Guide to altitude, height, high and rezzing, building, flying limits

As there are tens of threads about how high one can do this or that, I've decided to put all I know in this guide.
Everything written in this post is "as far as I know", so if you have information to add, do it in this thread and I'll update my post to sum up.

I'll start by stating what's flying, rezzing and moving a prim :

Flying is done by flying "normally" or with an attached script.
Sitting on a moving object, being orbited, standing on a prim moving up or being inside a prim is not considered as flying.

Rezzing means putting into resolution (in the region by the simulator).
You can rez existing objects from your or an object's inventory, or new objects through the Build floater.
Scripts can rez up to 10m away, clients up to their draw distance.
Scripts need nothing to rez while clients need either ground or another object or an attachment point.

Moving a prim can be done in different ways :
- by dragging the XYZ arrows
- by editing the parameters in the Build floater
- non physically by script
- physically by script


Below are listed the limitations that occur when exceeding certain altitudes :


Ground level.
Between the ground level and 50m over it everything that we know is possible to be done.

50m over ground level.
It's the avatar hover limit. An avatar cannot hover over 50m over the ground without an attached script and will slowly lose altitude until that limit.

172m over ground level.
It's the avatar fly limit. An avatar cannot fly up over 172m over the ground without an attached script, it can only fly down and/or horizontally.

180-200m
It's where clouds are.

768m
It's the non physical limit. Prims can be fully edited but they can only* be moved physically by script, if you try moving them in another manner they will jump back to 768m.
It's also the "direct" teleport limit as you can't teleport higher with a landmark or the map, however you can still teleport by invitation.

2000m
It's the simulator reboot limit. Prims over 2000m are not rezzed again after a simulator reboot/crash.

4096m
It's the permanent rez limit. Any* non attached prim rezzed there is off-world and returned to you.
At this height textures on the avatar start to shake, it gets worse with altitude.
There is no known flying or invite teleport limit.


* I have discovered a "secret" method that allows a non physical prim to be moved over 768m and even over 4096m and stay there.
Before "revealing" it I'd like to see who else knows it, so if you do, post it !

Good stuff.

One minor point though. I'm not sure all would agree with your definition of the word "rez". It's not really an abbreviation for "resolve" or "resolution", but actually an homage to Tron. In the movie, when the characters created objects in the computer world, they called the process "rezzing".

While the supposition that "rez" in Tron could have stood for "resolve" or "resolution" is logical, it's not accurate. To my knowledge, the writers of Tron have never explained what the word was supposed to mean. My guess is they just thought it sounded cool, and it didn't actually stand for anything at all. That is just a guess though, just as supposing it's an abbreviation is a guess.

It would be best to stick with facts, and the only confirmed fact here is that the word originated with Tron. Anything beyond that is just maybe-kinda-sorta-I-think-so, ya know?

There won't be an argument on that here, I'll just contact the authors and wait for an eventual answer and make the change if needed.
EDIT : Wait, I never talked about Tron or the origin of the term rez.
Putting into resolution is what rezzing means in Second Life.

No argument was intended. Just because we had a long disagreement in another thread does not mean the same thing has to happen here. Let it go, man.

My attention here is to the facts. It doesn't matter who it it is that's presenting them.

As I said, the definition of "rez" is a minor point. However, it's still very important for the integrity of the post. When assumptions are passed off as facts, for most readers it's going to call into question everything the author has to say. It would be a shame to let that happen here since the majority of the post does have good information from which people could benefit. So how about this: rather than keeping non-factual information up, and waiting for a response which you know will never ever come, how about simply removing all non-facts until and unless you find out they happen true? Post what you know, not what you think. Most people would agree that's the sensible and responsible thing to do. Wouldn't you?

Nope, humanity's knowledge would be vastly reduced if we only kept information known for fact.
Plus what I said here about rezzing is a fact, see edition to my second post.

The height limits as noted by Moriash Moreau:
- non-physical movement (768m)
- permanent build (2,000m) anything above disappears on a sim reboot.
- absolute object (4,096m) objects above are destroyed almost instantly.
- avatar existence (1,000,000m)

Quoted from ... where ?
1 million isn't the avatar limit, I've been teleported to a little higher and orbited to 30 millions meters.

The term "Rez" was coined in homage to Tron...nothing more...nothing less. Look it up in SL history...ask the Lindens.

Given the state of graphics back in 1982, I think your guess that "it sounds cool" is probably a good one..

There's no looking or asking, whatever the term is, in Second Life it means putting into resolution because it's what actually happens, objects are resolved and deresolved by the simulator.

/me tries to reply several times and ends up grabbing some popcorn instead.

Yeah, I guess the moral here is that when one person is determined to make up his own terminology, somehow believes that everyone else should adopt it just because he posted it, and then consistently rejects any and all attempts at correction, there's little point in continuing to try. I only wish I'd realized that sooner before I wasted so much time in that other thread on similar types of things.

My chief concern is to make sure there's enough correct information provided that hopefully everyone reading will be able to determine the real facts without getting too confused. I think that's been done here. Time to move on.

Got any extra popcorn?

A google search for 'deresolved "Second Life"' returns zero hits.

I haven't checked if there are any hits from 'resolved "Second Life"', or 'resolution "Second Life"' that refer to rezzing things rather than dispute resolution, screen resolution and so on, but the first 20 or so hits don't.

'"putting into resolution" "Second Life"' also returns no hits.

This isn't standard terminology, it shouldn't be in a semi-official guide.

So, what is the secret method? Do I have to buy tickets to get the answer?

LOL you people just don't understand that "to resolve" is a term a used notably in the computer field when talking about data processing and is not specific to SL !
And I didn't make up anything, it has been in the wiki for a looooong time I think.
http://lslwiki.net/lslwiki/wakka.php?wakka=rez


Of course ! search for "derez" and "second life" instead !


Just wait 1 week maximum unless someone else posts it before

You are the only person in the world who uses those words for those meanings.

Anyway, the rest of your article is very helpful, and yeah, I'm pretty sure I've been orbited to well over 1,000,000m before.

Exactly why would you want to send objects and have them stay there at 4096m?

All I can imagine is more space junk...

Actually I don't, I use rez and derez like everyone, but try to define their meaning and you'll see.
I think that "resolving" and "to resolve" are very common terms among for example engineers who work on simulated environments, but you don't meet that kind of person very often


Why not, is there something you don't like about that altitude ? Maybe you like when everything is on the ground.

Oyez ! oyez ! doubting and despairing Tron fans all over the world...
The day has come for you to finally know the mystic origin of the famous term "de-rezzing" of your all time favorite movie !

Below is my emails exchange with Bonnie MacBird, co-writer of the script :

Oh Noes, you have taken the mystery out of it!

This is now the geekiest thread I've ever read.

Who in the hell gives a damn what "rez" means. This is the second thread that could have been usefull that instead was beat to death by over inflated egos!

I, having worked in and still currently work with computers, will agree with Chosen on this.
Resolve:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&defl=en&q=define:resolved&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
To make a firm decision about.
To cause (a person) to reach a decision
http://www.yourdictionary.com/ahd/r/r0178700.html

This is true. However, this is not what happens on a simulator. A simulator is simply a blade server setting in a rack at a colocation facility. All it does is run a program that at the request of various client accounts retrieves bits of code and scripts from the Asset servers and runs them on that specific server for that specific client. What you see is the the client interpeting that code and scripts into something that you can understand. This is what is called Rezzing by the orginal scripters and coders of Linden World. It is not Resolving as nothing is tangible.
An object is rezzed or derezzed in the client.

And this isn't a SL exclusive term. Having derived from Tron; Everquest, Ultima Online and World of Warcraft use this term. It has become the common term for the running of said scripts and codes in MMORPGS. SL simply continued the trend.

Now you are welcome to say what you want, but when the creators say something is something; I believe them. Even if I think it could have been named something better.

The client only renders, but there is more into rezzing and it happens server side in the simulator.
The proof is that you can make a script rez an object (and do a lot more too) without any client viewing it !!!
You could have an object rendered in the client but inexistent in the simulator ! (This sometimes happen and the incriminated prims are called "phantom prims".)
Rezzing, or resolving, is computing data, in SL and Tron case to make something exists somewhere.

Computers need nothing tangible.


No... in RPGs "rez" is the abbreviation of "resurrection" !

I'm not sure if you're talking to me or to Chosen.
Who said what ?

I don't really understand, can you reformulate ?