Sculpts are not everyone’s cup of tea, it has to be said; but even in the age of mesh, and despite their cost in terms of download and rendering, etc., they remain popular for a range of things: furniture, plants, building elements and so on.

One person who has turned the sculpt into something of a creative art form is Ample Clarity. I’ve covered his work a number of times in this blog, and I confess that I’m a big fan of his top-of-the-line concert grand piano, which still graces my home (as does one of his furniture suite, a patio lounger and a bedroom set!).

Now he’s done it again, with the PrimPossible Unlimited Decor Menu and HUD. This is a single sculpted prim which, via a menu (and a HUD to speed the rezzing process in the wearer’s view) can become any one of over 100 works of art or one of 300 rugs, or one of 42 different potted plants, one of 8 different lamps, a guitar, a violin, a dressing table, a desk with a computer, one of a number of tables, a telescope… the list goes on.

This is quite a remarkable feat; and for those who are pushed for space, land impact-wise, the system potentially offers a neat way of flicking between various furniture options without having to worry about the associated prim counts.

The decor menu comes in two variants. The basic model is no Mod / Copy / Transfer, and costs L$100, allowing you to one create and display one item at a time. This is ideal if you’re only interested in using it for a single rug or painting, as it still means that you can change the appearance of the rug or painting to suit your mood. However, the second version is Copy, no Mod / Transfer, and costs L$800. Being copyable means that you can use shift-drag to create multiple versions and then change each of them to create a new object in your home.

As well as offering an impressive range of options and shapes, the menu also controls the tint / glow / shine associated with an object; so that lamps, for example can be made to look as if they are “on” by adding a level of glow. the menu also offers resizing along all three axes and for those who know what they are doing, to add custom textures – just do remember that the objects are all one prim, so care needs to be taken to achieve a desired result.

There are obviously some limitations to the system; individual items are unscripted, obviously, and as they are formed out of a sculpt, fine detailing on some can be a little rough in places; a coffee cup which is a little more octagonal than round, for example, while the headstock on the guitar is oddly angled. Given how far Ample is pushing the sculpt, little oddments are perhaps not surprising, and they don’t detract from the overall usability of the system.

Certainly, and as mentioned above, for those on a prim budget, the copyable version of the Decor Menu offers a nice degree of flexibility for adding decorative touches and furnishings to your home; for my part, I find the decor lamp particularly attractive, and the piles of books help add a “lived-in” feeling to a place. All-in-all, an intriguing addition to the PrimPossible range.

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