Opening the cavern: discoverer claims

[Chacal]

In relation to this challenge, explorers can post here their claim to a new discovery.
In order to avoid spoiling the fun for other explorers, please use spoiler tags to enclose your claim, which may consist of a simple sentence and screenshot such as this:

Show Spoiler

Here I am in a cozy private salon in the Watcher's Pub. What strange furniture!

Rolep_02.jpg (76.46 KiB) Viewed 8838 times

The procedure for doing this is as follows:
- Type your claim
- Click on the "Upload attachment" tab
- Browse to your (reasonably small) picture, click on "Open"
- Click on "Add the file"
- Click on "Place inline" a little higher up, this will add an attachment tag to your text
- Select your text and the attachment, click on the "spoiler=" button at the top.

This looks complicated but it's easier done than said.

[pappou]

Chacal's Explorations

Chacal is not likely to thank me, but from my explore of his 'Opening Up' of Ae'gura, it is clear that he has the heart of an architect. But i also think this would be true of anyone who has a real yearning to see what is behind the closed doors in the Cavern. Chacal carries the yearning out, however, and gives us the spatial volumes that lie behind – the Raum which is normally hidden.

Here is a list of my favorite Uncovered Spaces:

[SPOILERS] [SPOILERS] [SPOILERS]

Show Spoiler

Kahlo Pub: A stone panel is revealed to be a secret door, which covers an arch-planned interior room (its a segment of a circle in plan), hidden entirely within the rock; once into it, the backside of the stone door reveals a large Romanesque doorway going back into the pub;
also, out in the Pub corridor leading to the Grand Stair, there is a steel door which is a go-through above roof tops and aimed in the direction of Karaf Arch.

Ferry Terminal Hyperbolic Paraboloid Roof is now solid; you can walk upon it;

Palace Roof Top Courtyard: This is my favorite; I have been peering around this secret event for years, and until Marten told me how to take flying lessons, i could only surmise; now it is not only given bold admittance from Tokotah Plaza, but one walks up the stairs to a solid paved tile court yard;

it also has a secret exit out onto the outdoor passage from the King's Circle to the Upper Walk going to the Library; i have long wondered what lay behind those particular doors;

Library Basement Floors: Chacal has now opened the spiral stair all the way down, and everyone will enjoy running around on the newly solidified upper basement level; indeed, you may tour the solid floor at the second basement too, and even the third level down -- although you do the last one entirely in the dark.

[END OF SPOILERS]

There are many many more little surprises and the whole thing is great fun. I believe i counted 28 discoveries, and there are probably a few more that i missed (for instance, i never did satisfy myself that i uncovered the secrets of the Kadish Gallery Shopping Street). Also, i was a bit disappointed that Chacal did not open the rear doors to Kahlo Pub, going out into the Tokotah Alley. But maybe he can add that later.

Congratulations Chacal, for a delightful and truly well done set of revealments.

[Chacal]

My pleasure! I'm glad it worked for you.
I'm also glad that someone finally tried it. It was a lot of work, but most importantly I learned a lot.

I see you wore your Maintainer's suit. Taking no chances, are we?

Here's some spoiler comments:

Show Spoiler

Kahlo Pub: That's the first one I did. That room has always been there, but it was hidden and had no solid floor. Seems like Cyan changed their mind about it, since they put a bar that half-blocks the entrance. I had to build a floor, walls and a ceiling so the camera wouldn't get out through the walls.
As for the rear doors, they don't go into the Tokotah alley but under it, also they open directly on a cliff. Also, there's nothing behind them. Remember that I created nothing visible.

Ferry terminal: I'm surprised you found that one. I wondered if people would think about it. Not easy to get there, lots of jumping involved.

Palace courtyard: that's the main reason I did all this. Like you, it has frustrated me for 4 years. I think someone at Cyan was cruel. Too bad there's no dynamic lighting of surfaces in Uru, when I put a lamp it only lighted my avatar, not the ground. Walking up the stairs and into the courtyard, the first explorer ever to do so, I felt elated, a feeling only slightly diminished by the lack of a triumphant fanfare.

[Nadnerb]

Show Spoiler

Too bad there's no dynamic lighting of surfaces in Uru, when I put a lamp it only lighted my avatar, not the ground.

I must point out that there is dynamic lighting in uru, and the light from your avatar's "firefly" animation will in fact affect all surfaces. However, all dynamic lighting is vertex lighting, meaning that a light near the center of a plane will hardly light it at all, since the light is glancing from the point of view of the four vertexes at the corners. Try walking into one of the corners with your light on.

[Chacal]

That makes sense.
Maybe I could do a test and try to change visible objects, adding vertices.
But that's a whole different ballgame.

Thanks!

[pappou]

drum rollllllllllllllllllllll! ........Trumpets blare: ta da TA DA!
And voice from above announces:
.................Explorer Chacal is first to mount his solid stairs behind the forbidding gate;
.................He is entering upon the new solid tiles of the Court Yard.
.................ta da TA DA!

Show Spoiler

The stairs to the Court Yard were not solid either were they? Good job on whole thing; Loud Applause!
Now that you mention it, I do remember going thru the Alley steel doors earlier into the Pub; yes; you come in a story too high. Forgot that. Guess i never went back out then. Too bad. When i first joined SR i even wrote a quick little vignette about Nick White and Sydney Austin coming through those doors, late one night, to discuss their nefarious plot for her to take over DRC and for him to reemerge in disguise as someone else -- like DocOlinA.
Re: the Library; did you not put in those walls too – the ones inside the second story area? I remember going through those upper door once before, into a real jumble of stuff. My memory was nothing so specific as is there in your story. Just the guts behind the scenes of external applique.
Were the floors in the lower basements difficult to install? Very nice job there. Did I miss anything in the dark on the two bottom basement floors?

[Chacal]

Show Spoiler

The stairs to the Court Yard were not solid either were they?

No. Here's the entire courtyard (one of the objects you imported). The stairs are just ramps.

NewFloor3.png (18.6 KiB) Viewed 8698 times

Then of course I had to open a gap in the wall of the courtyard below like this (the gap already existed for the stairs to the Hall of Kings):

Courtyard_collider.png (17.73 KiB) Viewed 8697 times

Re: the Library; did you not put in those walls too – the ones inside the second story area? I remember going through those upper door once before, into a real jumble of stuff.

The visible walls were already there. The jumble is just a little higher, if you enter the huge orange sphere. By the way, since you have fly mode, there's still a surprise for you in that room.

Were the floors in the lower basements difficult to install?

Not really, once I learned about "Duplicate" in Blender. I just duplicated the first floor, modified it for my purposes, repaired the gap in the bannister and aligned things properly and connected the vertices again. A few hours' work at most.

Here's a before / after shot that speaks for itself:

city_District_LibraryInterior_Before-After.png (41.49 KiB) Viewed 8696 times

Did I miss anything in the dark on the two bottom basement floors?

Nope. Nothing to see here. Move along.

[Robert The Rebuilder]

Wow - what a great way to explore those places you've been dying to see, but just couldn't reach. Thanks for the treat and the hard work, Chacal! I highly recommend this for people who aren't afraid of tweaking their Uru files.

Now for my slide show...

photos and such Show Spoiler

Two taken from inside the Takota tent...


From the lower level of the museum...

The camera stays up above, so third person looks like this (try to find me):

Another inner tent shot: on the Great Stairs

View of arch from the formerly inaccessible pathway beyond the ferry gate...

Hey - there's holes in them thar walls!

The mysterious staircase on the Palace courtyard - where does it lead?

Yes - under the Great Hall!

*Groan* Another inner tent shot near the library:

The second floor of the library. It's missing a floor, but what about that door way up there?

My descent into the lower levels of the library.

A beautiful view of the winding staircase.

It gets creepy on the third level... (Like Tetsonot, huh?)

And very dark on the 4th level.


Note: I also found the removed barrier in the Kahlo pub, but I didn't bother with pictures.

I think I went everywhere except...

those other places Show Spoiler

Where was the ph_CanyonPRoxyTerrain placed?
And where did the phDakotaRoof and *_NewFloor1 items go in the great stair?

And here are places that I'd still like to see...

wish list Show Spoiler

What lies beyond those barriers?

I want to get to that stage down there so badly!


Thanks again, Chacal!

[pappou]

Show Spoiler

I could not get to the Terminal Roof except by cheating; still, Chacal did increase its Live Load, so we may now stand on it

Chacal Terminal Roof 01.jpg (50.89 KiB) Viewed 8663 times

Also, i cheated to get this shot of the Golden Golf Ball inside the Library, but i was led to it legally by Chical's new upper library room

Library Dome 02a.jpg (45.53 KiB) Viewed 8662 times

[Chacal]

I'm glad you both like it. It was some work yes, but it was also a way to study prp files in a fun way.

I highly recommend this for people who aren't afraid of tweaking their Uru files.

As long as they take a backup first, they're in no danger.
I'll add simple instructions in the tutorial for restoring the files, just in case.

Now for your comments and questions...

Show Spoiler

Note: I also found the removed barrier in the Kahlo pub, but I didn't bother with pictures.

The same one that pappou found?

From the lower level of the museum...

This one has an interesting story. I couldn't figure out what Cyan had in mind with the back door on both levels on the museum.
Flying through it, after a few feet you're out of the rock face on the back of the island. So initially I wanted to make a balcony outside the rear door of the museum, so that we could look at the other side of the lake that we never get to see. It looks like this with its little island:

Aegura_Museum_Back_04.png (65.75 KiB) Viewed 8647 times

But then, I noticed something weird: even though no one is supposed to get near the back door (there are blockers), there is a functional camera region around it (that's why your camera stayed on the top floor), and it's called "ElevatorCamRegion" ! That's when it became clear to me that Cyan initially wanted to put an elevator there, possibly functional, which was canned but the camera region stayed. Maybe it's still in future plans (although I doubt it), so I decided to stay with their inital idea and did the lower level, then added an elevator shaft that you fall down in. It's a little weird, but it's all I could do.

Here's the collider:

MuseumInteriorCollision.png (56.96 KiB) Viewed 8649 times

The second floor of the library. It's missing a floor, but what about that door way up there?

Yeah, what about it?

Where was the ph_CanyonPRoxyTerrain placed?

Ah well, don't be fooled by the name of the object. It is a VERY large object. Anyway you've answered that question yourself, you're just missing one little leap. Chinese cookie says: "Be more persistent when facing obstacles".

And where did the phDakotaRoof and *_NewFloor1 items go in the great stair?

I'm not answering that. You're missing something big, the biggest part of the puzzle.
You'll know it when you find it. I spent days on that one.
Oh and don't be fooled by the name of the Prp. Those things get big too.

What lies beyond those barriers?

No comment.

I want to get to that stage down there so badly!

If there was a way to jump there, then I'd add it.

I could not get to the Terminal Roof except by cheating

Oh there's a way. You're missing the same thing as Robert. Maybe you should do this together...