Land Impact in Second Life: What It Means and How to Budget It
A practical explanation of Land Impact — how it is calculated, how much a parcel gives you, and realistic budgets for a house, furniture and decor.
Updated 2026-09-05 · 6 min read
Short answer
- Land Impact is Second Life’s resource budget per parcel. It replaced prim count and is calculated from download, physics and server weight.
- A 1024 sqm parcel gives 351 LI, a 2048 sqm parcel 703 LI, and a full region 20,000 LI.
- Across the 485 CANARUN products with published figures, the median item is 3 LI, and 74% are 10 LI or under.
- Budget roughly a third of your parcel for the structure and two thirds for what goes inside it.
What Land Impact measures
Second Life used to count prims — the number of primitive shapes an object was made of. Mesh made that meaningless, so it was replaced with Land Impact, which measures the real cost of rendering and simulating an object. Three weights are calculated, and the highest one becomes the object's Land Impact:
- Download weight — how much geometry and texture data every nearby viewer has to fetch. Driven by triangle count and level of detail.
- Physics weight — how expensive the collision shape is. A detailed physics mesh can cost far more than the visible model.
- Server weight — scripts, sit targets and other simulator load.
This is why two objects that look equally detailed can have wildly different Land Impact: one was built with an optimised physics shape and proper LOD models, the other was not.
How much Land Impact each parcel gives
| Parcel | Land Impact |
|---|---|
| 512 sqm | 175 |
| 1024 sqm | 351 |
| 2048 sqm | 703 |
| 4096 sqm | 1,406 |
| 8192 sqm | 2,812 |
| Openspace region | 750 |
| Homestead region | 5,000 |
| Full region (65,536 sqm) | 20,000 |
Group-owned parcels receive a 10% bonus, which is why many renters are asked to deed their land to a group.
Realistic budgets by item type
The figures below are the actual range across the 485 CANARUN products that publish Land Impact, which gives a fair picture of what mesh decor typically costs.
| Item type | Items | Range | Median |
|---|---|---|---|
| Skyboxes and houses | 74 | 1-221 LI | 57 LI |
| Lamps and lighting | 82 | 1-13 LI | 1 LI |
| Plants and greenery | 31 | 1-22 LI | 5 LI |
| Wall art and canvases | 29 | 1-72 LI | 1 LI |
| Rugs and carpets | 4 | 1-3 LI | 3 LI |
Worked example for a 1024 sqm parcel (351 LI): a 60 LI skybox, a 40 LI furniture set for the living area, 30 LI of bedroom pieces, 25 LI of plants and 15 LI of wall art comes to 170 LI — leaving roughly half the parcel free for seasonal decor and guests' own items.
Reducing Land Impact you already have
- Check the Objects tab. About Land → Objects shows exactly what is consuming the parcel, sorted by owner.
- Set decor to Convex Hull. For items nobody needs to collide with precisely, the simpler physics shape often cuts LI sharply.
- Link small items. A linked set is costed as one object, which is usually cheaper than the same pieces rezzed separately.
- Shrink oversized mesh. Land Impact scales with size, so a prop scaled down to a realistic size may cost noticeably less.
- Buy from creators who publish LI. The simplest fix is knowing the number before you spend the Linden dollars.
Frequently asked questions
- What is Land Impact in Second Life?
- Land Impact is the cost Second Life assigns to every object you rez, replacing the old prim count. Each parcel has a Land Impact allowance, and once you reach it you cannot rez anything more until you delete or return something. It is calculated from an object’s download weight, physics weight and server weight, whichever is highest.
- How many prims does a 1024 sqm parcel have in Second Life?
- A 1024 sqm mainland parcel has 351 Land Impact. A 2048 sqm parcel has 703, a 4096 sqm parcel has 1,406, and a full 65,536 sqm region has 20,000. Homestead regions are capped at 5,000 and Openspace regions at 750.
- How do I check how much Land Impact I have left?
- Right-click the ground and choose About Land, then open the Objects tab. It shows the parcel capacity, how much is in use, and a breakdown by owner so you can see which objects are consuming the most.
- Does resizing an object change its Land Impact?
- Yes, for mesh objects. Land Impact scales with the size of the object, so making a mesh item larger increases its LI and shrinking it usually reduces it. Rez the item, resize it, then check the LI in the build window before committing to a layout.
- How can I lower Land Impact without removing furniture?
- Set decorative objects to Convex Hull or Phantom physics where the viewer allows it, link small items into a single object, shrink oversized mesh, and replace high-LI props with lower-LI equivalents. Choosing furniture with the Land Impact published up front avoids the problem entirely.
Land Impact is published on 485 of our product pages, so you can plan a parcel before buying.
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