planar texture but no plane prim

Having to use prim torture to get flat planes is annoying. When is SL going to get a PROPER plane (2 sides only) prim?

Wouldn't that be a particle? Though I suspect having 2d objects in 3d world causes all sorts of difficulties

No, a 2-sided 3D plane--no thickness. SL's particles are 1-sided planes but Active Worlds 4.1's particles can be 1-sided (sprites/facers), 2-sided (specific rotation), or 3D models. AW can also do 1- and 2-sided polygons. 3D apps/modellers do planes JUST fine. SL doesn't--oddly.

It would probably mess with physics way too much for them to consider it (at least in the immediate future). Its very likely that LL has structured the SL code in such a way that the modeling system is heavily coupled with Havok - which may be why they're having so many problems porting to Havok 2/3.

A plane primitive would have no volume (height*width*0 = 0) and therefore an undefined density (density = mass / volume).
==Chris

A plane can still have density; just because it would be flat doesn't mean it couldn't be given some arbitrary density proportional to its size.

Aww, c'mon. This must have been covered, like, three times in the past couple of months.

There's no good reason for it other than billboarding, which would be better implimented on particles.

No, it wouldn't, since particles always face the camera while a true plane would not. Particles also can't last more than 30 seconds, while a true plane prim could last indefinetly.

Yes, planes have been discussed before but, while it would be nice to be able to simply not render parts of a block prim, it still requires specifically setting 5 of 6 cube sides to not render instead of just being able to rez a 2-sided prim initially.

I guess, of all people, I can't complain about your laziness.

Laziness? Have you looked at the creatable objects lately? The "wedge" is just a tapered/sheared box. The "pyramid" is just a tapered box. The "half-cylinder" is just a cut cylinder. The "cone" is just a tapered cylinder. The "half-cone" is just a tapered, cut cylinder. The "hemisphere" is a cut sphere.

Even if a "plane" was just a box with 5 sides automatically set to be nonrenderable would suffice. I don't necessarily agree with having a completely transparent side be nonrenderable since that would most likely negate touch/collision events, etc. Active Worlds has an explicit "visible" action command:...separate from transparency (which AW doesn't have an action command for).

And yet, oddly, no button for the prism prim. The buttons could do with a total overhaul, I don't see any problem with putting in a button that makes a 'plane' like you suggested in your last post if/when that happens.

Prism is the 4th button between the pyramid and cylinder. Again, the problem with a 4-/5-sided transparent box plane is described above.

Oh yeah, so it is. Odd having that as a pyramid and the one that looks like the prism actually a cube.

I'm not really getting what you're saying about the problem with transparent sides, sould you explain it in another way?

It's described in the "discussed before" link above...

That's not exactly "discribed above". Still, I don't remember any problems with it in that thread. Any chance you could point me to the right post or describe it quickly for me?

"Described above" in the "discussed before" link. You really just need to read the thread to understand why.

Argent Stonecutter was the main proponent of 100% alpha (transparent) surface culling. However, he incorrectly assumed plane object poly counts. A plane is single- or double-sided a 4-vertex, 2-/4-polygon panel. A 6-sided cube has 12 polygons. A "plane cube" would have the same sides/polys but SL doesn't allow cubes to be completely flat (0 thickness).

SL still renders 100% transparent sides/prims/objects. If SL stopped doing this, such things wouldn't be affected by touches/collisions (unless they were explicitly coded to, like Active Worlds' "visible" command still allowing collisions--but this can be circumvented in the object by making it a nested clump, if I remember correctly).

A plane prim would just be easier to work with than having to worry about making sides 100% transparent, flattening cubes fully (which wouldn't be a bad idea for a 2-sided plane at least), etc. Perhaps a compromise: a separate 1-sided plane prim and, for a 2-sided plane, a completely flat cube.

I was in the thread... and I was in the "culling 10 tris isn't worth it" group. Thought maybe there was something more to it I'd missed, guess not.

Useful little thing in case you don't know: set prim to sphere, set dimple to .49 beginning .51 end, set prim to cube, set z size to 0.01 - makes a really really flat cube (so flat you have to zoom right into it to get the sides big enough to even render a line of pixels.

Quite aware of it; not fully flat. You're missing the point about a plane, it seems...and I tire of trying to explain it to you. Quit being a troll.

Okay; I can't understand a word you say, you can't undertand a word I say. Fair enough.

Um...yea. Perhaps you just need sleep. I understand you fine; you just don't make much sense.

Umm, your understanding of basic physics is different from mine. A plane by definition can't have a density, and in any case, density is not and has never been proportional to size in any way.

I said a plane COULD have density if GIVEN an ARBITRARY density... SL is a VIRTUAL environment where SIMULATED physics can be improved/tweaked/enhanced/changed/altered/messed with...

I'd actually never heard of this before and found it immensely useful; I kept getting frustrated with being unable to make things flat enough on jewelry and such. *claps*