Stairs or Ramps? Or Neither?

You could also put a script into your stairs to turn off the collision sounds.

or of couse theres lifts .
in there many shapes and forms physics and none physics ones.
thought mostly best for static builds, no prefabs.

some i realy love are completely open almost minalistic ones. they can be realy great.
but they can but a right pain if they don't have enought room for the cam so you can't see where you are.
though with a nicely done lift script with a on touch menu control you can make one out of 1 prim.. which is nice.

i normaly just go for a ramp with a stairs texture.. unless i need a dramatic entrance to a building... it just isnt worth the prims,
especialy when i mostly build on 1024, 512s ish.

My avatar is only of medium height and I even see pain stars when I go up some stairs- ouch, ouch, ouch. I like ramps with railings going up to floors that are quite high up. I find they work well even if quite steep. (I too never thought of transparent ramp covering stairs- cool!)

I'm with you, Bodhisattva, on the gravity thing; I don't understand the need for all the columns and supports in builds in SL. I prefer to leave out walls (I have a personality that doesn't need the privacy) and just have floating platforms, and just put railings (that float without supports!) around to keep folks from falling over the edge. I find IMO that this approach can be quite elegant. I often rush to lean against the rails at the edges of the higher floors of my build if I want to look out to see something interesting going on next door or to look down the road I'm next to to give myself time to gaze out and mull over some other thing I'm building. It gives a spacious feeling to be able to do that.

-Fo

Stairs make tinies cry

How so? Tinies are meant to move the same as any other avatar AFAIK.

We tend to design for our function, as humans we walk and are familair with this. To think outside the box regarding a new way of movement through a space can be difficult to design without first having some point of reference. I would recommend just start building and let the build evolve into the space rather than let the space overwhelm you.

Nope. I have to jump over steps when I'm in my tiny kitty. Or fly, whichever.

However my tiny kitty doesn't fall through under railings just above her head, so in that particular way she has an invisible height above her that can be relied upon when building.

That's really odd. As far as the physics engine's concerned tinies should be exactly the same as any other avatar, as ForestMist noticed.

I tend to make my stairs phantom and have an invisible ramp going through them for the collision. It just looks a whole lot more convincing.

Might still look a bit weird with tinies, though - seems to be ok for normal-sized avs.

Should you prefer a more suitable look for your need. Albeit, I did not read the entire topic at hand, if you need them for commercial cosmetic and functionality, you ought to try out my working escalators. I believe them to be the cheapest in-world (I could be wrong, but we always beat competitors prices - verified pricing required for us to match or beat prices).

You can check out our wares at http://www.slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&MerchantID=37323

Or in-world at the Roosa Escalator Complex, http://slurl.com/secondlife/Roosa/175/218/27/

Just wanted to add that springboards (/trampoline/cannons) are a great way to make a space more fun, when was the last time you teleported into or walked by a place and saw someone gracefully flung from one floor to another? A while back someone on the Scripting Tips was asking how to make such a device so I gave it a go. It was so much fun that there are still spring prims located around my museum (located in Lasiocampa). Pop by and try them out, if anyone wants a copy of the script they can IM me, I'd love to see this implemented elsewhere.

I was looking for something else when I came across this thread. I think another possibility would be an Escalator. I have developed a couple and they basically look like a moving ramp, but with detail and simulation of going up and coming down, will make any area better looking instead of dorky stairs.

I have them in world and SLX.

I'm not here to sell them, I'm here to comment, but you can go there if interested or IM me.