yes and no. being able to create big prims, up to 256 metres let’s you use fewer prims for buildings and roads
simple box
i am making an airport terminal and it’s just a box but slightly tapered so that it is wider at the top than at the bottom. the building is about 40 metres square and 25 metres tall. it’s simply the same tapered and hollowed square duped several times and then sliced to make the windows, trim, and walls. doing this in Second Life would take more time (for me anyway). each wall would need to be 12 prims and the corners would be a drag to line up. it would not be hard to do, but it would take a bit more time and use more prims
off the top of my head – it could be 48 prims or so to make the four walls; i’d likely use more and make the corners hollowed and cut prims so that i could taper them rather than trying to line up orthogonal (right angle) prims that were sloping outward. the same in OpenSim is 8 prims. you could build this in many ways but the result is fewer prims in this example
BUT . . . while that may be faster, i find myself building with more prims! for more detail! since this endeavor is for use for middle-school virtual field trips for environmental science (cripes, that’s a mouthful), i thought i should add doors to this building. in Second Life, i probably would not have added doors, both to save prims and make it easier to fly in and out of. however, in real life, this would not happen unless this was in a very tropical environment and old school. so i added double doors and those high velocity heater/AC blowers you find between doors up here in the north country
that added quite a few prims – door frames, glass inserts, door handles (just hollowed and cut boxes), the walls around the doors, the blower things, plus more to come – so any savings in both prims and time from the walls is now far gone!
two major things contribute to building with more prims:
- prim count
- cost per prim
woohoo!
in OpenSim, the server software (the part that is actually OpenSim) is compiled in C# and gains some efficiencies. and because OpenSim is open to developers, you can make your prim limits anything you want them to be (like that older post where i had 50,000 prims on one sim). typically 45,000 prims is quoted as the limit, but that is just arbitrary
i never understood why Linden Lab does not increase prim count. when i started, sims had a 15,000 limit and that was on old class 3 servers or whatever. since that time, Linden has improved the servers, done co-location of servers, improved their something fibre optic ring thing – LLNet (???) but they have never made Second Life a better value! i mean i understand why – money – better and better hardware and presumably better server code could mean more prims for you for the same cost (better value) or mean less hardware for the same experience (more money for LL – taking wheelbarrows of money to the bank faster, easier, more more fun!) =p
in OpenSim, prim count does matter, it uses up RAM and that brings it to the second point – cost per prim
OpenSim is so much less expensive and you typically think in terms of regions (sims) and not parcels. just to compare apples to apples (i’d rather do olives to olives), i’ll look at what we have. instead of saying 45,000 prims per sim, i’ll do 15,000, and instead of doing 16 sims, i’ll do just 4. that will allow one core per sim (but 2 gigs of RAM, double what SL has)
the cost per prim would be 4 sims times 15,000 prims divided by cost. so in USD, the cost per prim in Second Life is 1.9 cents, whereas the cost per prim for our SimHost OpenSim is 0.3 cents!
holy cow! i could have stretched it saying we can have more prims and more sims (we can) but i wanted as close a comparison as possible, and i did not even know how to compare the $1000 setup fee for SL versus the $50 for SimHost!
is Second Life 6 times better than OpenSim?
i can’t tell you, you have to decide what is best for you but this is one way i look at things
in some ways it is faster to build in OpenSim but in others it is slower, but either way – it’s a lot less expensive!
just add Muzak and voilà!
Enclave Harbour airport terminal entrance
framework inside terminal sign - who is ever going to look at that?*
* – as a former teacher, kids will look at it and while there are not nails and screws (but there are rivets on my bridge), hopefully this kind of detail will help them “suspend disbelief” a bit more – so take that Piaget! =D
There is a very simple reason why LL hasn’t upgraded the amount of prims with their hardware. It is not really the server hardware that is the limiting factor, but that of the users.
Most SL users still run on low end systems with integrated Intel graphics chips. Having more prims per square meter would downgrade their experience.
Frans Charming
23 Sep 10 at 2:12 am
I think Frans has a vaild point, I to think that it is not donw to LL, but the end users of SL. The specification of computers is something that I have to take into consideration with the project I am working on, as it involves buying about 60 laptops for hospitals for young people to use with the virtual world.
P.s. We have thoes warm air blowers things above doors over here in the UK too =)
Jonathan
23 Sep 10 at 3:16 am
okay, i can see that point Frans. i even use a three year old machine. but for adoption and growth, i would tend to casually think that if you don’t add more prims, then lower the price. even a modest decrease should help growth?
say $249 versus $295? even though LL has the cost of new hardware, they can do more with that hardware and passing ion some savings seems like a good idea if they want to encourage growth
having agreed with your point of more lag with more prims, won’t we see the same with the advent of mesh support?
just like you can have some really dumpy prim-based products out there, there will be some high load poorly made scuplties that will impact lag. what are your thoughts on that?
hi Jonathan! laptops can be a challenge. i use an Acer that has a NVidia 9300M and it can run a second life viewer very well. it was reasonably priced at the time (last year) for about $500 USD
of course you are dealing with the Pound but i wonder if you can get any sort of discount if buying in larger numbers?
the dedicated NVidia card on my lappie is better than what i have used in the past (lenovo T61), but that one ran the Second Life client (1.23) very well also
it would be vital that you actually test the laptop yourself before aking the decision. what can look good on paper may have issues in real life. this is another place where using sim on a stick could be beneficial! you could have it and the viewer download on a stick and quickly test laptops without need for an internet connection
downloading prebuilt OAR files, like Diva has, would be a good way to place a load on your sim on a stick to get an idea of performance. i’d use the stats bar and jot down frame rates as a benchmark for comparison (get in the middle of a built sim, set your graphics to the highest possible and a draw distance of 512, open the stats bar and spin your avatar at 50 metres up or so and watch the frame rate over the course of 10 seconds or so)
good luck! you have a lot of moving parts to coordinate!
Ener Hax
23 Sep 10 at 10:48 am
We have done some seperate fundraising for some of the funds for the laptops, but will definetly be wanting some sort of discount on them. We will also look at approaching laptop brands directly for any sponsorship for the project, as I belive that no other charity in the UK has or is doing anything like this, and possiable the world.
I mean, charities are doing things in virtual worlds, the Race For Life in SL for example, but I dont think there is anything where the charity has done something just for the people that they support.
And dont get me started on computer price difference between $ and £, same producs always seem chearer other there and magicaly increased for over here =)
Jonathan
23 Sep 10 at 11:11 am
same with canadian dollars. there is an appreciable difference in costs between US and Canada on the exact same product
sponsorship is a good idea. i the tight economy, may i suggest that as part of their sponsorship you will give them certain coverage in social media? as well as material they can use in their online efforts. for example, Dell has business successes where they showcase an endeavors success with their project
in that case, you would supply an article about what you are doing and the benefits that have occurred and how their product played a role in it. you may also offer images and/or video that they can l;e verage
it’s no longer enough for many companies to just know that they are doing the right thing – they want to share that with the world to further their image. i believe this is a fair practice (green issues are particularly big topics atm)
good luck and let ‘em know that “Ener says it’s a worthy endeavor!” =D
btw, if you are approaching Brit companies, i love the Queen more than you guys do! she visits, we go nuts, and she takes no taxes! what’s not to love! Go Liz Go! =p
Ener Hax
23 Sep 10 at 12:57 pm
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24 Sep 10 at 9:29 am
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