Statically bent prims

he current mechanisms for creating bent-looking prims by aplying a path cut to a curved rpim produce prims that are hard to work with, don't allow small bends, and can't be made flexible, they also only allow bends in one direction.

Currently a prim with a linear path can have the path end point shifted relative to the base (shear). I would like an additional one-bit flag added to the object that would interpret the shear as a bend of up to 90 degrees in the path. The logic for calculating the resulting shapes in the physics engine and teh client already exist, since the curved prims are built in a similar fashion.

Unlike curved prims, though, these bent prims would not be limited to a curve with a 10 meter maximum radius. This would allow for the creation of very large curved structures with accurate curves, without requiring megaprims. For example, a 10 meter prim with a 15 degree bend would allow the creation of an accurate cylinder with a circumference of 240 meters, or a radius of almost 40 meters, made of 24 prims.

This would allow for much more natural looking buildings and organic shapes.

Also, since they could be made flexible, more realistic flexible hair and tails could be made using fewer prims than currently required.

Proposal VWR-393.

*Thumbs up*
Awesome.