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One of the things I wish I had known up front when I started building in Second Life was certain limits related to prims, Second Life’s basic building blocks. There are three kinds of limits I have found so far that have affected my building projects.
The first is the number of prims. If you own land, space is not your primary limitation. After all, even if you own the smallest parcel, you can build thousands of meters high. However, you are only allowed so many prims in your space at one time, regardless of the amount of space they occupy.
If you own an entire island, you probably won’t have to worry too much about your prim limit. But if you’re like me, you can’t afford a parcel that big. You can own the smallest parcel, 512 sq. m., and pay no land use fees. All you have to do is buy the land, which isn’t a great expense, and have a premium account, which costs $9.95 per month, or less if you pay in bigger chunks. But with a 512 sq. m. parcel, you have only 117 prims to work with. (Linking prims does not reduce the number.) There are several sizes in between, each with a different prim limit.
If you’ve got specific plans, you need to keep this limit in mind. It’s amazing how quickly you can run out of prims, especially because of the other kinds of limits.
The next limit is size. Each prim is limited to 10 m. in each dimension. Let’s say you want to build a little house. Even a simple shape like a floor or wall may take multiple prims. If you want a house larger than 10 m. x 10 m. x 10 m., that’s extra prims just for the floor, ceiling, and/or walls. So even simple objects can take multiple prims, if they are big enough.
The third limit is shape. Naturally, the basic building blocks are simple: blocks, spheres, cylinders, etc. Fortunately, a lot of tools are available to manipulate the shapes. But even so, some objects may require more prims than you originally planned for. The chair pictured below is ten prims, not counting the pose ball.
I’m not saying all this to be down on Second Life. This little enterprise is utterly incredible. But you do have to watch your limits. Here are some thoughts on dealing with those limits:
Adjust your design. Maybe you need to rethink what you want to create. Is there a simpler design that is not exactly what you originally planned but will serve the same purpose?
Alternate. Maybe you can’t have everything you want all at one time, but you can have one thing for awhile and then put up something different. (I’ve heard there’s a way to cheat the system and have objects rez in cycles, but I’ve also heard it can affect performance.)
Be efficient. With the many building options, you can get more out of the object by cutting the profile, etc. And don’t forget that you can sink objects into the terrain or other objects. Maybe you want a simple bookshelf with two sides and a top. You can use three blocks to make the two sides and the top. But if you make one hollow block, you will have the same thing plus one side. Then you just sink the fourth side into the floor. There’s a great article in the building section of the Second Life Knowledge Base on this topic.
Use textures. Transparency is your friend. You can create the illusion of complex shapes by having a transparent prim with a texture that has the shape you want. Many plants are created using plant images as textures on transparent blocks.
Use outside software. The Second Life Web site has a good review of different 3D drawing programs you can use to create sculpted prims, which are a special kind of prim not limited to the basic shapes you create using the Second Life client. This requires a lot of learning, but there are a couple of huge advantages. The first is that with sculpted prims, you can create the same objects with fewer prims. The second is that objects can look much better.
There are also megaprims, but that’s a whole different discussion.
I bet that all Second Life builders will lose a creation at one time or another.
Scenario one
The first time it happened to me, I turned a ball transparent and then clicked off of it or escaped out of editing it. Of course, it was completely invisible, and it was small enough that no amount of clicking around helped me find it. A friend of mine later showed me that all I had to do was go into the View menu and click Highlight Transparent. Then it was a piece of cake. Whew! It would have been no tremendous loss, but I hated to have something hanging around that could cause some kind of problem later on.
Scenario two
The second time I lost something, I was editing the object and accidentally made it so tiny I couldn’t see it. Again, I clicked off it or escaped out of editing it, and poof!
As with the first time, I could have re-created the object pretty quickly. But, as in the first scenario, I didn’t want a problem later on. I was also on a small parcel. Each parcel allows only a certain number of prims, the basic building blocks of Second Life. If you own a whole island, you don’t have much to worry about. But with smaller parcels, you have to watch that limit very carefully.
Well, this time the prim was not transparent, so having the Highlight Transparent setting on didn’t help. So I did a little Web surfing and found a handy video showing how to find it. Here are the essentials:
Use the Mini-Map to get the general location
If you don’t have a good idea of where to look for your object, the Mini-Map may be able to give you an idea. There’s a button at the bottom of the screen that opens it. Locations of objects you own are marked in blue. Use the Mini-Map to get close to your object and figure out which direction you need to face. (Of course, the entire area you’re in may be highlighted in blue, if, for example, you have a house.)
Get in the mode
1. Go to the Tools menu and turn on Select Only My Objects (an X will appear next to it).
2. If you are not in build mode, click on the build button at the bottom of the screen.
3. When the build window appears, look at the row of buttons at the top of it. The one in the middle has a little arrow. When you hover over it, the tooltip says “edit.” Make sure that that button is selected.
Find the object by selecting it
Now it’s time to select the object. Left click and drag across the screen. You should see a yellow rectangle grow as you drag. Don’t worry if the build window disappears. Whenever your rectangle fully encompasses an object you own, it will become highlighted. If you don’t succeed, then turn in a different direction. How far you are from the object should not matter. If more than one object is highlighted, you will need to escape out and right click on the object you want (so remember the location when you escape out).
This procedure also applies if you accidentally sink your object into the terrain.
