Palm House Under Glass

A full sized botanical glasshouse built from the pack's own 3 m bay. The shell runs the whole perimeter: a stepped stone plinth, cast iron bay frames on top of it, corner bays closing all four angles, a faceted glazed apse on the north wall, the entrance door pair in the middle of the south wall and a curved eaves and gutter run above, with rainwater downpipes at the corners.

It is open topped over the planting, and that is a design decision rather than an omission. The walk has no vertical movement, so a glazed roof over the beds would hide the entire collection from the only height a visitor ever sees it from. The barrel vault is therefore proved over the north walk alone, four bays of it on cast iron columns with foliate capitals, with the lantern ridge along its crown. The gallery walkway and the spiral stair hang over the west aisle at 3.2 m: they are structure to look up at, not somewhere to stand, and nothing is placed on them.

Inside: a palm court of tall fan palms round a stone fountain basin, ringed by flagged walks with urns, benches and bamboo; two lily pond bays with stone coping, lily pads and moss banks in the south west; a sunken fern pit planted with tree ferns under an overhead misting line in the north east; an arid bay of rockery outcrops, cactus groups and trays of succulents on tiered staging in the south east; orchids on bark mounts and bromeliads along the west flank with hanging baskets under the gallery and climbers trained up the walls; and the working end in the north west angle, with a potting bench, a seed drawer cabinet, pot stacks, tool racks, watering cans and barrows. A brick screen with a boiler house door closes that corner, with a lean to of roof glazing, the flue chimney, the coal chute and the riveted water tank behind it. Cast iron heating pipe runs and valve sets follow the south and east walls, grating covers the west trench, and the ventilator shafting runs down the east aisle to its crank standard. Raised beds with stone kerbs, railings, benches, blank specimen boards and blank label stakes mark the visitor route from the doors to the apse.

What moves: the ridge ventilators open on the lantern and the crank gear turns with its shafting, both the entrance doors and the boiler house door swing, the potting bench drawer and the seed cabinet drawers slide out, the coal chute lid lifts, the valve handwheels spin and the barrow wheel rolls.

What does not move, and why: glazing, water, mist, foliage and the hanging baskets are static. Glass is a surface a shader treats rather than a part that travels, and water, mist and flexible leaves need a shader or a joint per element, neither of which is reachable with one rigid node transform. The plants are static geometry with no growth animation and no skinning. There are no people anywhere, for the same reason: a figure needs a skinned mesh.

No real botanic garden, glasshouse, palm house, horticultural society, nursery or seed company is named or depicted, and no real building is reproduced. Every plant label, specimen board and sign face is blank on purpose: a label is exactly where a botanical name would go, so the planting is described by common form and nothing is written on it.

Every piece here is a published model from the pack, placed by hand. Walk with the keys or touch, and approach a piece to see it move if it has animation. Colliders, navigation and gameplay are yours to add.