32 Primitive Limitation...

I'm new, so I was unaware of this limitation.

Recently I've made a ship that houses well over 32 primitives. After making the ship, I wanted to add a scripts to make it fly, shoot lasers, and other things. However, every time I add a script to my ship, the script doesn't work. Instead I get this script error message that tells me that I've went over the limit of 32 primitives for the script to work. In addition, I can't click the box to make my ship Physical.

My question is what can I do to get around this limitation? (Exclude the obvious idea of making my ship 32 primitives, because that is just to much damn work washed down the drain)

**Also, why would SL creators even put such a limitation into a game such as this?**

Physical objects are relatively computationally expensive, as they obey the laws of gravity and bounce around etc.
Thing is, for a lot of vehicular animation you don't really need this - all you need is pretty simple stuff like constant acceleration/deceleration and moving at a fixed velocity. It wouldn't be so bad if you could actually do this yourself with llSetPos(...) etc., but it's pretty much impossible to get very nice looking movement like this because of delays built into the commands - and if your vehicle is more than 256 prims (e.g. a train with 3 or 4 carriages!) you're completely out of luck - trying to get the carriages to move in sync with the engine is a complete exercise in futility.

Depending on how fussed you are about the smoothness of your vehicle movement you could either waste a lot of time on this for no satisfactory result, or put up with jerky 5fps animation.

I really don't see why llMoveToTarget(...) or a variant of couldn't work on non-physical objects, but that's just how it is for now.

The limitation is on how many prims can be in an object that is made "physical". If the Physics engine has to include your object in its calculations, every prim in the linkset adds to the complexity of what it is dealing with. The Havok physics simulations limit a physical object to no more than 32 prims. So most simple vehicle scripts have to be for 32 of fewer prims in the *actual* vehicle. The physics engine then makes it easy for the vehicle 9and seated crew) to behave like a physical vehicle should, following terrain as it rolls, or floating, or moving like a plane...

The work-arounds vary.

I have a huge pirate ship, with elaborate sails and functioning cannons. It's well over 260 prims. About 27 of that is the base hull, which is a real SL Vehicle, and allows for a pilot and a crew of 4. The rest is a 240-or-so-prim *attachment*, that is worn on the pelvis of the pilot. When you are not piloting the ship, the hull rezzes a static version of the extra prims for the sails and cannons and other details. When the pilot takes command, that static part de-rezzes, and the attachment appears. As you sail and give commands, the attachment chnages the sails and does the other stuff one expects of the more elaborate ship. each of the 4 crew stand at one of the gunnery stations. No one can move from their station while the ship is in flight.

A different approach also has a base 32-or-fewer-prims vehicle, but uses scripted comands to cause other linksets to move as the vehicle moves, so it appears to be a much larger collection of prims moving as a unit.

A third approach is to have the base vehicle be non-physical. This requires a different kind of scripting, but allows more prims in the vehicle itself. I have a 132-prim bus that seats something like 20 passengers plus a driver, and it's entirely non-physical.

For more detailed advice and answers, ask and search in the Scripting Tips forum.

Probably, the best solution for you, and easiest to implement would be Jesrad Seraph's "Multi Move." You can find it in game on her island, and free on XStreetSL.

The pirate ship sounds awsome... would love to see that!

It was the "SPD Brigantine", by Chase Speculaas. I got it back in late 2006. The down side is to rez it, you need 277 prims free on the parcel, and of course the ability to rez prims there. To disembark elsewhere, you need the same.

From a notecard that came with it:

The Brigantine is the epitome of functional SL sailing combat. It is a huge step forward from anything before it. Using wearable parts technology, which attaches and detatches and rezzes parts of the ship automatically, the Brigantine is able to sport 250+27 prims and still be able to function smoothly using realistic wind-driven sailing physics.

The cannons can be controlled by your crew, with an easy, intuitive interface that doesn't involve annoying channel-setting or confusing HUDs. The ship can be used as a plain vehicle, for relaxing cross-grid cruises, or as part of the SPD pirate ship game; its cannons damage other new-line SPD ships (currently only the Brigantine, but I'll be developing several other compatible ships in the future), and you can sink them/be sunk/etc.


Features:
--27 HP
--Can be damaged by cannonballs fired from other compatible ships (currently the Brigantine only)
--Capsizes if it heels too much in strong crosswinds
--Repair Depot included
--All textures on the ship are modifiable
--Ship is driven by the wind, using Kanker Greenacre's sailboat script as the base (however, heavily modified to fit this very diffent kind of ship, including the addition of square sails)
--Cannons can be armed, or hidden belowdecks and the gun ports can be closed
--250 + 27 prims, using state-of-the art automated wearing technology
--Sails and Hull textures show progressive damage (torn sails, cannon ball holes, etc.)
--8 independently aimable cannons, with more realistic reload time and movement limits
--Muzzle flash, smoke effects, etc.
--Voice activated planks
--Can rez a working lifeboat
--Includes the newest version of the Speculaas Melee system
--Can be Scuttled
--Progressive damage effects; sails more slowly the more damaged it is
--Working anchor and dock-tie lines

There are a range of ships that are available, and places you can sail them the Antiquity regions and Beek Haven Pirate RP sim are great places to both buy, view and sail these craft.

Not to mention Hollywood which was great before but now its linked to the mainland is even better.

Be warned though, sailing the ships is addictive, especially when you can literally, run aground, fire the cannon at other ships, damaging them and being damaged when you fire at them or they fire at you.