Should I link mesh obj used in landscaping

[Rivernaut Piers]

Do I understand correctly, that after rezzing mutiple mesh objects for landscaping on my estate parcel, that I should link them to reduce LI? How many obj at most should be linked? half doz? like link 6 trees together, then 6 sand dunes, etc

Thanks for you advise

[CassieMaia]

Interesting question!  When I have done this previously, it has been with a number of the same type of object, like when I put out 30 or so stepping stones, or had created a patio and walkways with copies of the same paving stone object.  I think I have linked maybe 30 or 40 together, to lower the LI.  But like I said, it's always been with multiple copies of the same item, and it was a simple item.    

Perhaps others will have more experience to share with linking other types of items, or combinations of items.

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

Mesh objects can have a decimal LI (.5, 1.3, 1.6 etc), which gets rounded up or down to the nearest integer (1, 2, 3, etc). So a .5 LI mesh object on its own will be counted as 1 LI -- except when its linked to another .5 LI mesh object. .5 + .5 = 1, so the LI for the two linked together will be 1.

A 1.4 LI mesh object on its own will be rounded down to 1 :matte-motes-smile:, but two linked together will be 2.8 and that gets rounded up to 3 :matte-motes-frown:.

Prims (especially shaped or tortured prims) and sculpts can give out of control LI when linked with mesh, so be very careful there. Scripts cause each piece to count as one LI, including bits linked within what seems to be a single mesh object. Easy rule of thumb: don't link scripted pieces unless you have to and check your LI frequently so it's easier to find the culprit if it skyrockets.

There's an easy to overlook Info button in the Edit window which can give you specific numbers, but most of the time it's simpler to just link them together and see if it affects the LI favourably.

[Rivernaut Piers]

Thanks; good to know Cassie

[Rivernaut Piers]

okay; getting smarter now TY

[Chic Aeon]

Bitsy gave a very informed answer .

 

One thing to think about along they way is that some trees for example will have one or more parts of trunk and sometimes more than one part of "leaves".  So if you link three of them together say and find that doesn't help the linking then  they are going to be a bit tricky (time consuming anyway) to unlink and link back singly. So take that into consideration.

 

Also while this wasn't part of your question it is very important for folks to know NOT to link sculpts to mesh. The land impact can go through the roof == even so far as to send object to the lost and found (oh my!).

 

So a caveat there.  

 

You can of course do the same linking drill with decor items inside your house. This is particularly effective as many small objects are only .5 land impact and they can easily be linked on one other and still stay as 1 li.

 

[Bitsy Buccaneer]

/me beams :matte-motes-bashful-cute-2:

[Tamara Artis]

Here is what I do... Imagine I have 20 items rezzed on a small corner of the land. I will select them all and just shift+drag up in the air, this will create a copy of the whole group of objects. Then I link them together and see if land impact is lower. If it is, I can delete that copy and link the original group, if it didn't I will just delete the group and move on. 

 

Also concerning the scripted items, for example trees that change with season, I delete all scripts inside those. 

[Pamela Galli]

---

Chic Aeon wrote:

Bitsy gave a very informed answer

.

 

One thing to think about along they way is that some trees for example will have one or more parts of trunk and sometimes more than one part of "leaves".  So if you link three of them together say and find that doesn't help the linking then  they are going to be a bit tricky (time consuming anyway) to unlink and link back singly. So take that into consideration.

 

Also while this wasn't part of your question it is very important for folks to know NOT to link sculpts to mesh. The land impact can go through the roof == even so far as to send object to the lost and found (oh my!).

 

So a caveat there.  

 

You can of course do the same linking drill with decor items inside your house. This is particularly effective as many small objects are only .5 land impact and they can easily be linked on one other and still stay as 1 li.

 

---

I thought sculpts were now capped at 2 LI.

First paragraph: https://modemworld.me/2012/05/01/land-impact-change-is-it-s-prim-is-it-a-sculpt-its-a/

 

[jmlamonico]

---

Chic Aeon wrote:

Also while this wasn't part of your question it is very important for folks to know NOT to link sculpts to mesh. The land impact can go through the roof == even so far as to send object to the lost and found (oh my!).

 

---

A rather eye-opening lesson I learned on my own  :manlol:

[ChinRey]

---

Pamela Galli wrote:

I thought sculpts were now capped at 2 LI.

---

A tiny bit higher than 2 actually but yes, sculpts will never cause big land impact jumps - they may have done so once but that must be years ago. Nor will twisted prims if you know what you're doing.

There's a lot to gain by linking items for LI efficiency. I once made an example landscape to illustrate this. You can see it here if you like:

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Coniston/206/116/1802 (Midday windlight is recommended for the best effect)

There are messenger scripts built into the road from the entry point but to sum it up, the Coniston Park is a full sim plus quite a bit offsim of low lag, high LOD landscape with a total LI of less than 500. That level of efficiency is only possible if you link prims and meshes and sculpts together.

You have to know how land impact and physics shapes work to do something like that though. If you don't, mixed linksets can backfire badly as others have already mentioned. It's not that difficult though.

[Rivernaut Piers]

I will keep that in mind, and you may expect a call from me in the future. TY