This is something I've been wanting to pitch for a long time but never really had the nerve to but here it goes. SL has been around for a long time and is really old as far as the Internet is concerned. Because of this and due to it's nature as an ever growing/evolving creative sandbox has a lot of history as well as historical sites to it. One could even go so far as to say that there's a field of archeology to exploring it. But this creates a dilemma. We're going on 20 plus years of evolution in 3d modeling, engine development, etc. And there are a lot of places with structures made of prims with many of them being very complicated and sophisticated builds and that's a LOT of land impact, plus rendering for anyone who wants to experience them or is just passing by. But on the other side of that same coin, it would be an absolute atrocity to just demolish them. My proposed solution is that if possible, LDPW Moles take/are given a copy of these prim linksets (soft linked or hard) and using 3d modeling software clean the prims up before joining them to create a smaller number of mesh objects which are then used to create a new and near exact replica of the original that under most cases is lower land impact and easier to render. This can be done in Blender fairly easily although it is a tedious process and not as quick or efficient as creating an object from scratch inside said 3d modeling software, but it will retain effectively the same geometry with less vertices if not faces. These linksets of mesh objects can then be used to replace the originals.This however would displace the originals, which is where the second step comes in: The Linden Labs Museum of Prims (Placeholder name). This would be a series of sims if not a dedicated continent, be they full regions or homesteads that may or may not be a direct part of the mainland where the original prim creations would be moved to and displayed for their preservation and for their historical value to be retained. Possible issues: Consent of the original creator of the objects or current owner of the land they reside on will likely be required. Ontop of this many of these people have likely left SL or are deceased. Not every prim is going to be suitable for conversion, this is especially the case for "tortured" spheres, torus and similar. Likewise prims that have been tapered, path cut, hollowed, sheered etc will require some faces to be replace. And by nature of merging the prims into singular mesh objects the UVs will likely need to be redone. Physics models for these new mesh objects or linksets may also be problematic. I know that this is not a small request and will raise some debates but I believe that it is something that should at the very least be taken into consideration if not possibly implemented in the future in some way shape or form for the continued optimization of Second Life for it's residences to further enjoy without completely disregarding the preservation of it's history.
