Mega prims for building - do I dare?

Hi,

I know there is a lot of discussion right now about mega prims, and that Linden is considering removing the use of some/all from Second Life. But they are so useful for sky platforms, house builds, etc.

Do I dare build my new gallery with 20 or 32 meter prims for walls and floors? Or am I just asking for trouble when/if I have to replace them all?

What are other people doing right now when building? Do you take a chance and use them?

Princess Ivory

After that blog post, and email on the developer mailing list for people to chime in, I sincerely doubt that they are going to stick around. From the developer list:

"They may help you build, but they also create a number of problems. Megaprims cause problems with upgrades we want to make to both the physics and graphics engines. Now is your chance to weigh in and influence our decision."

I am so sorry to say it, but sayonara megaprims.

I'm using the 20x20x0.5 for floors and have toyed with the idea of using them for my walls, but I haven't felt up to the task of changing them yet.

I am still Using the 20x20 for floors and walls, I think thats resonable..

use the 20's...
best case the smaller mega's stick around
worst case, you have to replace them, in which case the 20's ar a good size for easy replacement

We use the 256x256 to double our sim space...drop one at 500M and poof you have twice the building room...also for sim wide water, but anything bigger than that there really is no use for..other than to greif.

I'm sorry to say it, but if Caledon gets trashed over a megaprim decision, the income and goodwill can evaporate just as fast as the prims - instantly.

Megaprims were how we survived the 100 USD/mo pricehike and continued to produce quality areas.

This is seriously not funny stuff - the need for useful prims outweighs just about everything by a factor of 99% to 1%.

I see how much prims get used vs. physics and some other features across dozens of sims. It's no contest.

Sacrificing useful prims that everybody could use for the sake of features that almost nobody uses... is just a plain slap in the face to consumers.

Take away the megaprims, and SL will generate *more* problems for all concerned, not less.

It's just one more kick in the face to private island owners, and if we collapse under the weight of oppressive cost margins you'll all get to live on the bloody mainland - see how fast you get a sim restart, an ad farm wiped or an abusive hooligan banned there.

Dare I say that more prims = more income for tier to LL? After all, you will need more land to get the same builds w/out the humble mega prim.

I am glad you are as much of a megaprim aficionado as I am! Please work your magic FIC powers and spread the word. I'll do as much as I can, in my own peasant way

See http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Andrew_Linden/Office_Hours/2007_10_16.

In particular:

[16:40] Andrew Linden: Here's the deal...
[16:40] Andrew Linden: Most of the people at LL think megaprim content is cool.
[16:41] Andrew Linden: Breaking content is Very Bad
[16:41] Andrew Linden: Currently there are a bunch of big estate owners who use megaprims to make cool content (IBM, greenies, Electric Sheep, etc)
[16:41] Andrew Linden: There is no way anyone is going to be able to nerf megaprims.
[16:42] Andrew Linden: I know because I tried several months ago.

Never is a powerful word.

As in, never underestimate the power of a stupid idea.

True to a point, but I honestly think their rationale isn't pricing.

Or even griefing possibilities, but rather technical issues with the larger prims.

It's much nicer to technical minds to have everything working flawlessly and as intended. Which I can understand and respect but bottom line, this is the sort of thing we might have absorbed at 195/mo, NOT at the lease expense of a new luxury car per region.

* * * * *

There are going to be megaprims on the SL grid.

How can I be so sure?

Because the competition will do it.

And it would be just plain foolish to let the competition smack SL around with such huge, incredibly ironic clue-by-fours.

So they may get wiped now, but if so, it's just a matter of how embarrassing it will be when they come back.

Even upping the prim limits won't fix this one, what with link limit issues. Megaprims are just too darn useful exactly as they are.

A very wise man. Thank you for the reference, Seifert.

Correct me if I am wrong, but since I joined SL in 2005, I was under the impression that the use of mega-prims, regardless of size, was not allowed by LL. Residents risked removal of such prims without recourse if they used them. Perhaps it wasn't enforced well, but LL never changed their stance on the prims.

You're wrong!
Their use was not encouraged possibly the found issues with even Havok 2, Lindens will remove Megaprims extending onto other peoples land, but they will also do the same for a standard 10m prim too.

Personally, I'm using as many as I can while I can, disguising and storing them as 20x20m coffee tables so I can make a killing selling them on the black market after they are banned

The smaller of the megaprims are reasonably safe to use. The bigger they are, the worse they are for the physics engine. Andrew just wants to stabilize the physics engine by nuking the really big ones (which nobody wants him to do).

Would it be proper to ask if someone could donate a 20 x 20 to me? I am not really sure if that is a buy one or be gifted one - I don't mean to come across as a beggar - just not sure if the approach. Thanks folks. Don't really think my abilities to date will permit me to handle anything bigger- maybe with time but, after reading all this and other related threads, they sound rather frightening to a relative noob to the whole build thing. But it is so convenient for land leveling and walls to cover ugly.

Amaranthim you can grab some for free on SL Exchange: http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=291482.

If you don't have a SLX account the seller also has them available inworld. He has a SLURL to his place where you can pick them up. Good luck and be careful

Hey - thanks much - I will do so

So if the small ones weren't an issue, why didn't they just come out and talk about the really huge ones, instead of making people sweat over losing their walls, screens and floors?

/me groans.

I think that slowing development of SL content so that some people can use megaprims rediculous. There have been reports of performance issues in sims using them, and they can negatively effect physics.

I would rather have 5 features added that I will never use, than 1 exploit that effects physics or overal sim performance.

Destroying thousands of hours of valuable work and driving people away is preferable? How about waiting until we have a physics system that works?

Perhaps if people didn't waste thousands of hours of work with an unsupported hack causing issues with sim performance and physics... those people wouldn't be whining when the Lindens talk about removing megaprims, hmmm?

I am all for larger prims... but not until they are released officially, and do not cause the issues being reported with the existing exploits.

Woulda shoulda coulda, but that's long behind us. Many of the most impressive builds could not have been achieved without the use of megaprims, as relief for the parsimonious prim allotments, especially those needing curved surfaces. And most people do not have problems with using the megaprims as walls and floors, which is probably the primary use of large prims. Most people have never been griefed by megaprims. Most people don't notice that they are there. And encroachment is done more often with regular prims, like trees, than megaprims. Most of the "issues" surrounding megaprims are limited to a small number of people. And as for the super large prims... that's a tough call, but if they can make it work, it would be better to keep them, so as to not lose valuable content. Without the content, there is no point to SL.

There was content before megaprims, so I don't buy that argument for one minute. But as I have said numerous times over two different threads on this topic, I am not against larger prims at all. I am against unsupported hacks, which the "megaprims" currently are.

Until they are officially supported, and do not harm physics or overall sim performance, the desire to use them is... in my opinion... selfish and unjustified. I can see no good reason to allow them if they are causing problems with stability, lag, or effecting the physics engine which some of us rely on for our own projects.

Lobby to get larger prims added to the official feature set, or deal with their loss. That is my stance on the subject.

edit - And let me ask you this... if you are using megaprims for builds you sell, are you going to issue refunds to everyone who bought them if megaprims are removed from Second Life? Sounds like a risky endeavor to use them commercially, to me.