The Emerald Conundrum - For Serious Jewelers

Here's a puzzler for anyone who may want to help solve it.

The photo attached displays the smallest known size emerald that can be made. It is .05m long, which is gargantuan by jeweler's standards. Also a jeweler's ruler for size contrast, and four tube-cut prims.

A true emerald cut requires straight-sided prims. No rounding is permitted anywhere.

In order to create anything like an emerald-based prim set smaller than .05m, one must use either the tube or mobeus and use a combination of cuts to get to the level at which the size negates the rounded edges of the base prim.

In the attached shot the potential emerald parts (smallest prims) are cut from a tube, with the settings shown. It was necessary to cut them to this miniscule size in order to, as I mentioned, negate the roundness of the tube itself.

Here's the riddle....

Is there a way to make a truly straight-sided emerald cut with ALL sides less than .01m without resorting to tube and mobeus cuts which only mask the roundness?

Good luck. I look forward to your replies.

Then how about a L$500 reward because this one is a real b*tch. LOL

Well, I have a suggestion, but first might want to ask yourself if it's really worth the bother. Everything in SL is oversized anyway. Av's for them most part are 25-50% taller than real people. Ceilings are genrally alomst double the height of real ceilings. Jewelry is oversized as well.

Now, if you still want to do it, here's a few tricks you can try:

1. If you dimple a sphere and then turn it into a cube, it will become a "mini-cube". The top and bottom will be cut away (it's still dimpled). Now cut this conventionally to 25% and you've got a cube that can be MUCH smaller than the "minimum" size. Hollow it, and it can be even smaller.

2. You can fake small prims by hollowing larger ones. Put a 100% alpha on the outside and an opaque or translucent texture on the inside. All youll be able to see is the hole, not the prim itself. Reduce a prim to mimum size, hollow it 5%, texture it this way, and you'll have a prim that appears to be 95% smaller than the "minimum". If you want it to look square instead of rectangular, simply use a texture that's transparent at the ends.

3. You can always go with the simple solution, which is "when in doubt, texture". It's often better to "paint" a necklace for example than it is to physically make one.

4. You can use static particles for your jewels instead of prims. You and I might know they're not really 3-dimensional, but if it's done right, the observer would never be able to tell. Particles always face the camera afterall, so there's no way to see around them. Put the right texture on a particle, and it can look like a well cut gem.

Hope that helps.

I think I would go blind and crazy if I tried to do that. Small prims are evil!

Just make a big bling emerald for the hootchies.

Good luck though, sounds like a fun challenge, I love trying to create new shapes with the same old prims, I have never taken on something quite that small though!

It doesn't give me the exact shape I needed, but this led me to a workable method. I sent you L$500 as promised.

The other suggestions weren't up my alley. I don't use textures (except blank) or scripts at all in my work, but I'm sure someone reading this will be able to use them.

Thanks for your help, Chosen!

Glad at least one of the suggestions helped. I didn't even notice you had posted a "reward", hehe. If you realy want to send it, go ahead, but don't feel like you have to. Happy to help either way.

I should add that people may not even get to see your tiny prims. SL prioritizes the streaming and rendering of prims depending on several factors, namely the proportion between its size and distance, and also whether or not the object is active.

Yes, I have noticed this since I spend most of my SL time looking through a microscope. Some prims rez much later than others. Some don't rez for 15 minutes after I've begun working. And it does seem to have to do with size. I'm okay with it because I build almost entirely for the purpose of creating that which has never before existed - and things nobody in their right mind would want to make. I expect anyone who actually sees will have to WANT to see... and learn to use max zoom and pan... and willhave shiny turned on. Most good jewelry looks gawd awful without shiny turned on no matter how intricate. Those who have stopped to look seem to appreciate the micro-world.



The jeweler's bug is a b*tch. I would not recommend that anyone take up playing with micro-prims until the Lindens get it fixed. I'll add it to the list of building bugs in this forum.