Negative or Cutter Prims

I had an idea I wanted to throw out here. I think it would add significantly to build possibilities without adding much to prim streaming/server load. If you have used Bryce than you have probably already thought of this as well.

The basic idea is you can create negative or cutter prims which cut into another prim. Prims would have a new attribute (positive by default) or negative. When you link a set of prims together the negative prims would cut the positive prims.

For example, say I want a round window in my wall. I simply create a negative cylinder and group it with my wall. Lets say I wanted to create a rock bird bath, I could twist up a cube properly, than use a cutter/negative sphere to hollow out a place for the water. You could use a negative torus to cut an interesting grove in a column (cylinder). Etc.

It seems like this would only add one bit to the prim coming over the wire. It would, of course, add more load to the client side rendering engine.

Thoughts?

The technical term for what you're talking about in 3D modeling lingo is "boolean subtractions". It's a subject that comes up from time to time. I've heard Philip say on more than one occasion that he personally would love to see SL have that capability, but it's unlikely we'll see it any time soon, as it would require a fairly major redesign of SL's 3D modeling architecture.

Isn't that the 'invisibility prim'?

That's...about all I know about the subject. If anybody wants to add more info, like how you make them, that'd be great!

(Wait, weren't they also going to break invisibility prim?)

i suggested how it works in a couple of examples in this thread

/108/e5/116998/1.html#post1115848

Not much streaming load. But boolean operations are very processor intensive.

*bump*