# Five architectural studies

These five original compositions are working scenes made through FMVisual's new
assembly schema and shared masonry/material generators. Open **Architectural
Studies** in Tracker Desk or `/studies.html`. Each has Arrival, At the water and
Elevated views, shared walking controls, an Orbit option, a lighting comparison,
and links to regenerate or edit the actual composition.

## The series

| Study | Composition | What to look for |
| --- | --- | --- |
| House of Woven Light | Lower arcades, upper galleries, bronze rails, suspended linen, garnet cloth and a long pool | Near columns partly conceal the other gallery. Moving reveals a succession of different overlaps. |
| Court of Amber Rain | Terracotta walls and floor, pale columns, repeated linen canopy strips and a narrow rill | Bands of direct sun cross warm surfaces while sheltered stone receives indirect light. |
| The Silver Procession | Nested arch frames, dark side walls, interrupted roofing and a small luminous destination | An off-axis eye keeps the route readable while showing repeated silhouettes at different depths. |
| The Lantern Exchange | Offset balconies, supporting columns, cloth, warm emissive accents and a foreground pool | The balcony breaks the symmetry. Look under it toward the brighter wall and back through the reflected space. |
| Sanctum of the Split Sun | A faceted enclosure, circular rhythm of arches, divided linen roof and central water | One narrow roof opening organizes bright and shaded regions; the surrounding enclosure keeps the skyline intentional. |

The emphasis is on composition with a small vocabulary. These are different
arrangements of real geometry, not five colour settings on the same scene. Material
maps are generated locally; no model or external geometry download is needed.

## Reproduce and change the work

The original definitions are in `src/construction/studies.js`. `createStudy(id)`
returns a validated, independently editable version 1 assembly. Factory also
recognizes `woven`, `amber`, `procession`, `exchange` and `sanctum` as layouts.

```sh
node src/construction/cli.mjs --layout woven --bays 3 --seed 42 \
  --out artifacts/woven-study.json
```

The Studies page opens its actual document in Builder, where blocks can be selected,
moved, resized, recoloured, removed and duplicated. Factory can regenerate the
underlying rule-based composition. Curated layouts keep their overall composition;
bays/repetition, spring height, primary material and a small seeded accent provide
bounded variation. The original three simpler layout recipes also expose spacing;
curated studies retain their authored spacing. For unrestricted edits, use Builder
or author another generator against the shared schema.

The new material choices add linen, dark stone, water and emissive lamp surfaces
from the existing material factory. Emission is a material property, not a new
point-light simulation. The full-lighting gallery reuses the existing Three.js
VXGI/TRAA backend, optional planar reflection and atmosphere. It is not a new
independent renderer. Direct fallback remains labelled and disables GI comparison.

## Save places into the project library

Builder, Factory and Studies offer **Save to project library**. The local app stores
an immutable copy under `data/assemblies/`. Builder and Factory can include an
actual small direct-light authoring thumbnail. Saving creates a new UUID entry;
it does not overwrite a prior saved scene. **New blank scene** in Builder starts
a fresh composition and can be undone. The name field becomes its library title.

World Library's **Places worth keeping** shelf reads the shared collection. Open a
saved entry for a real 3D preview or an editable copy in Builder. Refresh or refocus
the library after saving from another app instance. A saved copy does not inherit
indirect-light qualification or walking physics merely by appearing on the shelf.

Tracker Desk can launch different app tabs on different local ports. Each local
server uses the same repository directory, so these saved scenes remain available
across those origins. The existing local draft is still browser/origin-specific.
Save to project library or export JSON for a durable cross-app handoff.

The endpoint is part of the local Vite dev/preview server, accepts only loopback
requests, rejects foreign-origin saves, validates documents, limits request and
thumbnail sizes, and never interprets a supplied ID as an arbitrary path. Static
hosting of `dist/` alone does not provide this persistence endpoint. A production
shared service would need its own access and deployment design.

## Keep the cost visible

Default Balanced budgets, before adding lighting intermediates or reflection targets:

| Study | Padded base cells | Voxel spacing |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Woven Light | 225,280 | .300 |
| Amber Rain | 152,064 | .300 |
| Silver Procession | 101,376 | .353 |
| Lantern Exchange | 309,760 | .300 |
| Split Sun | 247,808 | .288 |

All default scenes stay below the assembly's 64-block and 500,000-triangle guards
and below 350,000 Balanced base cells. Base cells and CPU geometry attribute bytes
are not total driver memory. These bounds are allocation guards, not a guaranteed
frame rate. Fine quality is optional and changes the lighting cost substantially.

The gallery has free planar navigation. The elevated views are authored camera
positions; stairs, gallery access, gravity, general collision, streaming and device
recovery are not qualified by these compositions. Save/edit/regenerate works with
the assembly format; the laboratory's original references remain unchanged.

## Evidence and iteration

`make check` verifies deterministic, distinct compositions, all quality bounds,
resource ownership and persistence validation. `npm run test:studies` renders every
composition on real WebGPU and forced direct fallback, drives actual W/S and A/D
input, visits alternate cameras, compares GI/direct images, repeats scene changes,
checks mobile layout and exercises persistence through two different local origins.
It also checks the saved thumbnail and reopens an editable copy. Tests use temporary
store directories, never the user's project collection.

Captures and reports live under ignored `artifacts/`. Visual review is part of the
work: the first Silver Procession arrival was obscured by a close column, so its
eye position was moved into the opening; the sanctum's separated backdrop walls
were joined into a continuous faceted enclosure. Preserve the intent while testing
movement, shade, silhouettes and cost together.

## Afterlight continuation

Three subsequent compositions now precede the original five in the gallery:
The Ochre Tide, Chamber of the Held Sun, and House of the Long Horizon.
See [Afterlight](AFTERLIGHT.md) for their source, budgets and verification limits.
The five original definitions remain selectable and unchanged.