[sldev] Physical Object Prim Limitation

[Dahlia Trimble]

How  about allowing phantom and non-phantom prims to coexist in the same
link set, and only have the 32 prim limit apply to non-phantom prims and
avatars? Or better yet, have the avatar proxy become phantom so it wouldn't
count either? I have no idea how difficult this would be to implement, but
there seems to be some precidence for phantom and non-phantom prims to share
a linkset when flexible and non-flexible are linked together, assuming
flexible and phantom are processed the same way for physics.



On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 8:57 PM, Thordain Curtis <thordain at thordain.com>wrote:

> As anyone who's tried to develop a vehicle well knows, the 32 prim limit
> (31 prim if you're planning on letting somebody sit on it) limitation for
> physical objects can be a bit of an irritation.  The limit is hit pretty
> quickly when trying to create anything that actually looks compelling and
> realistic.  Vehicles supporting more than one passenger are left w/ an even
> smaller prim limit.  Add in particle emitters for special effects and you
> run out of prims _really_ fast.
>
> The 32 prim limit is a good thing, IMHO.  Nobody wants physical objects
> floating around their sim composed of 256 cut tori colliding with things all
> the time (Well, I can't think of anyone who would want that, anyways).  The
> limit is an effective limitation on how much havok (pun intended) a single
> object can inflict upon a simulator.  That still leaves people trying to
> create compelling physical content in an undesirable position.
>
> An interesting solution would be to allow all linksets to become physical,
> but only use the first 32 prims as the actual collision model.  The designer
> will generally be able to flesh out the basic shape of the object in 32
> prims or less....everything else is usually just decoration.  Add in a
> function like llSetObjectCollisionPrimCount() and physical objects could
> have even _less_ impact on a sim when designed properly.  A car, for
> instance, could use the 4 wheels plus an arbitrary (invisible) box for the
> collision model, bringing the objects physical complexity down to a mere 5
> prims.  The designer now has up to 251 prims (depending on the amount of
> desired passengers) to add detail to their vehicle, and the simulator is
> even happier than it was before with a 32 prim car.
>
> This solution is also backwards compatible with all existsing physical link
> sets, and would require zero scripting changes.  Designers who wished to
> make their vehicles more collision "friendly" could do so, but all existing
> content should continue to work unmodified.
>
> Anybody have any thoughts on this?
>
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