Sizes, design and money

So, i played recently with height measurement scripts and also read through blogs. One aspect, i found really interesting, as thought:

the taller you are, the more expensive is your SL. Not much, but a bit. And that adds up, for each resident, so in the sum, the resources that a simulator (island, region) can hold, are wasted by handling them too generous.

To be clear here: i am *not* talking about that everyone now should walk around as a minion. I simply want to point out, that having a realistic size in SL, saves you money. So, here now some data from RL:

going from Wikipedia, the average height of a male in the USA is 1.776 m (5 ft 10 in). And for a female it is 1.632 m (5 ft 4 ¹⁄₂ in). I did not take in now the sizes on other continents, because, yes, i know, in many asian countries, people are even smaller some, as well as in other regions of the world.

But i think, if we pick the average US-american person, and compare this, then this is a starting point. Once we achieved to agree on these as "normal" sizes for SL, the smaller and larger sizes that can occur in other countries, will easier also fit into the big picture.

Now, how does this connect with costs, L$?

A simple example shall show the problem.

In preparation to this, i will show you my body size, including hair and primfeet:

1 meter and 83 centimeters, click to enlarge

This is the height of the prim nearby me, which i rezzed in height, until it covered my hair and toes. now, the SL size we are measuring via viewer and scripts, does not take in attachments, so, let us see, what the viewer tells about my body size:

1 meter and 81 centimeters, click to enlarge

That means, my hair adds about 2 cm. And my primfeet i adjusted close enough that they do not add to height, as they are not shoes, which would.

Still this is tall. Remember? Average size of the female in RL in the USA? 1 meter 63. Why am i that tall in SL? Mainly for one reason: i used a wrong script to measure my size, that made me assume wrong proportions. And downsizing just so, is not simply done with the slider "height", To do that properly, one needs to consider leg length, and much more.

However, this is not the topic of today's post. Let us assume, for now, i am just tall. And now, with being overly tall than usually expected, it should show, when entering for example a house, right?

Ok, lets look. I bought a house, and rezzed it, as is, a prefab. Here is the picture.

3 stories, the rezz box is in front, the height comparison prim stil rezzed. Click to enlarge

One can see the upcoming problem already. For the next picture, keep in mind, i am supposed to be tall, with more than 180 cm:

The doorknob is as big as my head and at the height of my head.

This just looks wrong. So, i am going to resize the house:

Doorknob now at my hands level, more realistic. Click to enlarge

And now let us see how the overall house looks in compare to the "out of the box original size":

left version: original - right version: downsized - Click to enlarge

As one can easily see, the downsized building needs less sqm. And it wil need less decoration inside to make it look beautiful. Less sqm, less prim= less cost.

Now, if you think the right house looks ridiculously small, lets measure its dimensions:

ground floor=3 meters height - Click to enlarge

This is one floor... now, the whole height:

7.9 meters - click to enlarge

This matches almost with RL sizes where the height of a storey is about 2.5 meters to 3 meters.

Yes, one can add some maybe due to the camera settings in SL which makes navigating easier when the rooms are larger.. however, you see: you can keep your buildings smaller and save cash this way. Just, start with your own apeparance and make the height realistically, then the first step is done...

I made a group in SL, where we can eventually discuss further ideas about this issue, because, unrealistic sizes drag along a lot of other issues with it, here just some to be named:

• attachments that are too bigand can not be made fit correctly, or only with a lot of effort
• vehicles that look like they are made for Hulk, not for the average driver
• beds, that are so tall that they deserve the name "playground", as, when one sleeps in them, one forgets the exit till next morning
• health care tools and scripts: a scale showing the ideal weight if you are 2.30 meters tall? And more scripts to there too, like, what if one wants to simulate drug impact? Pregnancy? Treatments? Cures? 

This list can be expanded a lot. And a possible aim for this is, to keep a vivid discussion about this up, to also contact content creators, and trying to make them adjust to more realistically scaled builds, etc.

The group name in SL is: Height

Yes, just so. The name was still available. Look it up and join, if you want to contribute to a realistic environment.