GOLDEN REVERIE / 02
Build the dream.
Keep the movement.
A practical, engine-independent art guide for all 23 routes of ut43_icyjumps5d. The world feels enormous, pristine and featherlight. Its dream logic changes the appearance and distant context; the original movement physics stay consistent.
Direction based on the user’s questionnaire, 16 October 2026. Material ranges below are starting points for artist tuning, not measured properties or physics settings. This guide proposes implementation; it does not claim an engine scene or 3D model has been built.
The export remains the source of truth
Keep each route’s geometry.json, cameras.json and paths.json as immutable inputs. Track source brush, patch, face and entity IDs through import. Preserve all collision shapes, curved profiles, openings, obstacles, gaps, triggers, teleport boundaries and transparent surfaces. Do not infer any of these from an AI concept image.
Slick is a surface flag. Boundary walls may carry an “icy” restriction that prevents walljumping or walking, without requiring an icy appearance. Keep the source flags even when a wall becomes satin pearl. An elevated platform is not automatically normal ground; assign its finish from its actual source semantics.
Golden Reverie’s “memory ribbon” is a material-and-light treatment of the existing channel and riding curves. It does not add a tube, vortex, bridge or new path. The questionnaire’s generic examples do not override the exported geometry.
Khaki Curve’s copied export declares Q3 units at 0.0254 metres/unit, player bounds [-15,-15,-24] to [15,15,46], and view height 38. Respect the actual per-route export and game code during import. Recorded paths are useful evidence, not the complete reachable space or a substitute for full player bounds.
Khaki Curve geometry ↗ · Source cameras ↗ · Recorded paths ↗ · Slick-surface rules ↗
One stable material language
Use a small shared material family with instances for tint, roughness and restrained static emission. Set surface roles from the source flags and geometry, then review them manually. A diagnostic colour in a greybox shot is not an art palette or a reliable replacement for those flags.
| Role | Appearance | Suggested starting parameters | Placement rule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boundary | Opaque pearl satin ceramic-composite. Pristine, subtle angular colour response, broad quiet panels. | Ivory base; roughness about 0.45–0.65; non-metallic; very low-amplitude normal detail. | Original boundary walls and ceilings. No new grips, bevels or ledges in traversal. |
| Slick riding surface | Opaque pale champagne photonic glass-ceramic. Solid luminous cream body, gentle gold radiance, broad smooth reflections. | Roughness about 0.15–0.30; non-metallic; low static emission tuned under fixed exposure; no animated shader flow. | Consistent across all slick floors, ramps and riding curves. Do not put the same glowing finish on ordinary standing ground. |
| Standing | Dry matte porcelain-composite, subtly distinct from slick through roughness and light response. | Ivory/champagne base; roughness about 0.75–0.90; no emission. | Only source normal-traction surfaces. |
| Transparent | Clear structural glass, physically solid and visibly see-through; warm edge response is restrained. | Use the engine’s glass path with modest roughness and controlled reflection; avoid opaque gold tint or refraction that hides a landing. | Only source see-through surfaces. Where also slick, retain both transparency and the consistent slick response. |
| Accent | Pristine pale brushed champagne metal. | Metallic response only for actual metal accents; gentle brushing, no dirt or scratches. | Flush details or remote dressing outside the movement envelope. Do not turn entire boundary walls into gold metal. |
Replace the diagnostic test grid with quiet surface finish. Construction joints may be flush shading detail; avoid a dense square pattern that recreates the greybox. Use normal/roughness detail rather than displacement or raised panels near the player. Never change collision, friction or walljump properties through art material assignment.
Keep emission below the point where it erases geometry or makes the floor appear to be an empty portal. Reflections should indicate smooth sliding material without implying standing water. The original solid gridded circular or oval end surfaces remain solid; pale colour does not make them openings.
Golden pools over a light base
Use a single coherent golden-hour light direction and soft ambient fill. Yellow-gold pools provide focus, with lavender-grey shadows preserving volume. Enclosed routes can use static material radiance and concealed or flush lighting treatment within existing geometry; they do not need new skylights, fixtures or missing ceilings.
- Establish exposure with the pearl boundary material first. Then tune the slick emission and gold highlights so edges, curves and landing surfaces stay readable.
- Keep the overall space airy. The request for concentrated pools of light does not mean dark corridors or a black space backdrop.
- Keep local air crystal clear: no fog volume, haze veil, dense particles, light shafts or heavy bloom. Distant clouds in a sky backdrop must not obscure playable surfaces.
- Use one grading language throughout. Avoid a dramatic warm/cool transition that makes adjacent route sections feel like unrelated concepts.
- Use an economical lighting solution suited to the eventual engine and platform. Baked or otherwise static contributions, shared reflection solutions and restrained real-time features are valid starting points; profile before adding expensive glass or reflection layers.
Do not bake route arrows, illuminated directional lines, data strips or readable text into the lighting. Composition, visible silhouettes and the existing route should carry the player forward.
A world that feels just beyond reach
Through existing openings or transparent surfaces, use a pale apricot/lavender horizon, very sparse stars and distant architectural echoes of the same family. Treat these as remote memories. They can be desirable places that cannot quite be reached, without creating a misleading local jump target or introducing a new invisible barrier.
Do not cut new windows into opaque walls, erase gridded end caps to reveal the sky, or close genuinely open background with a wall. A source camera aimed at a wall, ceiling or empty sky remains that kind of view. This restraint matters especially in reverse cameras and overview shots.
Decoration density is 4/10: a few large, quiet forms and subtle material variation. No NPCs, maintenance robots, workers, machinery story, industrial pipe networks or text. The concept can later support multiplayer travelers, but the camera studies should keep the environment unobstructed.
Stars and sparks are tiny static distant glints here. Keep them out of the playable volume and sightlines; no flow animation, scanning beams, holograms or particle curtains. Existing hazard bars and obstacle shapes remain, recoloured in pearl/champagne/gold rather than yellow-black graphics.
Reusable modules, without rebuilding the route
- Surface set: the five shared material roles above, with a small consistent texture library and controlled parameter instances.
- Flush detail set: sparse joint and accent treatments carried by shading or decals. No added thickness inside riding space.
- Light treatment set: static golden pools and gentle fill that follow original forms without new beams, lamps or railings intruding into movement.
- Remote memory set: a small family of pale abstract architectural silhouettes, placed only beyond existing boundaries or in the outside backdrop.
- Glass set: stable see-through treatment for original transparent panels, tested from both directions.
Keep these systems separate from the collision and trigger representations. Source gameplay data should survive material replacement and visual LOD work unchanged. Preserve the near-camera silhouettes of riding curves; do not introduce visible profile steps through aggressive mesh simplification.
Implementation order
- Import and lock the source. Verify units, axes, IDs, collision, flags and camera projection before adding art. Preserve disconnected recorded pieces across teleports.
- Set up the five material roles. Assign them from source semantics, not route names, diagnostic colours or an AI interpretation of a screenshot.
- Establish Khaki Curve’s light and exposure. Use its long channel, existing projection and riding curves as the first material test. Compare a wall close-up, a curve, a normal standing area and a transparent surface.
- Apply the same family across all 23 routes. Allow local material-instance variation only within the agreed pearl/champagne/gold language. Slick must read consistently everywhere.
- Add remote context conservatively. Use existing openings only. Check for false shortcuts, new silhouettes across a landing and over-busy backdrops.
- Render the source camera set. Use the exported positions, eye heights, yaw, pitch and full projection/FOV settings. Match the source aspect ratio and camera framing, including close-ups and sparse overviews.
- Review movement and performance. Replay every recorded run and test the full player volume and valid unrecorded movement. Profile the target hardware before increasing reflective or transparent complexity.
Verification before calling a route finished
- No collision, friction, walljump, trigger, teleport, gap or transparent-surface regression.
- No added props, edges, displacement or decoration entering the player envelope.
- Slick versus normal ground remains legible from both forward and reverse views, under all intended exposure conditions.
- Opaque surfaces remain opaque; transparent surfaces stay clear; truly open background stays open.
- Original camera silhouettes match in an engine screenshot overlay. Treat local AI edge drift as a limitation of the concept image, not a modeling instruction.
- All original recorded pieces and shortcuts remain possible, with room for the complete player bounds and other valid movement.
- Golden light does not erase surface shape, and the scene remains clear without fog, text, arrows or animated guidance.
The delivered image scope is 460 studies: 20 exported camera views for each of 23 routes, including Khaki Curve. The gallery provides redesign-first blend, wipe, collision comparison and a full-size viewer. These are art references and review tools; the original JSON is the geometric authority.
Per-view prompts and provenance ↗ · Visual review record ↗ · Full creative direction ↗