20m prims?

Hi, I heard that you can create 20m x 20m walls by stretching a skewing a 10m x 10m square. As far as I know this has none of the problems associated with "huge" prims, but could greatly cut down my building overhead.

The question is, can you only make 20m x 20m prims, or is it anything upto 20m, like 15m x 18m for example, or 20m x 1m?

Also, people have talked about using a hollowed out cube to create the L shape where two walls join, to save prims. Can someone please talk me through this technique, either in-world or off-line?

Thanks!

Not sure where you heard that, but it's incorrect. You have only to try it yourself to see.

Skew a flattened 10M cube all the way, and you get a rectangle (or at least what appears at first glance as rectangle) that is about 13.7M wide. Skew it on both axes, and you get a hexoganal shape, about 19M across at its wides point.


Again, you have only to try it to find your answer. Since you can start with a cube that is any size between .01M and 10M, naturally the resulting distorted cube will be similarly variable. Start with a .01M cube, and you'll get a rectangl-ish structure about .014M across. From there, you can upsize the base cube as far as you want, up to 10M, meaning your "rectangle" can be anywhere from .014M across to 13.7M across.

That's with maximum skew, by the way. Use a lesser skew, and the minimum and maximum sizes will be less, but the total range will always be the same.


1. Rez a cube.

2. Hollow it all the way.

3. Cut it in half.

That's all there is to it.

just to add to that, if you want squared off edges (but a 5m max size) so it's easier to line up seamlessly with other prims use .375 and .625 for the cuts.

There are a few tricks you can do:

1. rez a box
2. Dimensions: X:10 Y:10 Z:0.01
3. Twist B:45 E:45
4. Top Shear X:0.5 Y:0.5
5. Rotate X:0 Y:0 Z:45

Result... a "nearly flat" rectangular prim, 10m x 17m x 1cm (roughly)



1. Rez a Tube (or torus)
2. Dimensions: X:10 Y:10 Z:10
3. Twist B:90 E:90
4. Hole Size X:1.0 Y:0.5

Result: an apparent cylinder: 20m x 20m x 0.5m (roughly)

That will square the edges alright, but it often negates the prim-saving benefits, as you end up with each side being just 5M wide instead of 10. You're cutting the cube not just in half, but by 3/4. With the edges at 45 degrees (half cut), you can build a 20x20 square structure with just 4 prims. With the edges square (3/4 cut), it takes 8, which is the exact same number it would take without using hollowed cubes in the first place.

If prim-saving is the concern, I suggest cutting each prim by as little as possible, which means just cutting in half. If visual quality is the primary concern, you might not want to be using cuts for this purpose at all.

Parker's method is handy when you're using something else next to the corner that isn't the same solid material. Like a window section, or a wall thickness change, or another direction change of the wall for a few examples. It's a good way to get a solid stone corner onto a build with other details, but sure, if you're just building solid walls as big as possible then using two prims is simpler and no more wasteful. Or else living with/masking the angled edges of simple 0.0-0.5 cuts.

Haha, I spent about an hour trying to track down the original post where I read that, and it turned out to be posted by you! I guess I must of misunderstood what you were saying though, if that is not the case:


Thanks everyone else for your input as well, especially Winter Ventura and Parker McTeague, for giving me the exact coordinates...

Oh wow. Sorry about that. The 10x20 figure was definitely a mistake. Don't I feel like an idiot now. I'm gonna go hunt down that that post to make the correction. Again, my apologies.

Lol, NP! My father was a proof reader, and used to have a big sign on the wall of his office which read:

Everybody makes
makes mistakes!