Land that has double prims?

I keep seeing land that is offered as having double the prim ratio as the norm. How is this done or do LL occasionally sell off land with double the prim count allowance?

It is done by allocating half the sim to un-buildable land, so that part of the sim's prim count can be allocated to the rest of the sim. The sim max is still 15,000 prims. They are only 'selling' half the sim, and using the rest, usually set up as water or low-prim terrain, to support the additional prim count.

yeah its either one sim chopped in half or two sims grouped with one that is not used and the other that is. In other words its just a marketing trick

no such thing really hehe

All mainland sim land is 117 prims per 512 meters. The land you see advertised is private estate land where the owners have reserved half the sim for prims only. But be aware, you will be charged a premium for the extra prims.

It isn't possible to group the prim allocation of multiple sims.

And it *is* double prim land. A 512 M2 parcel would be allocated 234 prims, not the usual 117. They set the sim land allocation per M2 to 2x normal, but have to ensure they don't sell more than 1/2 the square M area of the sim, or else people will start running out of prims before the sim says their land is out. Once you hit 15K for the sim, that is it, no matter what you set the per parcel allocation ratio to.

The Lindens have done a handful of double-prim sims themselves, using the same method. Half the sim was not available for building, and supported double prim counts in the other half. There are, I believe, 4 mainland sims set up this way.

And of course they charge more for double prim land! However, the sims that I have seen this way usually charge less than it would cost for buying twice as much normal land in a similar sim.

Thanks for that people, now I understand. Not sure though whether you are saying that you can only do that if you own a whole sim or whether somebody could do it on a parcel of land. If the latter how do you do it?

It can only properly be done if you own the whole sim. If you only own part of it, you can't change the prim allocation per M2 that they own. So even if you set aside half your land, the part *they* buy only gets the standard allocation.

That is why you don't see it done on the mainland, except in those 4 "city" sims that LL experimented with. Even if a real estate speculator buys a whole mainland sim's worth of land, LL still retains the estate management role and sim owner role for that sim.

Buy twice as much land as you need, in the same sim, and only build on half of it.

not true

Miramare, Grignano, Barcola, and Sistiana are all mainland sims which allow double prims.

Generally speaking, I find double-prim land to be good value, and I really appreciate the difference it makes.

I agree with that but as mainland they are the rare exceptions.

Island land is different. I own a double prim lot in Dreamland on a class 5 server and it is a delight to use, virtually no lag ever and a prim count that means you can really do things with.

There is a multiplier factor for the sim in the estate tools.

So if you set it to '2' you get double prim allowances. If you set it to '4' or whatever, you'd get that.

No need to actually have a completely barren "unbuildable half" - what you do is leave slightly more than half. That way, anything past half is prims you can use in what would be otherwise barren.

I did a forest sim this way. If you leave the equivalent of 3072m over the halfway point, you can use about 700 prims for trees.

Which if you use some reasonably sized "big" prims for the tree canopy, makes for a really nice forest. With double prim lots dotted around so the forest stays a forest, not tightly packed with homes.