Skybox: relationship between land and space?

Maybe I “took the cart before the horse” by buying land before a structure

I'm looking at a skybox that has a footprint of 32 X 48, requiring 3072 sqm, and 702 prims. (What is the footprint?)

I have 4 connected 512 sqm parcels that are contiguous and one 1024 sqm parcel that is a few hundred meters distant.

Using the above skybox as an example, can I just add my total prims from these 5 lots or do they all have to be adjoining each other?

Let's say I put this skybox at 4,000 m, do I own all vertical space above the parcels or only one elevation point? (In exploring, I've seen multiple vertical structures and building platforms).

Does it matter, for the purposes of computation, that one of my parcels is separate from the other four with respect to sqm? For example, this skybox requires 3072 sqm. I have 512 X 4 = 2048 + 1024 = 3072. A match. So can I use the sqm of my separate parcel as part of the total or do I have to buy another property connected to the first four? This is related to the question above about adding prims.

Thank you very much.

You can join parcels for prim's sake, so long as the parcels are on the same sim.

Just click edit terrain, select part of one parcel and drag it to part of another parcel. Click "join parcels."

It will warn you about resetting the parcels but just keep doing this until all parcels are connected.

Then you can reset the land settings to whatever you wish.

As far as physical size, you should buy one (or more) skybox(es) that is/are equal or lesser to the parameters of the actual physical lots. Otherwise it will be above someone else's land. Yes you own the air above also. So do they.

Prims count toward how many objects you can have on the joined parcels, in total. Each object has a certain # of prims total. You can see this total by clicking it, choosing edit, and looking on the first edit panel. It will say "number of primitive objects" or something like that. Primitives are prims.

The footprint refers to the actual land it covers if you put it at ground level on a flat piece of property. So you have to have a physically connected chunk of land that is 32 meters wide and 48 meters long in order to be able to put this skybox on your property without having it cover somebody else's land.

As for vertical space, you own all vertical space above the property you own.

When it comes to prim counts, the properties you own do not have to be physically contiguous. As long as they are all in the same sim, you can use the prims from any or all of your properties anywhere in that sim you want to use them.

Try to find as low prim a skybox as you can, by the way.

A good guide is to have your house be no more than 1/4 to 1/3 the total prims you have available. So, if you have 702 total prims available - aim for a house that is 1/4 to 1/3 of that. Remember - a house is just a box that holds your stuff, leave yourself plenty of prims for "stuff" that you will actually use.

For a footprint, it depends on how your parcel is laid out. Typically, a 512 parcel is approx 16 m x 32 m. Most likely, your parcel dimensions are are 32 m x 64 m - so you are really tight on the footprint but it can be done. Keep in mind during your set up that you have zero tolerance on the 32 side, so be sure to have markers up so you know you aren't edging over onto your neighbors property.

Prim count for all parcels in the same sim with the same owner (or deeded to the same land group), all automatically share prim count. You do not need to "join" the parcels to share prim count within a sim, and you can not in any way share prim count with parcels NOT in the same sim, no matter who owns them.

Joining parcels has the advantage that the access lists, ban list, and other settings for the joined parcel act as one. So if you are on the 512 M2 pacel in the SE corner of the sim, and ban Griefer Joe there, he's banned immediately in all the parcels in that sim that you "Joined" to each other.

As for airspace, you own a precise vertical column, streaight up from your parcel edges to infinity - though for practical purposes only to 4096 Meters, since that is the highest functional altitude for building and interacting normally in SL. So wherever you put that skybox, it has to be positioned so no part of it extends outside of that vertical column.

Overlapping into someone else's vertical column of space is called "encroachment", and your prims in their airspace count against the resources they are paying for, not yours. It is an abuse-reportable offense to encroach on other's land, and you could find all or part of your skybox deleyted or returned to you if that part was encroaching on someone else's airspace.

The "footprint" of the skybox is the dimensions of a rectangle of length and width that would enclose the structure completely. So for example, a skybox with "a footprint of 32 X 48, requiring 3072 sqm, and 702 prims" needs to be positioned over a parcel that is, at a minimum, 32 meters by 48 Meters in size, to ensure your vertical column of airspace fully enclosed it. If you owned a checkerboard of alternating 4M x 4M micro-parcels covering half the sim, like the red squared on a checkerboard, you would be entitled to use half the prims in the sim (7.500 prims!), BUT, no structure could be larger than 4M x 4M in footprint, because anything larger would overlap onto the "black squares on the checkerboard", which you do NOt own.

So, that skybox with "a footprint of 32 X 48, requiring 3072 sqm, and 702 prims", has to be over a parcel that is at least 32M x 48M in size. BUT, it also requires 702 prims, which is pretty elaborate for a skybox. So they have calculated for you that the minimum land area that you need to own in the same sim, to get those 702 prims available, would be 3072 M2 of land. A 32M x 48 parcel is only 1,536 M2, and would not, by itself, give you enough prims.

Also consider that the skybox is probably unfurnished. You'll need more prims available, beyond the 702 required for the structure, to allow you to also rez any furniture, pose balls, pictures on the walls, or other personal items. As a general rule of thumb, reserve about as many prims for content as the structure itself requires. So to comfortably live in that 702 prim skybox, you'll most likely want to have at least 1,400 prims available to you in the sim. (Or better yer, as Isablan recommends, have 2 to 3 times as many prims free after setting up teh structure as you have avaiilable in that sim.) So you would likely want to own at least 6,144 M2 or more in that sim, to support a 702 prim skybox and the furnishings to go in it. The 3072 M2 that you own now is only *barely* enough to rez the skybox, if you have zero other prims in the entire sim.

A 512 M2 parcel is often 16 M by 32M in size. If your four contiguous 512's are side by side, sharing the long edges, that would be a 32M by 64M rectangle. That might work to have the box above the land, even if not joined into one parcel. But if they were contiguous, but connected end to end in a 16M wide by 128M long strip, the skybox would not fit over that block of parcels.

Bottom line? It sounds to me like you'll need to buy more land in that sim, somewhere close to some of the existing land to ensure a large enough contiguous column of airspace, to be able to use that skybox.

What I find is ideal is to get a footprint made at ground that fits exactly the dimensions of your parcel.

So for the 512 plot skybox I've made, I included a 16x32 megaprim with a small hole in the middle and a grid-like texture.

Align some footprint prim(s) at ground so that they come to all of the edges of your plot. If you do this, it will always have x and y coords that are whole numbers. If not a whole number, you aren't lined up right.

Move that footprint to any height between ground and 4096, and put your skybox there.
- Do note that if you put the skybox at 4096, you won't be able to rez anything inside of it more than likely, unless its center it actually its roof. So I would say don't go above 4096 minus the height of the box, minus another 5m, just to give you play room...

- Once you have your skybox out in that space, don't delete your footprint, just move it a height that neither you nor any current neighbor within 128m is using (most people set a camera limit around 96 - so here you're just trying to keep it from being ugly visual glare). If you want, make it transparent, but keep it and keep some way of knowing where you put it.

- Myself, I kept it around 2500m up, and put a TP pad on it, and some building aids. Its now my workshop.

- you will appreciate having kept it later on, when you start getting the itch to add things or move things, and need an instant way to make sure you stay within your property.


The others above me are right too on getting a low prim skybox. Put those skybox makers to task. Unless you are buying a furnished box, you want it as low prim as a designer can manage to get it. Every prim saved is one more prim for your toys. Even in a pre-furnished skybox, you want to retain at least 20% of the prims for yourself and later stuff.

Last night I rezzed two cubes, then made the Z of one of them 10m. 3m above that I placed the other cube. Then I linked them, and shoved the whole thing to max height. By so doing I managed to place a build above 4100m - though that build consisted of a single cube.



As long as the base prim is still on your land, anything encroaching onto another's will still count against you and not them. It is still reportable as it could interfere with their build.

Anytime I rez anything that comes close to the edge of my land, I start by rezzing a thin wall textured white and slamming it up against the edge of my property, I then move that wall up and down the item I've rezzed to make sure that, with my camera looking from the other property, nothing pokes through the wall. Ie: That everything's inside my line.

Kurt if you want, I can come out (or I'm sure others would volunteer also) and lay down a couple megaprims that will give you a perfect idea of the base measurement for a skybox you would make or purchase.

Or actually, you could try it on your own as well.

A 512 lot is 16 by 32 usually. So, two of those, in whichever configuration, if you are looking for a skybox for a 1024 lot. (In other words, it will give you an idea of length/width.) If you have other lots nearby, a skybox would need to be separate and fit into those parameters as well. (It can be as tall as you want - but not wider than the individual land borders.)

If you join all parcels on the sim, the prim total will be cumulative.

I've seen 4 prim skyboxes. Just depends what you want/need.

Yes, you can build below 4096 and push it higher. BUT, move it at all, and the whole linkset will snap back below 4096M. Try unlinkig your example, and then try editing the position of the cube at 4100 M. It will snap back below 4096M.

It is much safer to rez your skybox at 4000 meters or below.

Absolutely no reason to have it higher than that, especially if you also use an orb.

Oh I wasn't suggesting the idea. Just saying that I'd pulled it off.

Why keep Orbs below 4000 though?

EDIT: Just put an Orb at max height, and took an alt to 4200. As I went down, I was TP'd out in the mid 4100s.
- So the reason not to do it is not technical. Is there another reason?

I wouldn't. But, if someone was very very worried about privacy - i.o.w. someone who would want to be at 10,000 meters. Being at 4000 with an orb is at least easier.

Well, max build height is 4096.

That's why I'm wondering why you suggested that orbs users stick to under 4000, rather than under 4096. I'm trying to discern if there is something special about orbs to be aware of here, or if you might have just been 'rounding off.'