Very Large Prims

(This is a repeat from the SL answers thread, looking for information from different angles.)

Is there any possibility that we might ever get oversized prim support? By this I mean a single prim stretched to say 100m x 40m x 40m instead of the number we now need to do this.

I have ideas for building shells of square and round/oval form that would be most easily handled by larger prims instead of vast numbers of smaller ones that are extremely hard to move into place.

This would save on prims overall, but I suspect there is a problem with it I don't understand. Nevertheless the ability to make a tall building with a single prim would help counts immeasurably.

I understand from Torley Linden's reply on SL answers that this issue has been addressed. I had problems finding it in the forum archives due to search word issues, I suppose.

Nevertheless I'd like to hear a technical why or why no to this. I am satisfied with "Havok 1 can only work with this size" but the future should also be addressed.

I appreciate ANY feedback! I am still learning and a little why goes a long way.

Thanks!

My understanding was that the 10M size cap was never a technical constraint, but a social one. I know people who've been around since beta who have in their inventories bugged prims that are absolutely huge. What I've always been told is that the 10M thing is LL's way of leeing things civilized. It cuts down on the amount of builds that polute other people's land.

If it's a social constraint, then maybe we could at least go from 10X10X10 to 20X20X20? I don't think that would have a major impact, but it would help us cut down the number of prims on the smaller land lots. I usually find myself building on the level of 16X20X7 so, so this would definately help me out a bit.

in addition to social i think there must also an economic factor involved. large builds require large land thus higher tier. remember, SL is not a game, it's a virtural economy.

If a check was made so that every oversize prim had to be entirely enclosed within the same parcel of land, and that oversize prims could not be used in vehicles or worn items, that would prevent all teh possible forms of abuse I can think of. Where do we go to make this a formal suggestion?

This is all relative, isn't it?

I suggest using a smaller and skinnier avatar and wider camera angle by hitting ctrl-8 a few times. If you were half your height, and everything looks wide eyed, everything else looks larger.

Strictly speaking, I would agree with you. Absolute size has no meaning in 3D simulations. Everything is relative.

However, SL is a highly public space and there is an average avatar size that has to be considered. Were you building just for yourself, shrinking your av would be an easy solution, but since we're all always buildig for the public at large, there's little choice but to agree that a meter is a meter, and that size is an absolute.

Isn't it because of the problems with big prims across borders? If you place 10 meter cube on a region border with approximately 5 meters on each side, then the half of the prim will be phantom. If the max size was 20m, 30m or more, large parts of builds could easily happen to cross borders and become phantom.

As I understand it, if part of your prim sticks out over a border, that makes no difference - it is still entirely considered solid and visible, unless of course that prim is set otherwise.

My proposal is that oversize prims cannot be worn, and cannot contain vehicle scripts (possibly an outright ban on any script even). In addition, each time they are rezzed, moved or edited, a check is made, and the resizing fails if the oversize prim would even be partly in another plot of land.

A prim is only located in one sim, if it sticks over the border to another sim, havok won't register collisions on that part. I tried it right now to make sure it's still like this. Stil no collisions on the part that were across the border. But yes, it's still rendered so you can see it.

This is true of course. But we have little choice, unless LL finally implements large prims. LL either doesn't want to, since it offers little benefit to them, or has difficulty doing it due to all the legacy data we have.

The idea of large prims being a hinderance to others can't be the reason.... I have seen plenty of hideously ugly builds using the current allowance. I think the comment about requiring people to buy more land due to the size limit might hold water though.

The trouble that i am having now is that not only does the size limit require more prims for larger builds, it also makes some shapes near impossible (a giant circular road for example). When private sim ownership is becoming so popular, this should be taken into consideration as a factor that is limiting creativity. ( the small end of the scale can be a nuisance too, especially for jewelry and small detail work)