Space Museum Final Alpha with Update 2 'The Auditorium' released in preview

[mawa]

Merry Xmas to all of you!

I’m doing myself my own christmas present by finally releasing a first preview of my 2023 personal project with BJS (like last minute, just before the end of year )

Below is the link to the Preview. This is a desktop/laptop experience only. Recommended is mouse and keyboard. I will improve trackpad and gesture later beginning of next year.

Update 2 (updated link from june 30, 2024):
https://media-geneva.ch/demos/bjs/museum/moe-alpha2.html

Project Space Museum or MOE, the ‘Museum of Evolution’ is a structure set in outer space in an unknown time in the future. So, there’s a bit of a sci-fi feeling to it for everything that’s from the architecture and design. However, the content displayed (and their description) is historical and accurate (hopefully, or you can blame the AI, chatGPT and Bing if it isn’t

As said, this is a first preview. There’s a lot to be improved and added. Currently, you’ll find about 450 items on display (between the interactive sphere, the paintings and the pods displaying models of sculptures and artefacts). The final version will have a count of about 800 with more categories to the interactive giant sphere and an amphitheatre (currently empty) where you should be able to listen to some of the greatest works of music. The human silhouettes you currently see in the scene will also soon be replaced by NPCs. Nothing all too fancy but still, I will try to bring a little bit more life to it.

There’s also no tour at the moment. Recommended for now is to open the settings (Press [P]) and check the key bindings and settings.

For those who want a ‘cultural moment’ during this Season’s holiday, I hope you will enjoy this preview.
As for me, I will be back on it from January.

Last for now but not least, I want to thank everyone from the Team and Forum who helped me with this project. I could never have done it without your help and expertise (except for the bugs ) Special thanks to @Evgeni_Popov @sebavan @carolhmj @PolygonalSun @Cedric @labris @shaderbytes @roland You rock and I hope you will have a great time during this Season Holiday

[roland]

Hey!
Congratulations! This is brilliant buddy! Shifting the sphere rows is cool!
I’ve met a lonely a T-postured robot Poor guy, give him a Santa hat at least

It’s qute hard to navigate without a mouse using only the touchpad. I will definitelly try this out using a mouse. (mouse locking should help a lot here)

+1 for the clean toilets

r.

[CodingCrusader]

A masterpiece, Mawa!

I can well imagine using ChatGPT’s API to have a conversation with deceased artists.

Me: You are now Vincent Van Gogh and in your language you talk about your life in particular, what makes you who you are and how you became who you are.

ChatGPT:
Ah, my life, a fascinating jumble of colors and emotions. I am Vincent van Gogh, a dreamer, an artist, a man of contradictions. My story is steeped in passion, in highs and lows, in an unquenchable longing that exploded through my brushes onto the canvas.

I was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot-Zundert, a small village in the Netherlands. My childhood, characterized by the beauty of nature and the feeling of connection to my family, was the seed of my artistic passion. But early on, I felt a restlessness, a kind of melancholy that pervaded my soul.

My path led me through various professions, from an art dealer to an assistant preacher. But none of them really fulfilled me. Painting called to me like a passionate lover that I could not ignore. And so, in an act of self-discovery, I left the conventional life and embarked on the path of becoming an artist.

Paris, the city of lights and the artistic revolution, became my refuge. Here I found like-minded people, artists who were looking for a new form of self-expression. The Impressionists inspired me, but I wanted to go further, to capture the soul of things that lay dormant beneath the surface.

It was in Arles, in the south of France, that my brushes worked their magic. The sun, the fields, the cypresses - everything spoke to me in colors. The intensity of my expression, often considered eccentric, was my way of understanding and penetrating the world. In a fit of ecstasy, I created some of my most famous works, including “The Starry Night” and “The Sunflowers”.

But the demons inside me haunted me. The walls of my psyche trembled with self-doubt and dark thoughts. My ear, which was cut off in an act of desperation, stands as a witness to my inner struggles.

I finally met my end in Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village surrounded by poppy fields. My paintings tell of the beauty and fragility of life, of the tragic beauty of dying. A whirlwind of emotions that consumed my soul and exploded onto the canvas.

I am Vincent van Gogh, a man of light and darkness, a seeker of truth who spoke through colors when words failed. My legacy is a kaleidoscope of my passion, an invitation to see the world with new eyes, as I once did.

[shaderbytes]

wow the scale is intense , lovely project. So at first i struggled to move because I was just trying to use mouse wheel to move towards the building as WSAD was not working in space … anyway once i opened the menus and used teleport to admin , and changes walk, run speed , then the experience only began properly .

I found a working lift … impressive , saw I could go to to a private floor ( kitchen ) … of course I went there .

In the kitchen I saw a fusion reactor , with a label on the door “do not open” … of course I tried to open it. Sadly it was locked … maybe a nice place to eventually put an easter egg , like if someone opens the door you blow up the entire space station and put a game over display with a small blurb “Im sure it said , do not open…” haha

I looked at some art work oon the walls as well , so far all is working great. It was before bed time so i will do some more exploring after work today.

[Joe_Kerr]

Oh wow, this is super cool! Get this into class rooms.

btw. I could not figure out how to flush the toilet

[sebavan]

woooooooooot !!! It is huge !!! I love it @mawa, this is an outstanding work !!!

[carolhmj]

Wooooo, this is awesome! Had fun exploring around, looking at the paintings and the restaurant menu Just FYI, I wasn’t able to interact with the sphere, it brought up this error:

on latest Edge.

[mawa]

Weird thing. It seems to work on my side. Could you give it another try and let me know? Thanks for feedback and have a great day

[mawa]

Thanks everyone for your encouraging comments. I needed some time to get all set after landing in australia on new year’s eve. I had problems finding the time to get back to work But I’m back in business now and although not ideal from my remote location, I’m starting my work in improving the scene. Next to come, NPCs (instead of silhouettes) and 2 new categories for the interactive sphere. I’ll keep you posted and meanwhile, have a great day

[mawa]

@Joe_Kerr

I could not figure out how to flush the toilet

haha As weird as it sounds, I actually thought about doing this But then, I figured I should start focus on the ‘museum’ part It might still come later though. If I fancy adding it using physics for fluid… how fancy would that be?

[mawa]

@shaderbytes

at first i struggled to move because I was just trying to use mouse wheel to move towards the building as WSAD was not working in space

Thanks for your feedback (and encouraging comment ). I think you have a point there. I will definetely have to add some UI for a better understanding of the active camera. The scene is also supposed to start with a cinematic cam but this one isn’t done yet. I will work these parts out as well as better settings to use with a trackpad. May be even a preset for mouse or trackpad.

[mawa]

Hello fellow BJSers,

I’m happy to announce the release of the first Alpha version of ‘MOE’, ‘The Museum of Evolution’ (or Space Museum).

Quite a bit happened since the first preview… despite from having to work remotely from Australia using what I believe is likely to be the slowest and most unreliable Internet you can have in 2024 in the civilized parts of the world The good thing is that it helped me fix some problems with loading the scene with a slow (very slow ) Internet

Below for the list of Addings, Changes and Fixes:

SCENE:

• NEW Opening screen
• NEW Cinematic camera - The missing cinematic camera (an animated version of the arc rotate camera) has finally been implemented.
• NEW NPC - Louise, a Mixamo character optimized for the scene and with a range of 4 animations played randomly is now greeting visitors at the admittance desk.

GUI:

• NEW Tutorial section - From the opening screen or from the ‘SETTINGS’ panel, you can now access a ‘TUTORIAL’
• NEW Implementation of key bindings for the arc rotate camera. You can now control the arc rotate camera movement with W,A,S,D and the zoom/radius with E,Q.
• NEW Active Camera panel - The top right corner of the screen now displays information on the active camera when switching camera.
• Added a Key binding for entering/exiting full screen (V).
• The contextual ‘INFORMATION PANEL’ (I) now also displays the description of the model viewed when interacting with pods (sculptures and artefacts)
• Modified the default sensitivity for arc rotate camera panning and mouse wheel/gesture zooming.

FIXES:

• Reworked loading sequence - The loading is now less likely to fail because of the order of accessing loaded parts. Particularly when using slow (very slow) Internet. The scene also loads faster.
• Reworked jump/jetpacking - Jumping (SPACE) and jetpacking (SHIFT+SPACE) is now adjusted so that it can also be used with the higher gravity setting.
• Fixed a bug where the far right buttons (presets for walk and run speed) from the ‘WHEEL MENU’ could eventually not be clicked when in full-screen or depending on size/ratio
• Fixed a number of materials that where using the wrong environment texture. Fixed the level of environment on a group of materials.
• Fixed a bug where some material did not render because of the freezing material optimization.

Please let me know if you experience problems with the new loading sequence (or with any other new or existing parts).

The next release shall contain new categories for the interactive sphere and (hopefully) the first parts of the new ‘amphitheatre’ section featuring Great Works of Music.

Meanwhile, have an awesome day

The Link is still the same :

@mawa

Project Space Museum

[sebavan]

Nice update !!! I really love how pretty it is

[eX0Ton]

This is really spectacular and inspiring! Congrats on the release and the achievement so far.
I’ve been lurking these parts for a while, wanting to create something, whether it be a game, or a web experience like this.
Of the many impressive demo projects I have seen around here, this is probably the most impressive.
Very interested to hear your inspiration for it? Your OP states it’s a personal project. Did you have this space museum concept in mind from the get go or was it a case of you playing around in BJS and then the idea came?
What is your long term intention for the project?
Keep it as a personal project in it’s current guise? or have you considered to potentially use it as a platform to monetise in some form or fashion?

[mawa]

Wow: Thanks a lot for this very encouraging comment …
and then, a warm welcome to our Community

I’ll try to answer your questions the best I can:

@eX0Ton

Very interested to hear your inspiration for it?

Thanks for asking. It’s been a while I wanted to create something around this. Inspiration came from my former apprentice and next employee in my digital communication agency (pseudo aiven).
I believe in 2011, he created this artdraw for desktopography. The inspiration comes from here. My biggest challenge though was that he didn’t draw the entire structure and external environment. So, I just started from there and created the entire architecture from scratch (with many attempts, failures and try (hard) again steps I also had to simplify the design (i.e. the sphere) but I’m still thinking of improving it, adding more fx, particles and stuff… but need to be careful with the use of resources. Anyways, the inspiration originally came from this:

@eX0Ton

What is your long term intention for the project?

I don’t really have any expectations for this project. It’s essentially my first ‘larger scope’ project for BJS and I suppose it will serve as a learning for my future projects (eventually)

@eX0Ton

Keep it as a personal project in it’s current guise?

For the time, I will keep it as a personal project but I still have a number of addings and improvements coming. Currently, I’m building the new section of ‘Great Works of Music’ that will also showcase @roland incredible new toy of greasedLines with a circular audio analyzer from the ribbon version. Below a couple of screenshots. Expected to come early March.
As said in previous posts, I will also add more categories to the interactive sphere.

@eX0Ton

have you considered to potentially use it as a platform to monetise in some form or fashion?

Well, I’m not gonna say I haven’t. People and especially my relatives keep putting pressure on me asking “When will you be making some good money with your knowledge of BJS?”. All I can answer is “When the time will come ”
Fact is already real museums give free entrance because they are somewhat deserted. Some of them are even closing. Not sure you can really make money from a virtual museum (except for creating exhibitions and NFTs) and even so The other thing is I created this over a period in time not really knowing what I will keep nor even what it will really be like when finished. So, parts of it are ‘dynamic’ (read built to be managed, updated, etc…) but other parts of the script are still hardcoded and eventually somewhat messy So, there would be a fair bit of work to be done if I wanted to turn this thingy into a commercial, eventually profitable project.

Again, thx a lot for your lovely comment and feel free to ping me if anything.
Meanwhile, have a great day

[eX0Ton]

Thanks for the swift response! The creation from that single image/concept is brilliant.
Everything else you laid out all makes sense. I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on your progress!

[lb_artworks]

Hi @mawa
I have had now the chance to finally check your museum project. WOWWW
It resonates a lot with my own personal project (OpenVGal, which will have v1 hopefully in the next weeks), but we’ve made obviously different design decisions. Amazing how many functionalities you have embedded How did you face the lighting? Im still heasitating to go with external lightmaps or not.

On the improvement side I found the loading process very slow and not at some point I was not sure if the loading was frozen or still on-going. A more accurate time bar would be lovely.

[CodingCrusader]

for the walls of your inspirational picture you could use this generator: satelllte/JSPlacementWeb: Online web version of JSplacement - procedural displacement sci-fi maps generator. (github.com)

[mawa]

Hum? Is this message for me? I’m not sure how to relate it to this project…

[mawa]

Thanks a lot for your kind comment. Remember I had a look at your project months ago. I still remember it. I hope you will be able to soon release it according to your agenda (in a few weeks, is it?)

@lb_artworks

How did you face the lighting?

I chose the simple/safe route (in regards to performance and also, consistency). There are only two lights in the scene (both with exclusions). One is a point light and basically sets the global lighting for the entire scene (which you can change through the user settings >luminosity/contrast. The other is a directional light. It’s essentially used to light materials that require it. In particular some of the node materials. All other ‘lights’ are fake (the spotlights used to light the exterior and interior spheres). These are just cones with an alpha add and a duplicate cone with a fresnel and an opacity texture. Lights from the docks or the lockers are also all fake. They use a transparent glow/blurred like strong emissive (with a level of 2+) to ‘shine’. Paintings on which I wanted to keep a tiny-mini little bit of the environment are the most complex. They use a very low level of environment texture and the base color and levels change dynamically when the user increases or lowers luminosity (from the user settings). Else the white point would be ‘exploded’ when the luminosity is set to high. So I modify the white point (base color) from white to gray depending on the level of global light and environment intensity. 3D models imported (sculptures and artefacts) I chose to make them unlit to keep with the original and for consistency. I hope this helps. If you have any question or would like me to share some parts with you… just ask Meanwhile, have a great day