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
