Unable to link, pieces too far apart.

[Charolotte Caxton]

What is the farthest they can be from each other and still be linked?

Also, can I link an object to an already existing linkset? If I can, will choosing the linkset last cause its root prim to remain the root prim?

Thanks. 

[Madelaine McMasters]

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Charolotte Caxton wrote:

What is the farthest they can be from each other and still be linked?

Also, can I link an object to an already existing linkset? If I can, will choosing the linkset last cause its root prim to remain the root prim?

Thanks. 

---

 

I don't know the published max link distance, but I found that, if I tried to drag two boxes apart, they started snapping back at about 54 meters.

My experience has been that yes, if you link in an existing linkset last, its root prim becomes the root of the new linkset. Golly, I wish linking were hierarchical, so I could link two existing linksets then unlink and have those two linksets back, not one big pile of prims.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

 LINKABLE = D < 54  AND  N ≤ 256
 where D = diameter of the smallest bounding sphere of the collection of prim centers
 and N = number of prims in the collection

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linkability_Rules

[Charolotte Caxton]

Thanks you two, much appreciated.

[Coby Foden]

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Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

 LINKABLE = D < 54  AND  N ≤ 256

 where D = diameter of the smallest bounding sphere of the collection of prim centers

 and N = number of prims in the collection

http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Linkability_Rules

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Interesting, I guess that this applies only to a link set which is not worn.

Recently I made navigation lights which I wear when I hop on to my motorboat.  I couldn't add them to the motorboat as it is physical with max 32 prims in it already.  The wearable navigation light linkset consists of one red and one green sidelight and one mast light.  I wanted to add also aft light but I noticed that I could move the linked worn prims only few metres apart.  It was impossible to move the aft light far enough to the back of the boat.  So I had to make separate wearable aft light.

 

When I hop off from the boat and forget to detach the worn lights I'm like a Christmas tree.. :smileysurprised: :smileylol:

 

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

A vehicle can have as many prims as you want to. Just turn the prims that aren't needed for the vehicle shape to physics shape "none".

Or more simply put: Rez the vehicle, turn it non-phys, link what you want to link, set the newly linked elements to physics shape: none and set the vehicle phys again.

The only limitation is that the vehicle cannot have a physics weight of >32.

Disclaimer: Check weights before you do that, so you don't get any nasty land impact surprises

[Clyde Lindman]

You can link a new object to an existing link set as long as you do it in the right order. Pick the new prim(s) first and then the linkset last and the root should remain the same. Not mentioned above and depending if your build is static or not are the "huge" build rezzers like builder's buddy (freebie) which will rez prims within a given radius linked or not.

[Coby Foden]

I tried to do exactly as you said:

• selected the boat in edit mode, and put "Physics Shape Type": None
• positioned the light prims (5 of them) on the boat
• selected the 5 prims first and selected the boat last
• pressed button "Link"
• in the edit window I ticked "Select linked"
• then I selected each light part individually and turned their "Physic Shape Type": None
• finally I selected the whole boat, unselected the light parts and did a "Physics Shape Type": Prim

Does not seem to work. Boat script complains: "Script cannot enable physics -- physics resource cost greater than 32".
And there is also message in chat window: "Second Life: Can't enable physics for linkset with physics resource cost greater than 32"

The original boat has 32 prims, "Weights of selected": 52.9 Physics, 32.0 Server
Boat with added light prims has 37 prims, "Weights of selected": 52.9 Physics, 37.0 Server

 

[Jenni Darkwatch]

Typically, you'd go about it this way...

- Rez boat
- Link stuff
- Change physics type to "none" on the entire linkset (it'll complain that the root has to have a phys type other than none, thats ok)
- Change the physics type of anything that _needs_ collisions to "convex hull" or if really needed, to "prim"

When you set the entire linkset to "none" its physics weight should be well below 32. The prim count doesn't matter, so it's just meddling with physics shapes. Since boats are often sculpted, it can shoot the land impact through the roof though. Sculpts usually have fairly high display weights. Hence the warning about checking that before trying.

[Coby Foden]

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Jenni Darkwatch wrote:

Typically, you'd go about it this way...

- Rez boat

- Link stuff

- Change physics type to "none" on the entire linkset (it'll complain that the root has to have a phys type other than none, thats ok)

- Change the physics type of anything that _needs_ collisions to "convex hull" or if really needed, to "prim"

When you set the entire linkset to "none" its physics weight should be well below 32. The prim count doesn't matter, so it's just meddling with physics shapes. Since boats are often sculpted, it can shoot the land impact through the roof though. Sculpts usually have fairly high display weights. Hence the warning about checking that before trying.

---

Ok, I made a new try. I set "Physic Shape Type" to "None" for the whole link set - the original boat and the added light's prims.  So, now the boat had total of 37 prims. Only the root prim was set to "Physic Shape Type" to "Prim", all other prims were set to "None". I saw now that "Weights of selected" was around "4 physics".  And the boat worked with the added light's prims on it.  So it indeed is possible. Yay!

Thank you very much for the excellent guidance Jenni. :smileyhappy:

 

PS.

What I don't understand is that why the original boat works as it has 32 prims, all prims have "Physics Shape Type" as "Prim" and "Weights of selected" is "52.9 physics".

 

In my first try the only difference to the original boat was that I had added the five light's prims to the boat, the boat's original prims were still "Physics Shape Type" as "Prim", the added light's prims were "Physics Shape Type" as "None". The "Weights of selected" was the same "52.9 physics" as in the original boat. However, the boat with the added light's prims did not work.

 

Why did the original boat with 32 prims work then if the "Weights of selected" is the determining factor (and if this should be 32 or under)? In the original working boat it was 52.9 Physics. Exactly the same as in the 37 prim boat with the added lights, which boat did not work.  My head begins to spin... :smileyfrustrated:  :smileysurprised:

[Jenni Darkwatch]

The reason for the discrepancy with the original physics shape "prim" is historical necessity.

Before mesh, there were no "weights" associated to anything, it was all just prims. With mesh, LL tried to correct that to more accurately reflect the impact any object has. They introduced "Display Weight" as a measure of client impact (and bandwidth use), "Physics Weight" as a measure of impact on the Havok physics engine and "Server Weight" as a measure of server complexity (this one is always 0.5 per prim, unless it's scripted then the whole linkset becomes 1.0 per prim).

They couldn't just switch old content to the new system, it'd have broken a lot of stuff. That's why old prim/sculpt builds always have physics shape "Prim", where Land Impact is simply equal to the number of prims in an object. If you change _any_ prim in a linkset to something other than physics shape "Prim", the whole linkset gets "opted in" to the new accounting system and the weights now determine what impact an object has. That can be good or bad, depending on the object. If you're curious, I posted a fairly long explanation on the topic here: http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Mesh/Prims-Prim-Equivalent-Land-Impact-a-too-long-guide/m-p/1293579/highlight/true#M10018

The short version: If the entire linkset is physics type prim and does not contain any mesh, it's weights are equivalent to the number of prims in the linkset. If there's any mesh linked to a linkset _or_ if any single prim has a physics type other than prim, the entire linkset uses the new Land Impact accounting.

[Coby Foden]

Ok, now this is very clear, I finally understood.
I experimented with the boat. I noticed the following:

When in the more info window "Advanced" the "Weights of selected" is:

• bigger than "32 Physics", then the boat will not work
• when the "Physics" is equal or less than 32, then the boat will work

Thank you again for the comprehensive detailed explanation. :smileyhappy: