Are Mega-Prims Legal?

I was just passing a shop and noticed a boxed set of megaprim for sale. Am i correct in presumption these can no longer be used?

They can be used.

Hmm don't know I used them to build my appartment building, they do have some quirks though. I got them free inworld at one of the sandboxes.

Many thanks. In light of the comments, it's interesting that the ones I saw are being sold for L$250, but available for free elsewhere. People will try to sell anything.

A sad but unfortunate truth in Second Life. I have used mega prims in my builds. For instance I have used the 20 X 20 X 0.5 prim in a high-rise office tower that I will be putting up for sale in my vendors soon.

They can be used, although I'm told that some are so wonky that once rezzed, they require a Linden to get rid of. I'm not sure of the truth of that as I don't much care to waste their time that way.

Check out this thread in the building tips forum, and there may be others.

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I have been doing some experimenting with them lately.
You cannot stretch them, but you can use the other object controls. A definite quirk is that
when you use path cut or hollow they do not always act like they are indeed smaller or
hollow.

Also I recommend that you do not copy them, i found that when I tried some would take on
a ghost effect. Where at times you cannot even select them.

One thing that is very cool is that you can use a relatively small texture on a very large one
and it still looks pretty good.

They are frowned upon I believe not only because of their uncertain properties but also
due to some people having used them for the purpose of griefing.

I would like to see being able to have a very large wall without seams perhaps something like an "integrate" button in the edit mode, even if it cost us the number of prims to build it to that
size, it would be worth it to get rid of the seams across a large plane.

This is one area I would be very cautious about using them. While the Lindens have said they will not bother with them unless they cause problems, they also haven't exactly guaranteed that they will remain for any indefinate period of time. You could one day end up with a bunch of pissed off customers. I'm not sure I'd be selling anything I made with them..

I bought a package that said it contained giant prims last night (in a sandbox). I seem to be too dumb to know how to use this one. I don't see any contents. Either that or it truly is empty.

It serves you right for buying something that was marked for sale in a sandbox. There are rules against selling in sandboxes - if it were legal, sellers would take over the sandboxes every day (as free retail space) and no one would be able to use the area as intended.

Its ignorant behavior like yours (buying stuff for sale in sandboxes) that perpetuates this behavior. Do you also buy stuff that's advertised in spam emails?

I thought about playing with the mega prims, but rather than buying mine, I found them for free. I thought about trying them for my shop and seeing if that would cut the count down by half. *shrug* If I was to do it, I'd only use the 20x20's and do it in a Linden Sandbox, if they do cause some problems.

Can somebody please explain how a megaprim can exist and how it is created?

it exists, because it can (how can a rock exist in RL?)

they cannot be created anymore. They were created (rumour has it) using a hacked client, or an insecurity in the building tools available to the client. one of the LibSL people (Gene Replacement) created a set of "proof of concept" prims. in several sizes. Most of these prims are still available today, for purchase (or even for free).

Most of the prims in the set are ridiculously large, and are relatively useless. Some are the size of a sim (useful if you want to build a semi-impenetrable ceiling on your sim.. allowing visitors to access one half, while having another half as "group only" perhaps... accessed via teleporter or something.)

The larger the prim, the more "glitchy" it becomes. Scripts written for regular prims, tend to fail to work on huge prims. Likewise, limitations of the Havok physics engine, tend to create unusual behaviours when trying to hollow the huge prims. There are some workarounds for these issues, and many builders have user huge prims to reasonable, and responsible effect. Yet many sandboxes have banned them due to the ease of use as a form of greifing. (as some of these prims are so large, that you can't SEE them while in the sim.. and when made non-phantom, everyone not sitting begins to try and "float out of the prim"

The smaller prims... 20x20x0.5, 32x32x40, 40x40x40, 50x50x50, and several others.. CAN be used responsibly.. to the great economizing of prims on a build. (though they can be hard to "rez on top of"

Imagine a fenced sky platform, 32x64m. Imagine that that platform can be built from 2 prims, and the fence from 6 more. No matter how you do the math.. there's some savings there.

Mega Prims are a programming quirk from a year ago. The Linden's closed the hole that allowed them to be made. But the existing Mega Prims are in the SL world as 'copy' and there's no putting them back. So here's my thoughts.

1. I use the 20x20x.05 prim all the time. Its a One Prim Platform or Wall replacing Four. Add texture, and it can look great.
2. The SL server engines only calculate 'physics' for items that are 10m or smaller.
3. I NEVER try to resize ANY of the Mega Prims. I assume going in, that they are unstable.
4. MOST of them are unusable as a result. (I mean, really. What Possible Use Can you have for a 40meter bowling ball with no finger holes?)
5. MANY of them are downright dangerous. Using the 'infinite' one, for example, should get you banned for life from SL. You and all your Alts...

5. If you want the Mega prims for free, you can get them for Zero Lindens on SLEXCHANGE.COM.

The Lindens tolerate them. It *IS* true that more experienced persons in SL can make them do wonderful things...but if you're reading this thread, you're probably not among the experts, yet. Before you start playing with them, Search and read all this forum's discussions on the Mega Prims. If you want to see some good ones in action, TP into the IBM sims and look UP.

There's a number of builds that use them. I really like the 20x20x60 "log" with some creative dimpling and cutting, it can be used to make nice 10m radius rounded corners on buildings.

As to the 40x40 bowling balls.. you can change the prim shape easily using a dropdown.. so it can become a 40x40x40 torus, or box, or cylander...

I so wish that Gene had left us a 20x20x20 prim. I'd have a PROPER blimp.

if i remember aren't they only tolerated on private sims?

private sims, and on land you own (control) so long as it doesn't encroach on your neighbor's land.

I think LL was asked about this one or two Town Hall Meetings ago. IIRC, they didn't really have any issue with them as long as they weren't abused..

"It serves you right for buying something that was marked for sale in a sandbox. There are rules against selling in sandboxes - if it were legal, sellers would take over the sandboxes every day (as free retail space) and no one would be able to use the area as intended.

Its ignorant behavior like yours (buying stuff for sale in sandboxes) that perpetuates this behavior. Do you also buy stuff that's advertised in spam emails?"
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Begging your pardon, but I do believe these items were set out by the sandbox owner, as he has signs up to indicate such. Since posting, I have resolved my issue. The hostility expressed in your response to my statement is unaccountable, so I will presume you "had a bad day."

Take it easy over their bud, not everyone knows what you know......

Mega prims in short are VERY legal, they are not as stable however, LL has stated that at any given moment they could be removed, with that in mind you'd want to use some measure of caution. They also do not behave as other prims do, ie; when you cut a mega prim, the cut portion of the prim will remain solid although it seems transparent.

Anyone wants any of the 'reasonably' sized ones, they are available for free in a barrel at the Caledon VictoriaCity telehub. Just look on the freebie carts.

Yep, LL said they wouldnt take action on anyone using them on PIs. but knowing them they could of changed their stance on it and not told anyone.

Last official word I had on the subject was private isle usage of the huge hack prims was ok. Mainland usage wasnt being encouraged. I tossed one to a friend who had two islands which were attached. Rezzing the thing on one isle caused strange anomolies to occur on the adjacent sim. As for flunkies selling these things on the open market, BOOOOOOO! You can grab em for free all over the place. A nifty novelty item that you cant trust to be stable in your builds.

Mega prims IMO are just as legal as sit teleporters. They are all hacks and people use them. Including me.