Primmy pieces of garbage

Ok, here's a question about builds in SL - houses, cards, boats, etc.

I've seen a lot of items listed (especially on SLEX) with " ***HIGH PRIM*** More prims=more details" listed as a selling point. One of these is a luxury yacht which a friend of mine bought for $9000L or something like that.

Every step on the 24 step staircase was its own prim. No path cut, no sculpties. Every window pane was a seperate prim - even if right next to another window. Each window was individually framed, even with several windows next to each other.

So my question is: Do you buy based (in part) on number of prims? If so are you more likely to buy something with more prims or less prims?

(and secondary question, anyone have a slap animation I can have in case I run into that builder?)

I am always buying and looking for the least amount of prims! It seems dumb to have something with an absurd amount of prims when we all have prim limits!

lol! Hmm... I usually make what I need now, but before I did, I definitly bought on a mix of prim/looks. However, if something looked good and I clicked on it and it was double the prims I thought it should be, I wouldn't buy it.

Are you sure this is a selling point, and not a good, honest warning from the seller? Why would it ever be a selling point?

because it's followed up with "more prims means more detail!!!!!one"

I don't see how high prim count could be a selling point. Any good builder is always frugal with prims when building. The best building is done by skilled use of textures to simulate high numbers of prims, not the other way around.

Well, there is something to that -- but likely not the way the author of that marketing piece intended. Just because it has a lot of prims does not make anything "fabulous" or "higher quality." However, it is really hard to build great stuff without it being fairly high prim. There are things you can do with sculpties but it requires a lot of skill to create a 16 step staircase with sharp, well defined edges with a beautiful wood texture and a carpet runner. People are still learning how to work with this new prim type (I haven't even started) and there is boatloads of content out there that was made before sculpties. Despite best intentions, most builders won't go back and redo existing work, it is too easy just to leave it out on the market and work on your new stuff.

The sad fact is that stuff that has been fully built out (and not just textured in - such as windows) just looks better. There is a major trade off when it comes to building, you can either make something stunning or you can make something low-prim, it is rare that you can manage both.

I own a 170 prim 30m yacht. I bought it because of how it looks. You can't get the details it has with multi textures on one prim.

If you have the prims on a piece of land, what does it matter if an object is high prim and quality.

I got a cute cat the other day. Rezzed it on our property, and the freaking thing ate up nearly all the remaining prims on the property. Me-freaking-ouch! We kicked it back into the inventory box.

Damn cat!

My RL cat uses up all the prims in my RL house, too. (At least he thinks he owns them all). So your SL cat was functioning as intended.

I have spent the last three years trying to find ways to create hightly detailed prefabs with uber-low prims counts. Why? Because when I was new, on my dear little 512m First Land, I also had issues with (by coincidence) a high prim cat.

There are few things more frustating than getting a lovely prefab, rezzing it and then finding out one doesn't have enough prims left to furnish the thing

So that became my 'mission statement' (pardon the jargon).

Sure, low prim does mean some compromises - the skill (in my humble opinion) is creating something that doesn't LOOK low prim at all. When people have contacted me to express surprise that a prefab they have bought from me is REALLY the prim count I claimed, I know I have achieved that. (I then have a little proud moment, usually involving a glass of coke, a big grin and maybe an indulgent little whoop- but then I am very easily amused).

It's probably just splitting hairs, but I think they acknowledge that no one wants more prims, but they are saying that they had to do it to give you the detail you're getting.

I agree I've seen some ridiculous ones: like dining room chairs that are 69 prims each. My tenants who are newer to SL are often surprised and embarrassed when they find out why they got the over-prim notice.

Yeah its common to see a lot of bad SL designer trying to compensate the relative blandness of their design with a boatload of prim details.

Yea, don't they all
Like I said, damn cat!
/me waves hi to Avion!

Depending on what it is, I might go for a primmier version if I feel the detail work is just that much better. I personally always try to come to a happy medium when I build.
More prims=more chances to mess up placement/texturing as well. I notice the primmier the build, often times means the worse it looks.
Now days though, sculpties can be used to significantly lower the amount of prims on a build as well as make it look more realistic in most cases. Is there really a point to still trying to prim things out the old fashioned way when the new way is so much better? These days, I'm only looking for items that do use sculpties, since it saves so many prims. Imagine what some island owners could do if they had half their prims back or so due to sculpties!

As a cat owner this made me laugh out loud. You definitely get pie for that.

I'll buy something if I like it, the prim count isn't really relevant (it does need to make some sense for the item).

If someone's using an excessive prim count, chances are the item won't look all that good in the first place; only buying furniture that's mod also means I can remove detail or look for ways to improve prim use if it ever becomes necessary later on as well.

Given the choice between a higher prim item and a lower prim sculpted item I'll go for the higher prim item as well. I already have a moderate amount of sculpty furniture/items scattered around my house and any more wouldn't be worth the already significant loss of FPS just to save a handful of prims.

I generally try to avoid too many prims, both in building and buying. A LOT can be done with good texturing, even results better than "one more prim."

Mari

I don't buy, quite simply... if I can build it and put scripts in thats what I do.. if I can't get the scripts... I don't need it usually.

But when I'm building, I build first without paying attention to prims that much (each wall section is one piece, no single piece corners, no sculpties but pillars and such essentially). Then I go back and look at the basic completed build, before I've furnished (Talking about houses here), and look at what I can do to save prims, and then do it.

I don't build things with more prims than it needs, and have a fully furnished prefab (Bed with sleep script, rocking loveseat, fireplace, small kitcehn, a few other things) with 113 prims, and you shouldn't need anything else on a 512 than whats in it, and most don't even have what it has.... I'm very prim concious with my completed builds. (not counting when I'm messing around.. I have a 140prim spiraling tower of flowers that looks nice but has no purpose... and I think its 6m in diameter, around 12m tall)

If I absolutely have to buy something, I always pay attention to prims. If it has more than my budget (I set prim budget more often than price) then I don't even consider it.

If it's just a single person using a yacht/boat or car then prim count won't matter as they tend to attach to the avatar in the high prim versions. But I agree with the OP that stunning builds can be achieved with less prims, with good texturing and clever prim manipulation.

I wont buy anything without checking the prim count first. Most items I'll shop around to find the lowest prim counts with the best looking quality. I don't know if others take the time to do that, but I wish they all would.

I do this too. In fact, prim count to me is the "cost," where the real cost doesn't matter much.

You do not own cats, they own you.



There will be no pie until I say so, damn it!

Oh, I have several of the little bastards, and they're VERY primmy-even tho I think they're sculpty cats....

They also tend to link themselves to other prims and then lock the whole thing so I can't edit them....er....

I ALSO had the "prim monster kitty in SL" thing with my first 512 lot! How weird! I made avery low prim cur fat kitty just for such cases-one sculptie body, two eyes, and a nose....that one will fit ANYWHERE.

I own a mixture between very low prim stuff and detailed high prim things-sometimes you just NEED the detailed look. I have a chaiselongue with antique tapestry details that would look shite in less than its 25 prims.

One of the most beautiful things I have is a crystal vase full of red roses that takes up almost 117 prims = 1 x 512 sized lot. When I had enough spare land that I could keep it rezzed and have prims to spare, it felt like the height of luxury. Of course, I'd already built my own super miminalist skybox that it was rezzed in, maybe ten or eleven prims for two multilevel rooms, a hallway and a landing porch. That skybox also looked good, and of course Modern.

I rezzed the roses on a small table with two prims, between black three prim chairs and next to some one prim plants and a 100+ prim tray of champagne glasses. With a view of the cloud level right outside the glass wall and ceiling and unobstructed sky beyond it, that room was a great place to host many memorable conversations.

Sometimes you have to let the number of prims just be what it is and worry about aesthetics instead.