[sldev] A patch to allow creation of megaprims from within theviewer

[Felix Duesenburg]

I took the liberty to put this on the agenda for the open source meeting, which I hope meets with approval. Although not aware of every previous discussion on this, it seems far from finalized and maybe we need some fresh arguments to reach a conclusion on a workable policy.

Felix


Sylvio Deutsch wrote:
> Oh no, sad news... I´m one of the very happy with the mega prims hability...
>  
>  
> {}Overtake
>  
>  
> 
>     ----- Original Message -----
>     *From:* Able Whitman <mailto:able.whitman at gmail.com>
>     *To:* sldev at lists.secondlife.com <mailto:sldev at lists.secondlife.com>
>     *Sent:* Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:38 AM
>     *Subject:* [sldev] Re: A patch to allow creation of megaprims from
>     within theviewer
> 
>     Unfortunately, Andrew Linden confirmed today in his Havok4 office
>     hours that the ability to create megaprims was unintentional and
>     that the fix to disable it "should go out in the next server update"
>     (see:
>     http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/User:Andrew_Linden/Office_Hours/2008_05_10).
> 
>     I'm disappointed. I've gotten nothing but positive feedback about
>     the ability to create large prims and their usefulness in
>     streamlining builds and reducing prim counts. Andrew mentions that
>     "Qarl Linden is working on the true beginning of 'Megaprim
>     Liberation' -- being able to return objects that overlap onto your
>     land." I'm hopeful that we'll be able to see this liberation sooner
>     rather than later.
> 
>     For people who are using my patch against other grids that already
>     support large prims, I'll keep fixing bugs that are found and
>     posting updates on my site (ablewhitman.org
>     <http://ablewhitman.org>) instead of in JIRA.
> 
>     Cheers,
>     --Able
> 
>     On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 5:36 PM, Able Whitman
>     <able.whitman at gmail.com <mailto:able.whitman at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>         I've posted an updated version of my patch on JIRA. It's a small
>         fix to lltoolplacer.cpp which will clamp the scale values in the
>         new stored settings against MIN_OBJECT_SCALE and
>         MAX_OBJECT_SCALE before sending the ObjectAdd packet. This way
>         invalid (negative, too small, too large) values won't be passed
>         along in the ObjectAdd request.
> 
>         The practical effect is small, since these values are still
>         validated by the sim, but it's an extra precautionary measure.
> 
>         Cheers,
>         --Able
> 
> 
> 
>         On Sun, May 11, 2008 at 4:37 PM, Able Whitman
>         <able.whitman at gmail.com <mailto:able.whitman at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>             Howdy,
> 
>             This is the second small feature I've been working on
>             lately. Apparently at some time in the recent past, an LL
>             server update re-enabled the ability to create prims with
>             dimensions larger than 10m on a side. There are already lots
>             of new megaprims available, mostly for free (like here on
>             SLExchange:
>             http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=685589
>             <http://slexchange.com/modules.php?name=Marketplace&file=item&ItemID=685589>).
>             I'm pretty sure most of these prims have been created using
>             LibSL-derived tools.
> 
>             I don't know if this new-again ability is intentional or
>             not, although I certainly hope it is because megaprims are
>             incredibly useful. Either way, I wanted to be able to create
>             large prims directly in the viewer. My biggest reason for
>             wanting this ability is so that any builds I produce using
>             these prims will then list me as the creator, instead of the
>             creator of the prims that come from megaprim collections.
>             Being able to create them myself also gives me the
>             flexibility to have large prims in whatever size I need,
>             regardless of whether someone thought to create one in
>             advance or not.
> 
>             For the moment, I haven't posted this patch in JIRA, for a
>             few reasons.
>             1. As above, I'm not sure if the ability to create these
>             large prims is intentional or not
>             2. The patch, as it stands, isn't as good or as polished as
>             I'd like for a JIRA submission
>             3. The creation and handling of large prims in the viewer is
>             quirky
>             4. The use of megaprims always seems to be somewhat
>             controversial
> 
>             With regards to "quirky", these large prims are subject to a
>             couple of constraints:
>             a. Prims with dimensions greater than 10m can only be
>             *created*, they cannot be resized again later
>             b. Attempts to resize any dimension of a large prim results
>             in all dimensions of the prim being re-clamped to a 10m maximum
> 
>             With regards to controversy over the use of megaprims, I
>             certainly understand that they can be used as a greifing
>             tool (and I myself have been on the grief-receiving end of
>             this). However, I feel that the incredible usefulness of
>             such large prims greatly overweighs the detriments. Some
>             people seem to disagree vehemently, though, so I thought a
>             discussion here might be fruitful.
> 
>             That said, the patch itself is actually fairly
>             straightforward. Part of the patch simply enables the Build
>             tools to display and edit scale values larger than 10.0.
> 
>             Since large prims can only be oversized on creation, I've
>             replaced the viewer's hard-coded new prim size of <0.5, 0.5,
>             0.5> with configurable settings. Then I've exposed these
>             settings on the Create tool panel of the Build tools floater.
> 
>             Put together, these changes make it pretty simple to create
>             prims of whatever dimensions you'd like.
> 
>             I've attached my patch (which is against 1.19.1.4
>             <http://1.19.1.4>, the most recent official release viewer),
>             as well as a screenshot demonstrating the patch in action.
> 
>             Please let me know if you have any questions, thoughts, or
>             concerns.
> 
>             Cheers,
>             --Able
> 
> 
> 
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