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Some further thoughts on a proposed solution. This isn't meant to suggest this is exactly what should be implemented, but gives an idea of what I think would be a good, genuine open spaces implementation:
The True Openspace would have a limit of 512 permanent prims in the entire sim. Permanent prims are prims not currently sat upon. This low a limit guarentees the sim will be mostly open, the exception for sat-upon items is to allow a flotilla of sailboats to race through the sim without being blocked by the prim limit. If possible, limit the sim to 16 active/scripted objects maximum. Again, excluding sat-upon items. Thus, the sim can have a few scripted do-dads but will have mostly static content, but scripted vehicles, being sat upon, can freely fly or sail through. Sell these sims cheap. This satisfies the need for those of us who really just want affordable open space around our sims for flying/sailing/etc, which the occasional bit of scenery but nothing stressful on the servers running these true open spaces. Related forums thread: http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=289800
 Gaius, I think your proposed restrictions are too limiting. But I agree in principle that new inexpensive, light use sims should be created, so I've voted and started the thread Meade points to above.
I think going back to the original OpenSpace limits, plus the 10 avatar limit I proposed originally in
Alternatively, go to full sims with larger dimensions (and suitably prorated tier)... which would be more efficient than OpenSpace sims, but that would require creating a call to get the region bounding box from LSL and some period of HEAVY testing in Beta so that script issues with llGetPos() returning a coordinate outside <256,256,*> can be beaten out. I think there are several problems with larger dimension sims, the most important being, what I'd really want to do is ring 8 open space sims around a real sim, to get a good amount of sea and sky around the central island, but I'm having trouble seeing how you'd do that with oversized sims (can you put a sim entirely inside another, bigger sim?), plus, really, what we need are open spaces that are cheap as popcorn so you can buy lots to fill in all the empty space between full sims. Having just double sized sims, for example, would make it difficult to sprinkle full sims in a natural looking pattern of islands in a large sea of openspaces. Once you try mixing different sized sims, you end up being required to lay out carefully planned geometric patterns, or you leave dead spaces in your archipelago where you don't have a full sim but it's too small for an oversized openspace.
No, we need open spaces that are cheap and identical in size to normal sims. Which means prim reduced rather than size enhanced. Going back to the original openspace limits creates two problems, first being it eliminates the product that satisfies the real need for a "quarter sim", I think that's a good product that should preserved. And secondly, it doesn't give us real open spaces, which is something even the original 1875 prim openspaces didn't give us. They were too beefy and too expensive to actually be used for open spaces. People started renting out plots in them because they needed to to afford the cost. What we really need are actual open spaces. Cheap enough that you can support them from whatever profits your main sim brings in without having to rent space in them. They need to be mostly empty so they can be cheap and fast. If you want an 1875 prim sim, maybe that can be another product too, but we really need, in addition to whatever other products are out there, actual open spaces. 512 prims is not too limiting for actual open spaces. It's quite generous for actual open spaces. Agreed. This is a separate but related issue. NOT a duplicate!
If the current change in the existing Open Space holds, and I'm adjusting my business plan on that basis already, then we definitely need a lower prim, lower tier alternative. I'm losing all my open sailing water save one region I can't bear to part with over this. If they were cheap to maintain, I'd eat the cost to preserve my main sailing waterway. Give us back the product we lost when the prim limits were upped. I'd still like the flexibility of buying one at a time, however, just with lower prims so I can have some real wilderness.
It is not a duplicate, LL tries to make money out of people who purchased openspace sims and put them to use. That is covered in MISC-1776 and I support that. What is missing are real open spaces one could put around an island or anything else. Like a sea or a forest as they were supposed in the first place. And these should be affordable as land owners are already paying a premium to LL's for server hosting. Or call it "Land".
the dimensions of a region will never change, the current size is way too inherent in SL. however 4 openspace sims laid in a 2x2 grid, on the same cpu core, should be the next best thing.
As the resident that purchase the first OS sims (before they were called OS sims) I am obviously very interested in this topic. LL indeed took the OS idea down a different path than it was initially intended to me. See http://forums.secondlife.com/showpost.php?p=2193745&postcount=251
for details.
I also feel that 512 prims is inadequate. You will use up that much with a few boats entering the sim. In the spirit of the original concept for OS's I have sent to Robin and Jack Linden a proposal for a new kind of OS product, which I call "OS Lite". I would be 1500 prims for 50USD, or "1500 for 50". 1550 for 50! "I also feel that 512 prims is inadequate. You will use up that much with a few boats entering the sim."
I already considered that. Please see my second comment. A hundred boats could sail through the sim, given that "selected/sat upon" objects would be excluded from the count. I believe that's how it currently works anyhow, as you can currently fly very primmy vehicles over full parcels without difficulty. Also, ideally, you should be able to surround a private island with empty sea sims for no more than the cost of the island itself. US$50/sim is too expensive for what's just going to be an empty patch of sea. Granted, what you're proposing is better than what we have, but it's still too heavyweight and expensive for those who just want some open seas or skies. |
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New Feature
Reopened
Major
SL needs cheap, *real* open spaces
I was actually disappointed when I saw them raise the prim limit in openspaces. That's taking them in exactly the wrong direction from what they were originally intended for. And now, of course, the price needs to go up to account for the actual use they're seeing because of it. And there's no option for those of us who just wanted a some open space.
Please, give us actual open spaces. Give me a cheap sim with a severely low prim limit. I don't want to build anything big, I just want open seas and open skies...