or, by seam do you mean a literal gap in rendering? I've noticed that my hair halfway disappears when zooming away from my avatar ... this is obviously a minor rendering engine bug.

Edited: added last paragraph

I use 'parameters' to refer to all the properties that can be set for any primitive. What I meant, but on review, misstated, is that although there is now a way to SET parameters (llSetPrimitiveParams), we lack functions for READING most of these parameters. This is more than a wish list for more buttons to push; because many functions of this nature already exist, I suspect this is just a sign of 'growing pains' as LSL evolves.

For example:

// Let's say I want to change the scale of a prim.
// This is how I would do it:

vector s = <1,1,1.5>;
llSetScale(s);

// And now I want to read what the scale of the prim is,
// which is especially useful if it has been changed
// by a user or other script:

vector g = llGetScale();

// Now, I want to a prim to be made of rubber.
// I can do this easily:

llSetPrimitiveParams
(
     [ PRIM_MATERIAL, PRIM_MATERIAL_RUBBER ]
);

// Let's say I want to find out what the user has set
// the prim material to.
// Intuitively, one would expect the function to exist,
// and for it to be used in a way similar to this:

integer m = llGetPrimMaterial();
if (m & PRIM_MATERIAL_RUBBER)
{
     llWhisper(0,"There be rubber in that thar prim!");
}

But, alas, there is no llGetPrimMaterial() function, just as there are no llGetPrimHollow(), llGetPrimSlant(), llGetPrimTwist(), etc. In fact, the lack of so many parameter-reading functions really limits the value of the new llSetPrimitiveParams function.



By 'seam', I mean the region at the intersection of two prims. If they don't touch, it causes a 'gap'; if they overlap, it may cause an unsightly 'flash' effect as the two prims battle for expression at different angle. Ideally, the prims should touch but not overlap. In this case, you'd expect the 'seam' to be free of effects and to appear as one piece.

XXXXXXX   XXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
X     X   X     X     X   ??X   X     X     XX     X
X     X   X     X     X   ??X   X     X     XX     X
X     X   X     X     X   ??X   X     X     XX     X
XXXXXXX   XXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXX     XXXXXXXXXXXXXX
GAP (NO SEAM)         FLASH SEAM      PERFECT SEAM

This is pretty reliable up close. However, the way SL renders distant prims, 'gaps' appear where they oughtn't. I would like to see this problem fixed as much as is possible, especially for curved pieces.

As far as textures go, an 'align' button would be nice. However, in most cases it is relatively easy to adjust textures with some good old fashioned algebra. ^_-

I would be more happy with adding 'Transparent' to 'Blank' and 'Default' in the Set Texture window so we don't have a billion redundant transparency textures floating around!