Mesh Alternatives to llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast and HUDs

[Tommy Rampal]

So pretty much I have developed a 'info terminal' system that works similar to a vendor, depending on the terminal state it changes child prims' textures, position and shape to mimic a LCD screen (with text and buttons). The base of this terminal is sculpted (soon to be mesh).

I was wondering if anyone has devised a use/idea for mesh for well designed HUDs and vendors. I presume XYtext can be replaced/optimised to make use of mesh's 8 faces. But for the scaling/resizing thing, would it be worth making a special mesh alternative to cut down on prims (I'm talking 2-3 prims), or it's just not worth the hassle and stick to llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast ?

[Ashasekayi Ra]

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Tommy Rampal wrote:

So pretty much I have developed a 'info terminal' system that works similar to a vendor, depending on the terminal state it changes child prims' textures, position and shape to mimic a LCD screen (with text and buttons). The base of this terminal is sculpted (soon to be mesh).

I was wondering if anyone has devised a use/idea for mesh for well designed HUDs and vendors. I presume XYtext can be replaced/optimised to make use of mesh's 8 faces. But for the scaling/resizing thing, would it be worth making a special mesh alternative to cut down on prims (I'm talking 2-3 prims), or it's just not worth the hassle and stick to llSetLinkPrimitiveParamsFast ?

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It would depend on your build really.  But first, you don't need to worry about scale in this issue because HUD and vendor lettering would be small. The scaling PE issue that you have heard about comes into play when you are dealing with large mesh. However, you can get into some higher PE with small, dense mesh if you don't make sure to use a very low poly physics shape. Yet, you don't need to worry about physics for this. Just set your type prims to physics: none.

So, if you have just one 8 -face mesh for your type plus a script. It can't be any lower than 3 PE; Prim only version would use 2 prims (since you'd have to carry over extra characters). But, if you have a board with say (10) 8-face meshes linked together, you get 13 PE; Prim only version would use 14 prims. If you have a board with (20) 8-face meshes linked, you get 23 PE; Prim only version would use 27 prims. (Both of those examples contain a script by the way) So, the more that you link together, the better the savings.

Also, the number of scripts within doesn't matter when considering the PE. It is either dynamic (scripted or physical) or static when it comes to the server PE metric.