How many prims is too many?

After spending far too many hours shopping for furniture in-game (and far too many Lindens buying it), I've started to make my own. I've made a living room set that I absolutely love and am considering selling it. However, it is pretty high prim. The chairs weigh in at 17 prims each, and the set I use in my living room (2 chairs, a sofa, a coffee table, an end table, a floor lamp, and a table lamp) is over 90 prims. There are a few tricks I could use to reduce the prim count a bit, but it wouldn't be by much. There are other things I could do that would reduce the count even more, but it wouldn't look nearly as good.

A lot of the furniture I like in the stores is also fairly high prim, but some of that is because of what I consider wasted prims (things like invisible pose balls--my poses are placed into the chair pads themselves). Some of it is the style--it is somewhat American Craftsman/Stickley/Mission style, and most of the other furniture in that style is also very high prim (some has higher counts than mine).

I'm completely happy with it, and since I made it for me (and had fun making it), that is what is important, but I do like the idea of also selling it. I'm not looking for advice on how to lower the prim count--that would be for another forum. But I am interested in your opinions and preferences on prim heavy furniture and other items. Would the prim count immediately discourage you from buying it? Do you have a preconceived idea of what you consider to be too many prims for an item? Am I overly concerned with this?

I prefer pose balls...they're generally adjustable, whereas scripts in the cushions are not (that I've ever seen), so you're stuck with whatever the creator set them at no matter your av's size.

And 90 prims for a full living room set doesn't seem that high to me.

There are different market segments in SL, so you have to understand who you are building for. There are people who are on severe prim budgets and they want very low prim furniture. There are people who are willing to pay to have more detailed items. There are people who won't bat an eye at a 50 prim couch - but that 50 prim couch better be beautifully textured and perfectly constructed.

My suggestion would be to start low prim and learn how to use texture to create the illusion of detail. Then work up to higher prim items. There IS a market for higher prim, but the quality has to be there as well.

That is a good point, I'll think about that. Perhaps it is because my av is fairly average sized (by SL standards) that I've never encountered that problem.

QFT.

I would always choose a well made high quality product regardless of how many prims it uses. However I have seen some stuff that is made with very few prims and is of excellent quality - it's mainly in the texturing because textures don't cost prims.

Don't forget as well that in the days before sculpties and flexis you often needed more prims for items to make them look right

I've recently realized that I'd much rather have a smaller house with a couple well furnished rooms, than a large house with a lot of empty rooms or so-so furniture.

I've spent a lot of time shopping, and also looking at how other people have put theirs together (and seen what sorts of things work). The single most effective detail is the subtle use of a drop shadow under the furniture. The use of that single extra prim makes a huge difference. I've also seen a lot of things that don't quite work, and it is almost always things done to lower the prim count (you can save quite a few prims by doing a lot of cutting and skewing--and it often looks terrible, especially if you are sloppy with texturing). Besides the construction techniques, the style and design itself can make a huge difference--some things just need more prims to look right.

There are a few textures I'm not quite happy with (the upholstery, mostly)--and I wouldn't start selling it until I am, and there are a few I'm still tweaking to add in some subtle shadowing.

I've found that some details work just as well or even better when done as textures, and some details really need to be prims. Unless it works better as a prim, I try to do things as textures, even though it takes longer for me, generally.

If you are happy with it, chances are other people will share your enthusiasm and also think it is beautiful. Prim counts to me as a consumer don't really mean much,
I own a 1/4 sim and have plenty to play with. There are many more like me. There are also many more who don't own that much.

Think of target audience and quality of product. If something is well made, well textured and well scripted then people WILL buy it regardless of the prim amounts.





I use scripts that allow poses to be adjusted via a simple pop up menu so it allows everyone to adjust to their Avie specifications/size.

Search Perfect Sitter on SLX. It's relatively simple to set up, and saves on the poseballs.

I am of the same opinon

I have a two-room home with Mission decor, and you have chosen a great market segment, because there aren't enough stores doing this stuff!

The suggestion about the drop shadow is a good one, hmmm....

Mission is intrinsically high-prim, so 90 is high but not outrageous. You might want to take a look at the furniture set at Trompe L'Oiel's big lodge prefab, I think it's called "The Arc"? She uses some sculpties to good effect (just standard shapes), and it's gorgeously textured.

I am adding a bedroom and would like a nice Mission/Craftsman bedroom set please. Dressing table with chair, bed with high posts, round 3D rug BTW, mod permissions on beds are very nice to have.

Well, my bedroom furniture consists of a sleeping bag at the moment, so I was planning on doing a bedroom set at some point! I was planning on making all my furniture with mod permissions, so that isn't a problem (I would only sell something that I'd want to buy--and that is something I would prefer having on my purchases). I like the idea of the dressing table, I hadn't thought about that.

Later, when I'm in game, I can send you some landmarks to other places I've found that sell Mission-style, etc., if you'd like.

Oh, cool, yes!

I like to have a dressing table so I can add the "brushing hair" anim (either the single or couple one) from B&B.

Do drop the links, and if I ever have some free time ingame you can drop by ... my place is tiny, but maybe it'll be fun to see how one person uses a small sorta Mission space.
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starting with low prim builds is an excellent suggestionm Not only does it include a larger audience but it also alludes to the quality of builder you are. I will ususally build a thing and try to stay cognizant of prim usage all along the way. After it's done I will then try to see how many prims I could do without and keep the same build and many times I have suprised myself .

This is just me, and I'm obsessed with primcount, but totally separate from total number of prims used, if I see an article that uses more prims than it absolutely must in order to get the same effect, I just won't buy *unless* (as in your case) the furniture is mod-perm. But even if I can mod it, if I can't figure out how to use the already-textured prim faces to make the mods I want, then I can't bring myself to buy. I refuse to steal textures, just to fix something I've bought. But to be honest, I'm not your target market because I don't buy furniture anymore, because...

... I *really* wish that furniture makers included or offered for sale all the custom textures used in their furniture, at least to furniture buyers, so we could make matching items not offered by the original creator--coordinated drape fabrics, say, or wood trim on walls or picture frames. I don't know how many times I've begged and pleaded, and have never once succeeded. So, I just don't buy furniture anymore. At least I can match my own custom textures.

I have always done this on request, not everyone is so paranoid - and there really isn't any reason for it either. Just give the texture as no transfer and the creator is protected.

I made a living room set which consists of floor lamp, 3 table lamps 3 end tables, 1 coffee table, 1 arm chair, 1 sofa, and 1 L shaped sofa

the total prim count is 85 prims (and they use poseballs)

so 90 is a bit high
however since I am not able to see what it is you have made it is hard to judge.

mine are leather furniture(chair is 9 prims, sofa is 17 and L shaped sofa is 31), basic tables, and 1 prim lamps

you can view them at my house (it is behind the arcade, which is across from the store)

Each to their own when it comes to style - some styles will be high prim, others low prim count.
You can get absolutely beautiful furniture made with very few prims in the 3 to five range. Often these low prim furniture will have had a LOT of work put into getting texture, balance and proportion right.

HOWEVER when it comes to selling low prim creations a LOT of shoppers do not see the value in ultra low prim furniture ( or other creations) and will reverse engineer the objects - so the market at the low prim count end of the market is very limited.

I like very low prim furniture if it follows one simple rule:
It has to look good.

If it looks horrible, I don't care how many prims it is, it's staying out of my Home. If it's very obviously not realy that great, I don't want it.

I've seen some absolutley lovely super-low prim stuff. I've also seen some horrible, horrible demonspawn

I wonder if you have 2 objects one with few prims and high resolution texturing, and something that looks similar quality with more prims and low resolution texturing, if there is any difference in performance as far as lag goes, asuming you aren't on a prim budget.

i can make log furniture includiung a couch, chair, table and rug for 54 prims. that's about as low as i can get it no matter how much i tweak it. having said that, i feel 90 is probably on the average-high end, if you have included only all 4 of those items in the count.