Managing Parcel Objects

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• What determines how much content a parcel can support?
  • What is the difference between "Land Impact" and "Prims"?
• How does parcel ownership affect land impact?
  • What determines the parcel ownership?
• How can I see how much Land Impact my parcel will support?
• What is ‘Region Object Bonus’ and how does it affect content limits on a parcel?
  • What are the risks of changing the Object Bonus?
  • Why would I need to use Object Bonus?
• How can I safely change parcel ownership without causing content returns?

What determines how much content a parcel can support?

In simple cases, the total Land Impact ("prims") a parcel can support is equal to the region's total land impact times the size of the parcel, divided by the total size of the region (since all regions are 256 x 256 m, this will always be 65,536 sqm). Total land impact for many common sizes of Mainland parcels are shown here. It's relatively easy to calculate for Private Islands as well (for example, a 2,048 sqm parcel on a typical 20,000 Land Impact full region can support:

    2,048 sqm x 20,000 prims / 65,536 sqm = 625 land impact 

Another easy way is using the following calculations:

What is the difference between "Land Impact" and "Prims"?

Many residents use these terms synonymously, but technically since the introduction of Mesh objects in Second Life, region and parcel objects are measured by Land Impact. For simple objects ("primitives"), these are the same value, but Mesh and some other objects are calculated based on a number of factors, described here.

How does parcel ownership affect land impact?

All of the parcels with the same ownership in the same region share their total land impact limit. For example, if "Example Resident" owns a 1,024 sqm parcel and two 512 sqm parcels in the same 20,000 land impact region, the parcels have the same total land impact as a single 2,048 sqm parcel in this region would have (625 land impact). This land impact can be used in any combination up to that total - the 512 sqm parcels could use 156 land impact each and the 1,204 sqm parcel the remaining 313 land impact; each of the parcels could use 208 land impact each; or one of the parcels (even one of the 512 sqm parcels) could use the full 625 land impact, leaving the others empty.

What determines the parcel ownership?

A parcel may be owned by an individual avatar (and could be set to a group), or it may be deeded to a group:

• If the parcel is owned by a single avatar (neither Set nor Deeded to a group), the avatar name will be the only thing showing in the Owner section of the About Land > General tab. The land impact for all of the parcels owned by this resident will be shared between them.

• If the parcel is Set to group, but not Deeded, it will show an avatar name as Owner, and its Land Impact will be included in the avatar's total, rather than the group's. Setting a parcel to a group allows some settings (such as Fly or Build) and parcel access to apply to all members of a group, but it does not take group roles into account (for example, if Build is set to Group, any member of the group will be able to build, even if their group role does not include this option).

• If the parcel is Deeded to a group, the Owner will show (Group Owned). In this case, the land impact will be shared only with other parcels deeded to the same group. Also, for a deeded parcel, Group Role settings take effect, as long as they are not overridden by the parcel controls. (If Build is set to Group, anyone in the group can build; if Build is not checked, only group members whose Role includes the Build ability will be allowed to build

How can I see how much Land Impact my parcel will support?

The Land Impact for a parcel shows on the Objects tab in the About Land window. To define what each of the fields signifies:

• Region Capacity: This is the total Land Impact that the owner of this parcel can use on the entire region. In the example above, the owner of this parcel is using 57 land impact between all of the parcels they own on this region, and they can use up to 117 Land Impact, leaving 60 available for use.
• Parcel Land Capacity: This field shows the Land Impact capacity of this individual parcel. In the example above, the capacity of this individual parcel is 58 Land Impact. 
• Parcel Land Impact: This is the Land Impact in use on the specific parcel. In this case, 8 of the 57 Land Impact this owner is using is on this parcel.
  • Owned by parcel owner: For a parcel owned by an avatar (not deeded), this is the land impact of all objects on the parcel owed by the avatar. For a parcel owned by a group (deeded), this is the land impact of all objects in the parcel deeded to that group.
  • Set to group: The land impact of objects set (but not deeded) to the group the parcel is set to. This only applies to parcels that are deeded to group (not just set to group). 
  • Owned by others: For a parcel owned by an avatar (not deeded), this is the land impact of all objects on the parcel not owed by that avatar. For a parcel owned by a group (deeded), this is the land impact of all objects in the parcel not deeded to that group. 
  • Selected/Sat Upon: This is more or less exactly what it sounds like - these objects interact differently.
• Auto return other Residents' objects (minutes, 0 for off): By default, this is set to 0 (off) and objects left on the parcel will not be returned automatically over time. If this value is greater than zero, objects that are not owned by the parcel owner (or deeded to the same group the parcel is deeded to) will be automatically returned after that period in minutes. For example, many Linden Sandboxes are set to auto return after 180 minutes (3 hours).
• Object Owners: This can be used to get a count of objects owned by different avatars/deeded to different groups, highlight them inworld, and return them to their owners. 
  • Clicking the Refresh button just to the left of Return Objects will refresh the list, showing each object owner, the count of objects they own, and the most recent date the objects were added:
  • Clicking an object owner name will highlight the owner in this window and all of their objects in the parcel in world.
  • Clicking Return Objects will return all of the objects owned by the selected owner, after a confirmation window.
  • Note that returning many objects at once may result in a Coalesced Object - details on how to work with coalesced objects can be found here: https://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/How_to_retrieve_coalesced_items
  • You can sort each of these columns (Name, Count, and Most Recent) by clicking on the column name. 

What is ‘Region Object Bonus’ and how does it affect content limits on a parcel?

Object Bonus is a region-level Estate setting that acts like a multiplier for a parcel's Land Impact limit, allowing parcels to have more content than their size would normally permit. It does not change the total Land Impact limit for the region. The object bonus, which is a number from 1.000 (the default setting) to 10.000, acts as a multiplier to the capacity of all parcels in the region. 

Object Bonus can be useful for regions where smaller parcels are desirable for things like access or media settings, but the region owner would like those small parcels to be able to hold more content than usual. Object Bonus allows those smaller parcels to 'borrow' land allowance from the rest of the region, regardless of who owns the other parcels. For safest use, it's best to have large, low content areas like parkland or open ocean to support your 'double prim' smaller parcels.

Let's use our earlier parcel as an example. A 2,048 sqm parcel on a typical 20,000 Land Impact full region can normally support 625 Land Impact at the default Object Bonus of 1. If the Object Bonus is increased to 3.000, the same parcel will allow up to three times as much content -- 1,875 land impact, as long as there's at least 1875 land impact left in the region as a whole. That's because the region as a whole can still only support 20,000 land impact, no matter how high the object bonus multiplier.

In the diagram below, the top image shows a standard region, with 20,000 LI available and an object bonus set to 1. The small parcels can each hold 112 LI in content, and the big parcel (all of the remaining land in the region) can support 19,552 LI (what's left of that original 20,000 LI budget for the whole region).

The bottom image shows a region with an object bonus set to 2. The small parcels can now each hold 224 LI of content, but the big parcel can only hold 19,104 LI -- with an object bonus of 2, it would normally be able to hold twice as much content as in the top image, which'd work out to over 39,000 LI! But the region can't hold more than 20,000, no matter what the bonus is set to, so the big parcel is stuck with the leftover land allowance.

What are the risks of changing the Object Bonus?

Since the Object Bonus affects the total Land Impact Limit for each owner on the region, lowering it can cause object returns if one or more parcel owners are using more than the "default share" of Land Impact. For example, if the example parcel above was using 1,000 land impact, and the estate owner (or an estate manager) lowered the Object Bonus back to 1.00, the parcel would now be over its limit, and would return objects to bring the total land impact to 625 or lower. See How can I safely change parcel ownership without causing content returns? below for more details, and how to avoid this.

Why would I need to use Object Bonus?

The most common use is when a large portion of your region is used for a static, low-impact purpose (such as decorative open area) and you want to allow renters in the "busier" part of the region to use more land impact. As a simple example, if half of your region is empty, and the other half are rental parcels, you could set your Object Bonus to 2.000 to allow the rental parcels to use twice their normal land impact (typically called "double prim land").

How can I safely change parcel ownership without causing content returns?

When changing parcel ownership, you must be careful that none of the owners end up exceeding their maximum Land Impact, or objects will be returned. Parcels that have the same owner will share their land allowance with each other, which can lead to some parcels having more content on them than they'd usually be able to support. 

• Example: Resident Alphabetty Spaghetti owns two 512 sqm parcels, "The Garden" and "The House", on a 20,000 land impact region. Each parcel has a Parcel Land Capacity (land impact limit) of 156, but since Alphabetty owns both parcels, they can use a total of 312 land impact split any way they want between the two parcels. In this case, "The Garden" parcel has 200 land impact worth of content on it, while "The House" parcel has content equal to 100 land impact. If Alphabetty sells or deeds "The House", they now directly own only a single 512sqm parcel on the region - this means their Region Capacity (total land impact limit) is now only 156, so "The Garden" will return objects until it is using 156 or less land impact.

There are a few ways to prevent this:

• Make sure that each parcel's Parcel Land Impact is not greater than the parcel's Parcel Land Capacity. Don't overload your parcels!
  • Please note: if you are using the Region-level Object Bonus setting, the Parcel Land Capacity displayed in World > About Land will include this multiplier, up to the maximum capacity of the region. 
  • For example, a 32,768 parcel on a 20,000 land impact region would normally support 10,000 land impact. With the the Object Bonus set to 1.500, this will show 15,000 land impact, and set to 2.000, it will show 20,000 land impact, But since the total land impact of the region is 20,000, even if the object bonus is set to 3.0, this parcel will still only show 20,000 Parcel Land Capacity.
• If you have parcels that are sharing land impact and you'd like to change ownership of one or more of those parcels, it's a good idea to pick up content until the parcels are balanced again first, if possible. This will help prevent accidental returns, which can disrupt builds and landscaping. Picking up a few higher land impact objects before making changes can protect buildings and hard-to-fix landscaping from being returned automatically.
• If you are changing the ownership of all the parcels on a region, it is usually easier to increase the Object Bonus to 10.000, make the parcel changes, then change the object bonus back - this should prevent returns as long as a single parcel isn't using the vast majority of the region's land impact (if one parcel is, change the ownership of this parcel last). Just be sure to check that all parcels have the right amount of content for the land impact they'll have once you lower the object bonus.
• If you're worried about lowering your object bonus, or making parcel changes that might return content, please contact our Support team via ticket or LiveChat for assistance.