[sldev] Optimus Prim vs. Megatrim: "The Big Prim Problem"

[Dzonatas]

Argent Stonecutter wrote:
> Just thinking of the obvious ways this could break makes me want to 
> run screaming.

After you run wild and scream away, just list them.  We can address the 
concerns and break them out into the appropriate components.


> And I'm saying it shouldn't be exposed outside the sim itself. There 
> is no reason this kind of optimization - breaking a single prim or 
> linkset (they're the same thing as far as the the physics engine is 
> concerned, as far as I can tell) into multiple objects for the physics 
> engine - should require even transmitting the fact that this 
> optimization has taken place to the viewer, or to other sims.

Consider SHARE for an example, perhaps that functionality should not 
have been exposed at all outside the core mainframe and related 
developers. However, developers wanted to open it up to allow other 
components to interoperate with it, and it became what it is known today.

The same feature basically applies here. It is a typical compiler issue. 
We expose it in order to improve it. That improvement may entail further 
automation.

For example, look at sculpties. The sculpt map is exposed. That really 
should not be exposed in the same way you suggest "it shouldn't be 
exposed outside the sim itself". However, look at all the different 
tools created to build sculpties because it has been exposed.  Sculpt 
maps are created by tools that automate the process.

That is the same ability I suggest that we should do. I figure optimized 
prims will as perfect in the same way that sculpt maps are not perfect, 
but that imperfection should not stop from being able to expose the 
functionality. Complex prims can be created by an automated process in 
the same sense sculpt maps are now created. It may even give the ability 
do have complex and concave physical topologies that the sim cannot 
render on-the-fly. Such compilation (the protoform, transform, and other 
object optimizations) can be done.

Objects that are not complex and not concave probably can be rendered 
on-the-fly at the sim level as you suggest. However, once rendered by 
one sim, we should allow another sim to gather that same data so it does 
not have to render redundantly, which can get very costly as it does now.


-- 
Power to Change the Void