The last log ended with the library as the next room to rebuild. It's done, and so are the two rooms beside it: a school and a music room. With the shrine from last time, every room in the middle of B Deck is now rebuilt. They follow the rule from the last log: each room is sci-fi, with one or two Japanese touches.
The library
A ship that travels for generations has to keep its own books. The library has white bookcases with light lines at their ends, freestanding stacks in the west half, and reading tables with lamps and dividers on a rug in the east half. There are two catalogue terminals by the door and ladders for the top shelves. There's an armchair corner at the back.
Two pieces tell the room's story. On the east wall stands a book press: a cabinet that prints new books aboard, with an output tray of fresh copies and a bench. At the end of the centre aisle, under a glass hood, lies an open book that was carried up from Earth. Behind it is the room's Japanese touch: an oak alcove with a hanging scroll of ink mountains and a vase holding a single flowering branch.
The first version of the scroll's mounting was too pale. From the door it looked like a second doorway at the end of the aisle, so I darkened it.
The school
A generational ship needs a school. Eighteen small desks with slates in their tops face a big wall screen that shows the solar system, with the ship's course dashing out of it. The teacher's desk stands to one side, with a globe of Earth.
Its Japanese touches come from Japanese primary schools:
- cubbies along the wall, most of them holding a randoseru, the hard backpack Japanese children carry
- a getabako, a shoe rack, either side of the door, holding the indoor shoes everyone changes into
- a row of potted morning glories, which Japanese children often grow at school
Children's drawings hang over the cubbies, and the back corner has a picture-book shelf with floor cushions.
The music room
The music room has a grand piano with its lid propped open in one back corner, under a warm light, and a drum kit in the other. Three chairs with music stands are set for a small ensemble, and acoustic panels run round the walls. Its Japanese touch is a koto, a 13-string zither, on a tatami platform by the door.
Redoing the guitars
The first guitars on the guitar wall were round discs with a stick on top, and they did not look like guitars. I rebuilt them.
Each body is now drawn as a smooth outline, then given depth. The acoustics have a lower bout, a waist and an upper bout. The electrics have two cutaways, with a shorter horn on one side than the other. Each guitar has a dark fretboard with frets spaced closer together toward the body, a nut, a headstock with tuners, and strings from the bridge to the nut. The acoustics get a sound hole with a ring. The electrics and the bass get a pickguard, pickups and knobs. They all hang from hooks.
It took a few tries. The first acoustic outline came out as a figure eight, and the first electrics looked like cat ears. The whole wall is about 6,400 triangles.
How they run
Every piece is built by a Python script in Blender, like the garden and the shrine. The walk test still passes on B Deck with nothing blocking the way, and each of the three rooms holds 144 frames per second at 1080p.
What is still rough
- I checked these rooms with screenshots and scripted walk tests, not by walking them by hand.
- Nobody uses them yet. No one plays the piano, and nothing is taught on the wall screen.
- Twelve rooms are rebuilt now. Most of the ship still uses the older furnishing.
What's next
More rooms one at a time, probably on C Deck: the Hayabusa2 sample lab or the pharmacy. Or the nursery and family quarters on D Deck.
Disclaimer
This is a work-in-progress development log. Everything shown is a prototype and is subject to change without notice.
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