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Lex Neva added a comment - 03/Aug/07 09:05 AM
All of these are bugs, I believe. I'm not sure what happens when you put a 1 as a PRIM_TYPE... can you give an example/screenshot? Anyway, the reason that these "features" are hidden is that LL really wishes people wouldn't use them. Eventually, some of these may go away. In short, they're not undocumented features, they're bugs.
They might have started as bugs, yes. But the reality is that in the here and now, they are treated as features; they are used productively; and they will realistically never be fixed. Removing prim torture would break every single object that uses cube truncation to adjust the centre of a prim for scripting purposes; removing invisiprims would break just about every single pair of shoes in the world. Megaprims are used in all kinds of structures, even by RL employed SL building consultants.
If LL wanted to fix these things, that would be fine - but they aren't going to, because of their policy of not breaking existing items. So let's make them visible instead of having the current system where the people who managed to work out the right people to talk to, find out the secrets, and anyone who doesn't suddenly finds that they can't do what their competitor does and there's no explanation why not. Yes, I know some of these are taught in classes, but if a professional 3D modeler decides to give SL a try, how can they know that they have to attend an absolute novice's building class to find out about hidden items in the UI? Professional platforms don't ship with significant features supplied as easter eggs, and if SL is going to be developed as a professional platform, it can't, either. As for the legacy prims:
Create a prim and put this script into it. default } You'll get a neat-looking shape. As far as I know, there is no way of making this shape from the regular editor - even with prim torture - because the final prim type used is the "hidden" type LegacySphere, not Sphere. Also unleash megaprims may be a good thing (providing the hollowing problem is resolved before): all SL world is using them.
Creating functionality controls to do "Prim Torture" may be benficial. Though sculpties are probably a better path to the future. Remember it's not 'exposing' they would have create not existing user interface.
Megaprims I don't see as a good thing, and hopefully we'll see some cure for them. Though I could see a use for increasing the current maximum sizes to say 20m. If it's crazy 3d things your after make a sculpty. The invisible texture would be a helpful addition to the library, as well some more everyday needs. In my opinion, invisiprims should be removed or highlighted when you select Highlight Transparent. It's annoying to come across a well-cloaked invisiprim and even be caged by one.
Keep invisiprim's ability to cloak avatar skin and such, BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, MAKE THEN HIGHLIGHTABLE IN HIGHLIGHT TRANSPARENT! Sculpties still have some issues with collisions, and they can't be made without external software. I don't think they're a good substitute for full access to all the controls of ordinary prims.
Rob, they wouldn't need to create "non-existant user interface" because the build window already has a standard "template" to it. Certain controls are turned on or off depending on the prim type and that's all they'd need to change. There's no reason why the advanced cut box shouldn't be turned on when Prim Type is box. (This is assuming that the update messages the client sends have this function, but maybe someone who knows more about the client source could help with that?)
I've made an update to the issue to indicate that I'm hoping for a more general policy. All available functionality in SL should either be forbidden or freely accessible. As I said above, professional platforms don't hide useful features away! The problem with megaprims is with the physics engine, as I understand it. Maybe now with the new version of Havok they can become regular shapes (though I hope not the really big ones), and maybe Lindens will fix the off-center or existing megaprims which makes them awkward to use.
There isn't a way to get/set the advanced cut of a box/cylinder/prism in LSL, so this should be exposed too, for scripts. (An extra attribute for ll{Get|Set}[Linked]PrimitiveParams that passes a single vector would be sufficient.)
I am raising priority given the recent OpenSpace price increase which was based on "unintended" use of the sims. By keeping options secret, LL encourage all kinds of things to be used without knowing about whether or not they are "intended". Whether they like it or not, the existence of so many crucial hidden tricks for so many years has created a culture of "never mind LL's intentions, do what works". If LL are now reneging on that, that's fine, but they need to do so across the board - and exposing these features is a key part of that.
There is no reason to not be able to dimple cut (truncate) a cube or cylender. Basic prim torture like this should be allowed without menu trickery.
"Exposing all "prim torture" options (eg advanced cut/dimple of a Box (actually truncation)) on the Build panel."
This request has now been fulfilled in viewer 1.23. Now if they'd only release a useable version with that.
BrianA, you can download 1.23 from http://secondlife.com/support/downloads.php
 , it is the current release version so it's right at the top with the big DOWNLOAD NOW button. Last I checked there was a texture bug in 1.23 that rendered certain HUDs I relie on nonfunctional.
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New Feature
Open
Major
Expose all "secret" building/designing options
