Mining Science Centre
Cybernauts investigate “What is mining?”, and look at Copper and Zinc mining in particular, we look at ore, appearance along with the commercial application of metals
Looking at styles of mines (open-cut and underground), we investigate the commercial aspects of each, asking the question “Why Mine?”
Consultation with various stakeholders is important, the social and ethical implications of Mining are explored, along with the perspectives these different people bring to the discussion.
We then explore the activities cybernauts are required to complete: “Your Mission, Jim…”
Down in the modelling pits, cybernauts use semi-transparent lego-like blocks to construct a 3d model of their field recordings
This mining science centre is now operational, time to move on to other activity centres.
Infrastructure
Main habitation/industrial zone now done, it is time for detailing
The Mining Science Centre will house instructions on how to mine, costs/benefits, social and ethical issues around mining, and is adjacent to the world connect point (ground Zero)
I built a power station, mightily influenced by an iconic English one (Battersea Powerstation) and rather naughtily had a pink plastic pig floating above it whilst I built it (thank you Pink Floyd for the inspiration, and the soundtrack to this build). I have added some “smoke” from a couple of the stacks, will have to check with the client to see if it is “green enough” of whether I am allowed to make it dark and nasty.
The refinery beat me for a while, until I realised I had NO IDEA what one looked like – thank you interweb, it seems they come in all sorts of shapes, flavours (all dirty) – I decided on steel, colourbond and stacks with louvers in what in the end is an “L” shaped factory.
The ECO HUT lives on a mountain, pristine and overlooking the industrial complexes below – we will look at rehablitation, ecosystem assessment, environmental impact statements and other things mining companies do before during and after the mining.
Detailing can now begin – we have display boards, stuff to play with (using the in-world browser), perhaps some machinema, lighting and sfx. I also have some strategic points for “discussion circles” as I think groups will want somewhere out of the sun to go and have a private chat.
Happy that the majority of the infrastructure is now complete – plenty of room for modelling pits that cybernauts will use to construct scale models of the ore body prior to demoing their solution for mining it. Potential for rich, embedded, connected, collaborative and aligned with the curriculum learnings abound.
No idea what anyone else thinks so far … *tap tap tap* is this thing on? What do you reckon?
Minefield
So, after designing components, I have begun placing them in-situ; the effect is to create a gridded area that contains core samples you can click on to shift out of the way, each shaft contains 12 mineralisation readings:
bore shaft, with workings exposed
The exploration field spreads over 20 x 25 bore holes, grouped in bunches of 5×5 to make a grid reference scheme that can be used to record data in the field:
bore hole layout
Punching holes in the landscape is fairly simple, and fitting caps is important so cybernauts do not fall through into the underworld (a bewildering experience even for me). It took a while to get the cap texture to wrap around the cap geometry acceptably so it blends seamlessly into the surrounding dirt, and also including a topsoil layer before the first core plug took me an age – the lighting model in-world differs from the modelling program (Wings 3D) so I am learning the manual adjusts necessary to make them inter-operable.
I have also begun to establish the exploration campsite (“Explorers rest”) which will contain some information about the exploration process, and have allocated space closer to ground zero for a resource district so that cybernauts can learn about mining science as part of the world experience.
Explorers Rest
Tutorial Zone complete?
…so I got to thinking about the overall “sense” of the tutorial zone – never a good thing when I have lots of other things to do, but the new procrastination plugin kicked in and I ignored my streaming head cold symptoms and began tweaking…
Object market re-worked
It seemed to me that the tutorial “shells” were facing the wrong way (they faced the road and had their backs on the internal lawn area) – by rotating them 180 (and re-arranging the foliage) it feels a lot more inclusive, like the tutes and the object market relate to each other – they are ALL about the art of building so that was settled (at least in my own fevered brain).
I added a campfire talk circle, with a “cone of silence” around it so private group discussions can go on there, re-jigged the guided tour a little so it made sense and I think I am pretty well done here.
Tut Zone overview
Looking at it from above, it looks like there is very little here, but I know how long it has taken me to make, and feel pretty proud of it.
In the one compact u-shaped area we learn how to make, move, rotate, scale, colour, texture, script and select objects, how to film them afterwards and share our plans for doing so – nice, compact, accessible and … yeah, I know, talking to myself, you get that.
What is missing? Suggestions gratefully received.
…iObject 0.9b
…so we had an immediate need to provide an in-world object catalog for builders, and the conventional “object yard” is not something I want to so, so we are looking into database solutions
Object Mart
For weeks, LP staff popped objects and screen captured images, carefully naming them. I then (laboriously) categorised them and eliminated duplicated (historical collections of objects had spawned many copies), creating a categorised collection of objects.
Info Panel closeup
To provide punters with an idea what the category is all about, I included some screenies of typical assortments. Each panel links to the category in the in-world browser also, which is sort of cool. Not sure if there is a simpler/more intuitive way to do this but I think this approach should work.
Catalog in-world
I used a gallery script that automatically creates thumbnail-index framesets from a folder of images, and this will later morph into the consultant-built database solution (after I can convince someone to do the data entry).
Next up a couple of panels on builder work-flow and they should be away.
