Cackle Amore Are there really a lot of benefits of it? Yes obviously lower LI is better, that's not a problem. The problem is that the way to go forward is mesh, the things you mentioned all come from incompetent people's poorly created mesh. I had to stick things full of prim buffers too because the creators of the mesh items had no idea what they were doing.

By the way the 0.25 LI thing is quite a hoax. It does exist with mesh, but only with a severely reduced lowest LOD factor. For example when I made my own mesh cube to replicate a prim cube, it has the same weights as a prim because the LOD models of my mesh cube are all the base model. If I reduced the low and lowest LOD models to something that isn't a cube, I could get it down to 0.25 LI when linked, but it means the 2 lowest LOD values of the object will be useless. This works with things that don't have to be visible from afar, but not with anything that must stay visible.

I have some prim builds, too, so it's not like thinking of using prims is bad, the problem is to try and prioritize it over proper mesh object creation.

AlettaMondragon Resident Mesh has a far higher gateway to entry. It requires outside programs, specialized knowledge, and money to upload. The free option, Blender, also has one of the steepest learning curves.

Prims, meanwhile, can easily be learned and worked with with minimal training and inworld tools.

Zanya Resident Alright so we have to make dolphins out of prims again, like they did in 2008? As I said, I don't mind if linked prim LI goes down even more (right now the minimum is 0.5 per linked prim), my point is that mesh must be prioritized. I wouldn't even be here if extremely competent Spidey hadn't merged this a few days ago with a suggestion that is the complete opposite of this, about mesh LI calculation, for which more than 450 of us voted. This one I am genuinely uninterested in, if they do it, why not, but I think it's plain stupid to favor prims over mesh in general.

AlettaMondragon Resident Interpreting my comment in the most bad-faith way and then arguing against the phantom you've constructed does your argument no favors.

It's not a zero-sum game. Saying you like pancakes doesn't mean you hate waffles. That, as they say, is a whole other conversation. We can make prims more attractive without sacrificing mesh.

Zanya Resident No need to make an argument personal if you run out of points to make. Especially here where there is not really any point to be made. The two ideas can be implemented at the same time, but they are still the complete opposite of each other. I made most of my comments on this one because the other one was merged into this and that merged our hundreds of votes. We didn't vote for this one. Fortunately Whirly stepped in quickly and fixed this.

To stay on point, however: You could take a look at the collection of sculptures at Ars Simulacra or other galleries and museums. There are some amazing creations there from the early years of SL, some really smooth, complex shapes as well which don't look "primmy" at all. The only problem is that those are over 200-300 LI. Let's say their LI could be halved if the minimum LI for linked prims were 0.25 instead of 0.5 (but this still wouldn't apply in all cases, just saying, it only applies when the resulting shape is convex), they would still be over 100-150 LI. Mesh sculptures can be way lower, there is one key to it: don't fall into the temptation to upload a complex mesh shape in one piece. That destroys the LOD - LI ratio. You can break it up into multiple pieces that are mostly convex, reduce their geometry for the LOD models enough that they will retain the lowest LI while still looking like something from afar, and you have a complex mesh object made of like 10 pieces that is below 100 LI, instead of a 300-piece prim monstrosity with 150 to 300 LI.

This certainly requires learning and even the successful creators in SL struggle with it (it's easier and faster to cull the LOD instead of making it properly, but then ironically they don't even save the LI they could, despite all of this), but other than building platforms, very simple buildings and occasional things here and there, prims are not as useful as Bambi and you picture them here.

AlettaMondragon Resident Agreed. This ruins my hopes of seeing modular mesh buildings becoming more practical, or solving the unpredictability of LI when it comes to optimizing large builds. Oh well, there it goes I guess...

Shakeno Tomsen This is what happens when LL hires people that can't even read.

AlettaMondragon Resident Yeah this isn't what I voted for. Merging it feels like it misrepresents why I voted for this in the first place. I'm half tempted to remove the vote simply because of this because now it's torn between two ideas. One that would benefit, the other that wouldn't.