Question for prims' flexibility

[TransPleasure]

Hello,

I rezzed a prim and I choosen sculpted type in order to give it a shape.

Then I saw that flexibility settings are deactivated.

Isnt it possible to use them on a sculpted prim?

Thank you very much!

[Shelby Silverspar]

Sorry Trans, sculpts can not be flexible.

[Arwen Serpente]

Hi there, unfortunately sculpts cannot be made flexible.  Neither can mesh in the same was as traditional prims. Rigged mesh will bend with the avatar, but it can't be made flexible (as in fluttering with the wind or movement). Only certain shapes of traditional prims can be made flexible, most common would be box and cylinder.

[TransPleasure]

Thank you both for your answers.

And I guess they will never going to be flexible, right?

[Coby Foden]

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TransPleasure wrote:

And I guess they will never going to be flexible, right?

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I guess not in any foreseeable future.

[TransPleasure]

Mhm thank you

[hibit Spad]

There was a time when flexible sculpts were a real possibility.  LL had a special version of the viewer just to view the flexy sculpts.  Then LL shelved it.  Just another feature that everyone wanted but LL didn't see a need for.

[Kwakkelde Kwak]

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hibit Spad wrote:

There was a time when flexible sculpts were a real possibility.  LL had a special version of the viewer just to view the flexy sculpts.  Then LL shelved it.  Just another feature that everyone wanted but LL didn't see a need for.

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I think there was a good reason not to implement flexible sculpties.

First of all the entire calculation of them would have been completely different from the box or cylinder, since those are constructed in an entire different way, with a 2d shape and a linear path with a very limited amount of steps. Apparently LL managed to make it work, since, as you say, they had it in beta. Beta is where things are put to the test and it looks like it failed.

I think the real issue is system load. I'm not entirely sure, but I think the flexible path has a maximum of 5 or so steps. So for a solid box that means 4 * 5 = 20 vertice locations to be calculated constantly. For a solid cylinder it would be 24 * 5 = 120 locations. Now if LL decided to let you make sculpties flexible, that would mean 32 * 32 = 1024. Also when you would make a single sculpty that looks like a triple tail or something, it would need more complex calculations, since you can't work in steps like you can with a single cylinderlike shape. On top of that, the vertices aren't grouped as nicely as in a box or cylinder (or really an extruded square or circle), I can imagine that will make the calculations even harder.

I certainly wouldn't want to be around people wearing flexible sculpties. The fact all amateurs can build in SL means most content isn't made to perform well, just to look good.

With mesh is would probably be worse, taking in mind the sheer complexity of some avatar attachments I've seen, in both shape and detail.

One solution I can think of is the possibility to turn the feature on or off, but I don't think it's high on LL's to-do list.