What do you think about sculpted prims?

Sculpts have really come into their own in the last year. Having been a sculpt designer for a long time, I'm interested in what the community thinks about sculpts, how sculpt designers can improve their work, and what you'd like to see created.

Here's a few questions about sculpted prims. Feel free to answer as many as you'd like, or give any other thoughts on sculpted prims

1) How essential do you think sculpted prims are to SL?

2) In general, what are the biggest problems you see with sculpted prims when using SL? If you avoid purchasing sculpted products, what are the main reasons?

3) If you purchase full-perms sculpt packs, what are the most important features, and what features do you see lacking? Inclusion of high-quality textures, baked ambient and lighting to be used to make your own, numerous variations in shape and style of sculpt components, and ability to be scaled down small are some possible features.

4) What sort of sculpted products in general would you like to see created in SL with extremely high quality and efficiency beyond what you currently see? From your knowledge of using SL, what products do you think could best benefit from being sculpted?

Here's a partial list:

Props, such as barrels, lights, details like appliances and pipework, and decorative details.

Sculpted furniture. Feel free to specify a style and theme.

Sculpted plants, flowers and trees.

Exterior elements such as benches, bridges, cobble pathways, gazebos and lattices.

Architectural elements, such as windows, stairs, pillars, brickwork, and doors.

Pre-modern weaponry and armor. Bows, more swords, armored pieces, etc. Feel free to specify a theme if desired.

Modern weaponry. Guns of various types, most likely sold in modular full-perm gun packs.

Landscaping elements. Water, rocks, crystals and caves.

human figures/NPC's. 6 to 15 prims each, very high quality, with specific period/cloth sets designed into the sculpt for efficiency.

Jewelry elements. New gems, gem settings, charms, necklace bases, and specialized chains.

Mechanical elements, such as new gears, animated pistons, nuts, bolts, and beams.

Sculpted hair elements. Braids, locks, and other bits created modularly so a wide variety of hairstyles can be created from them.

Prefabs that use sculpted prims extensively for very low prim counts.

Physical vehicles that use sculpts almost entirely.

OK- I didn't read the whole thing just skimmed it but...

I don't care for sculpts - they take for ever to rezz for me- yes, i am sure it's my machine, but regardless. I also don't feel they have come far enough. Although in some cases they work, the overall softness is not always effective. I do not like the huge bounding boxes I have encountered in some pieces.

On the pro side- the savings in prims. Also the softness inherent can be good in some instances- I have used them in bows on a couple of dresses I have made and they were effective in those cases. I do avoid them and would rather find the same thing in regular prims.

I have not seen sculpt gems- so I cannot opine, however on the surface it seems counter intuitive.

Not essential, but a nice feature.

Excessive use of many unique sculpt textures. For example, it would be better to make sculpted hair out of many repeats of a single sculpt than many different sculpts, even if it required more prims. I tend to prefer that a product contain no more than 3 or 4 unique sculpts, though there are definite exceptions when it's clearly necessary.

I don't tend to purchase sculpts by themselves.

A variety of separately sold heads, paws, and the like suitable for use in making personal custom avatars, along with some guidance on texturing them.

I think sculpts have huge potential but as pointed out above, the rezzing issues, they really put me off.

Sculpties are great, although LOD is still a problem. But... sculpties should not be used for a 1 prim very complex object. That simply doesn't look good. Use several sculpties instead of just one prim and use them together with regular prims.

I have sculpted gems, they look awesome actually but I have to agree with you all on the rezzing part of scultped prims - it sucks big time.

The viewer would be better not rendering the prim at all until the sculpt map is downloaded and they can show the correct shape - showing a sphere is worse than useless.

Also if there is a way of making the collision detection work off the apparent size/shape rather than off the sphere it would instantly make them much more useful imo.

I know this is not representative of the general SL population, but I frankly wish sculpties would just go away. I've bought quite a few in products (especially landscaping), use some purchased sculptmaps in builds, and (under extreme duress) have made a few. Nonetheless, I'd very gladly trade the whole sculpted prim functionality for the ability to make megaprims in the editor.

Probably the biggest limitation is the inability to make sculpties fully integrate with other prims in a build. So, they work fine for organic shapes and standalone elements like stairs or railings or columns, etc., but I've never seen anyone meld a box with a sculpted prim to form one continuous surface--never mind getting the surface textures of those components perfectly aligned. And that's even discounting LOD effects. So, however useful they are, they're just no substitute for something like CSG, or other possible representations. Hence, I'd much rather see advances in non-sculpted prim geometry than a lot more investment in sculpted prim development.

Personally, I think sculpts are great! They give objects and clothing a more finished and cleaner look, and I don't typically have rez-time problems with them.

I'll have to agree that a large problem would be the "1 prim" items that are made out of sculpts, that really need more prims. While it's a nice idea, larger objects just don't turn out right.

I've never purchased sculpt packages, as I'm still fiddling around with SL. That doesn't mean I wouldn't in the future, however. So ... I really can't say what they give or what they lack.

Wish I could help, but I can't really think of anything that needs to be done with scultps at the moment.

I agree with most of this but would like to retain sculpties now we have them and improve them where possible (hmmm flexi-sculpties, played with the 3rd party viewer that has this feature and they are fabulous).

If it came to an absolute choice, I too would go with MegaPrims over sculpted prims but if possible I would like both.

Of course I want flexible couplings too but I don't see that happening soon

I do not like them as they are now and would not consider using them, although I keep looking to see what people are making with them and occassionaly check out if they could be of use. I even bought a pack yesterday just to see what my textures look like on them.


The only thing that is keeping me from liking them or using them are 2 things:


I do not understand the surface mapping of them to make textures for them, and the high precision textures I use for regular prims are useless on them.

That most of the complicated shapes seem to be Phantom.


I f there is anything I would like to see..

Quality Building components such as arches of all kinds that resolve into a square at the edges. ie Window frames Door frames etc. But again the texturing on these must be compatible with that of regular prims next to them with the same or similar matching texture.


i.e. Pieces that match if you make a curved piece.. make the counterpart too, kindo like when I make arched doors I always make a frame to math that exact one so when people buy it they don't have to sit there and do the math

I saw that someone made some timber framing components which seem to be a great application, but I wasnt able to verify the quality.

There is more but I am pressed for time so I might have to revist this thread.

sculptes are like every thing else in SL there are some very well done maps and there are a bunch of ragged edged crap.

done right and used with regular prims they are outstanding.most of the great looking cars are great examples of sculptie and regular prims working together to make an outstanding look

I love them, use/wear them everyday.

Rez time for me is not an issue, they really only take seconds. The realism they bring is amazing...shoes shoes SHOES!

I have a very hard time wearing regular prim shoes anymore.

3) If you purchase full-perms sculpt packs, what are the most important features, and what features do you see lacking? Inclusion of high-quality textures, baked ambient and lighting to be used to make your own, numerous variations in shape and style of sculpt components, and ability to be scaled down small are some possible features.

I do, they are probably my biggest expense after tier and um....shoes. I really like when they come with the shading to upload to my graphics program and use in the creation of the texture for the prim. I really haven't used that feature much but that is a lack of time and a little bit of laziness on my part, I should use them, and at some point I will and be kicking myself for not having started sooner

Sculpties like anything have their plus and minus. But overall when used together with regular prims I think it’s a advantage. As a sculptie maker myself I only use them to help reduce the prim count. But all my builds are not totally made out of sculpties.

Slightly off topic .. about LOD, in case you were not aware, you can help approve your LOD with a debug setting. RenderVolumeLODFactor .. setting it to 2.00 will fix this set; I recommend setting it as high as 4 to get all your sculpts looking great.
NOTE: Unlike increasing your draw distance, this will NOT create lag for yourself or those around you! And it will improve the look of all sculpts.

Von, the reason most sculpties are phantom is because sculpties have no collision maps, and collide as spheres. To make a solid sculptie you have to create an endoskeleton of regular prims underneath which is what you actually collide with.

Other than that my opinions on sculpties are similar to those on textures. They need inworld creation tools and better organisation and previewing.

Won't help you look better to other people, though.

Love love love them.

Life is MUCH easier with them.
SL is better for them.

There's my 2¢.

I do purchase sculpt packs (just another tool for what I do)

what I like to see in sculpt packs are backed textures, instructions if they are complicated sculpts, mapped textures if possible (for instance shoes, to show where the insole is, top, back, etc), I would also love to see sculpt creators lower their prices just a tad

there are some nice packs out there, but the cost is way out of my range, so all I can do is... wish...

I have found some that make nice sculpts at reasonable prices, and there are others with (in my opinion) very high prices but I broke down and bought them, thinking that I would be able to sell enough product that was made using the maps, to get my money back, and it never happened, so now, when I am wanting to purchase sculpt packs, I have to wait, and debate if it is worth it.

(don't ask what reasonable prices are, because it would vary on the type of pack, but 3K for a simple stiletto shoe sculpt map is NOT reasonable, for example)

For attachments, one of the main problems with sculpties is YOU see them in seconds, everyone else sees you making your entrance with big gray balls in your hair and on your feet for sometimes tens of minutes. Lately, asset load times make sculpted stuff less efficient than a prim version would be. That said, I do prefer sculpty shoes.. not because of any kind of prim efficiency though, because they can be made into smooth shapes you just cant get with regular prims.
In general, I do tend to stay away from sculpted stuff unless there's no other option. I dread the day LL gives us flexi-sculpts. You think hair rez time is bad now, just wait. I would much prefer they give us more options for regular flexiprims.

Hey Aminom, I love sculpts! I love your sculpts, particularly that airship, truly marvelous! Have you finished your all-sculpt house? Haven't been to your shop for a couple of months...


Right now they are essential for more organic builds. The tree industry in particular has been transformed by them. One look at a HappyMood tree and there's no turning back. Personally I wish they just allowed imports from traditional 3D tools with full texture baking, but I know the sculpt choice was the easy middle ground in terms of implementation. Real import would have allowed physics, but real import would mean calls for intersection and other traditional rendering effects that Second Life doesn't support.

Sculpts are essential, but so are object connection (the old tiny line of two perfectly lined up prims) and texture z-order/mixing, terrain painting and so much more. For their time here so far they have brought a lot to bring Second Life to the 2002-era of 3D environments.


If the are designed right, there are no problems, and the same can be said of any prims. So many people here love to bash the Mainland, so i again offer them the chance to visit Oswald (and a part of its neighbor Olber) for my Fantasy Forest (and Fae Forest) built entirely with pre-fabs and items purchased throughout Scond Life. There are many sculpties on parade, so you'll see I have no problem with them and usually prefer them.


I have purchased packs, and kits like your spiral and standard stairs. My biggest problem is usually resizing and adapting textures. Even what would seem simple, like sculpted rocks, can be a pain if you pay close attention to repeats. So many are designed for no-repeat textures but when you are using large objects the resolution becomes a problem. In terms of more complex kits like your spiral stairs the biggest problem is sizing them. I need a 7m tall version and can sometimes achieve it but resizing the hidden physical prim becomes a problem. I like buying pre-made stuff so I'm not so good an arbiter of this question.


Furniture's a big one, the best looking stuff is often prim heavy, your great house leaves plenty of free prims until you start to decorate.

Vehicles for sure given the prim limits and I don't personally like the vehicles you "wear" to get around those restrictions.

Garden items really benefit and are much more organic than the old three-peat flat-prim holograms or the atrocious Linden trees (now even worse since their LOD adjustment). However, I'd really love Speedtree support and shaders for real grass, sculpts are just part of this equation.

Buildings with sculpt parts. The only time I seem to get performance hits with sculpts is in more complicated builds that are exclusively sculpt-designe. One dude has a great set of three cottages, they are beautiful and low-prim but cause a tremedous FPS drop for me (who is usually getting 30+ everywhere).

Well, that's it for me, keep up the great work sculpt-makers!

I use Wings 3D in the creation of sculpted prims. I have found that when exporting them, selecting 'rescale' in the export dialog makes for a bounding box much closer to the actual size of the sculpty. It makes the rezzed sculpt the same size in all dimensions (for instance, a baseball bat that is 0.5 meters square) but that can be fixed by stretching the prim. And you won't end up with a sculpt that has a bounding box two or three times the apparent width or height of the prim.
I appreciated the appearance of the sculpt type options selectable in the build tool.
And I like sculpts, when they're well done.

I think they can be great for some things. As others have said, shoes and organic shapes come to mind.

The worst use of them I have ever seen was at some town-square type place where the whole TP landing area had been designed with lots of huge sculpts. I am sure it would have looked lovely by the time it had rezzed, but after over half a minute of not even being able to see my av amongst a screenful of big grey blobs I just TP'd out again.

Also, I am not sure they are all that suitable for ... ahem ... personal bodily attachments ... I think it could be quite alarming to see one's lover approaching with a grey bobbly alien growth down there.

It's not your machine: It's your connection. Though there's a bug that makes this more pronounced in the RCs. Turning up your cache size and finding a network speed setting that works best for you will minimize this phenomenon. You're not seeing it rez slowly, you're seeing it download slowly. You'll see it rez much quicker if you're loading it from cache.



I haven't seen that with sculpties...sounds kinda like a transparent texture mapped to something square with what you're seeing.



You do know that you're choosing the laggier version of the item in that case, right?

[qoute]I have not seen sculpt gems- so I cannot opine, however on the surface it seems counter intuitive.[/QUOTE]

You could sculpt a pretty detailed 24k diamond ring in three prims with sculpties. Good luck getting the individual facets in fewer basic prims than it takes to build a simple car...

But the big payoff is that sculpties let you get away with something less primmy, which means lower rendering cost, which means less client-side lag. It doesn't matter how fast it appears if looking at it causes other people to go into a slideshow, after all.

I've seen some excellent sculpts. I've made a few simple ones for use in my home, like the hedges round the boundary and my duvet and pillow. The only disadvantage with sculpts is the way they appear as a ball or whatever until the sculpt texture rezzes. This can look a bit funny on people who wear sculpted items as they look like poodles with pom-poms for a while.

I love sculpts.

I think sculpts add tremendously to SL.

Most sculpts don't take that long for my viewer to render.

I use sculpts, buy sculpted products, use purchased sculpt maps (including your lovveeeelyy gem sculpts... ) and have even dabbled with making sculpt maps from scratch.

No complaints here.