Gensokyo V3 Building Meeting!

Summary for the 51st Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 08/17/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

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Normally I bold in all the things you should pay attention to the most in these summaries but this entire summary is pretty important so just sit down and read the entire thing.

This was a building meeting and a building meeting. \o/

The main reason the trailer was postponed was because we were still in 1.12 and activity on the server in general was very low. Despite getting people hype to see Gensokyo 3 there was nothing to really keep them on the server. Therefore staff decided to postpone the trailer until we updated to 1.14 and made new survival. So when people come on the server again, they actually have something to do other than look at Gensokyo 2 for the 24th time and play in a dead survival.

Now that we have updated to 1.14 and we have a new survival we can now begin preparing for the trailer again. \o/

I started off by asking which builds/locations already made that we can showcase?
The following builds were:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• Ancient City
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

We finally have the server updated to 1.14 and we have new survival open. However for that to happen, Katrix had to take his focus off of the new map for Gensokyo 3. So we'll have to shoot the trailer on the old Gensokyo 3 map. Since a lot of builds aren't ported in Gensokyo 3 or ported in with the land around it being empty, a lot of filming will have to be good angles and smart shooting.

We also thought about how the trailer should be shot and the music that should be used.
I brought up the idea of bits of the SDM being shown last in the video and Karu brought up the idea of the video ending with the camera going past the doors into Voile, fade to black, and then "coming soon™️" appearing (lol) As for music I decided that it would be good to find the right find music first and then plan how the trailer would be shot.

I forgot who but someone mentioned using the Replay minecraft mod instead of just flying around in F1 mode. (lol)


I spoke about "Medium" Builds earlier today in the Genso-Project chat in discord and elaborated more about it later in the meeting.
Think of Medium sized builds as bigger than the Hakurei shrine but smaller than something like The SDM, Chireiden, and the Human Village. A balance between the larger and smaller builds listed up above. These builds are on the grander side but also not on the "take several months to build" side.
Some of the Medium sized builds we thought of so far is:

• Shiki Eiki's Court
• Eientei
• The Palanquin
• Prismriver Mansion

Shiki Eiki's Court was already worked on by Nick and Izayoi and so the exterior was already half done. The Prismriver Mansion exterior was completed by Nuclearblt, but we do not have his consent to work on the build yet. Eientei and The Palanquin have yet to be started.
With the Prismriver Mansion out of the question for now. We voted on which "Medium" sized build we would like to work on. Shiki Eiki's court was chosen due to Nick being there and being worked on already.
After we finish a good chunk of Shiki Eiki's Court we would then start Eientei and the Palanquin.

The last thing we talked about that doesn't have anything to do with the trailer is that we cease production of Gensokyo after we build up to Touhou 17 (Wily Beast and Weakest Creature). The rate we build isn't fast enough to keep up with the release of the Touhou Games, who knows how many more games there will be after we make it to TH17.
After we make it up to TH17. We'll release Gensokyo 3 to the public, and any games after that can be built and added to Genso3. Instead of remaking Gensokyo over and over. (Unless there's some giant Minecraft update that adds like 5 thousand new blocks and then we feel the need punish ourselves into rebuilding the entirety of Gensokyo again :v)

After all that was discussed for the remainder of the meeting we worked on Shiki Eiki's court! \o/

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime in early/mid September.

Next building meeting is on September 7th, 2019 4PM EST.

Originally posted by KokoButtz

I forgot who but someone mentioned using the Replay minecraft mod instead of just flying around in F1 mode. (lol)

Me. Replay Mod would greatly help in the production of the trailer as it allows for cleaner paths and nicer camera angles than what's possible via Man Flies Around in Creative Mode.
Though that will mean either Remi has to learn Replay Mod or someone else would have to take the role of recording the trailer.

Also, I don't recall any one of us saying the rate of building is slower than the release of games. But I do agree that later games should not be immediately included in Genso 3 (just as Outside World and Touhou 15's Moon) weren't added to Genso 2.
That said, I believe Touhou Kikeijuu (Wily Beast and Weakest Creature)'s Hell and Beast World (along with Urumi's Fishery) should not be made until Genso 3 is done. Having two more dimensions (one of which being a cyberpunk dimension) on the immediate docket would spread the build team thinner.

The Great Fairy Tree has a fully complete concept although it's not necessarily canonical because it's the wrong shape. But hey it looks cool if you want to use it :)

We can use your tree design for their old house covered in moss Nucc. Nucc you gotta take a hop skip and a jump to the manga or else you'll have a giant dragon statue then you'll read Forbidden Scrollery and then find out it's tiny. o(--(

Honestly as someone that has used the Replay mod for a small cinematic showcase the TH8 areas of Genso 2, I don't think it would be the right tool for the job. Why? Now, don't get me wrong, it's great for trailers and such, but "Gensokyo ~ The Second Dream" isn't a trailer, it's a feature length movie. Sure, we could do it just for the trailer, but I don't like the idea of the trailer looking so differently than the full length thing.

So why do the videos look so janky and amateurish? I think there are two main reasons. 1. We export a low bitrate, low framerate 24fps 720p video. Why not try to go to atleast 1080p high bitrate? (Higher framerate could be harder because of shaders). 2. reason, Remi doesn't know how to hold and move around with a camera. He makes it mostly up as he goes, and in some cases, the Replay mod could help with that, in others, it could very well make it worse.

So, let's talk Replay mod in detail, what it does, how it could benefit stuff, and how it would not.

How does it work? It works by recording all the packets you receive during a play session, and converting that to it's own format where it notes the entities visible at a given point, they locations, movements etc and all other things visible are tracked.The way I see it, it takes the role of two different tools depending on how it's used.

For mostly static content, it's a 360 degrees global camera that can be placed anywhere and moved around in the scene without a player, sometimes changing the pace of time while doing so. This is where the mod is at it's best.

For dynamic content (this is what we have), it's a camera placement and revising tool. When using it in this fashion, you decide roughly where the camera is in a let's say 32 block radius around the recorder, and what it's looking at. That seems oddly specific, why? Because one of the things the mod tracks is loaded chunks. Meaning that if the camera moves too far away from the recorder, it enters unloaded chunks. So even though it might be tempting to use a higher speed in an area where you want to go fast, you might not be able to, unless you also go fast through time. If you do that however, you can't have any entities around at all or it will look really weird. There is also the problem of tight corners indoors. This is not really a place where it's easy to turn without colliding with the walls.

So, how it would most likely work if we decided to do this is that everyone would still meet up with Remi at recording day. Remi would enter spectator mode so that he would have a bit more control over his speed. From there he would go around recording everything and look at everything as if this was the final recording. This is important to make sure the he wouldn't run out of time in a specific area. Once that would be over he would jump into the editor, redo the entire journey again using keyframes. Once he's done that he needs to go over every keyframe again, tweak it's settings, make sure it doesn't collide with anything, or that the camera does any other weird motion (this sadly happens more often than you would think).

Ok, so I've gone over some of the bad parts. What are the positives? In my opinion, 3 big things. The first is a smooth camera. Now, do note that I say smooth camera, and not smooth panning. We can already do the later in minecraft. Remi just hasn't bothered turning it on for any of the videos. Second is roll. Normally in minecraft you can look up and down, and side to side, but you can't tilt the camera itself. Normally this is fine, but in some cases it could also give a better feel when going around corners and such. The third and IMO biggest advantage is rendering. You can render with wonderful shaders at 60 or more fps. One of the big sources of a janky feel in the videos is a low fps. This would go completely around that.

Let's look at a real example. Here's the video I mentioned at the top where I used the mod.



Let's go over some of the noteworthy things in the video:

• First off, while you get smooth camera, the speed isn't always as smooth. It's more noticeable in some places than others.
• Next off, sudden blackout at the bridge, why? Because I was an idiot, and wanted to go after something else. Tried going with the flow there, but it just didn't really work. So, I went with the bridge there instead. However, to do that I had to skip a lot of time to get back to the point where those chunks were loaded. That's why the timeskip is there too.
• The sundown over the roof looks cool, and requires a lot of time manipulation. You can partially see this with the rabbits that suddenly pop up as the recorder got close enough to them.
• You can really feel me struggling with the corners in Eientei
• Rolling camera is cool :P

Now, I have glossed over it here and there, but the biggest reason why I don't think we should use the Replay mod is time. That two minute clip took hours to make. Just getting the camera path just right took hours.

So, what can we do instead that would take much less effort?

• Use the cinematic camera mode in Minecraft
• Plan out the whole thing in detail
• Have a script
• Do multiple takes, and begin recording after say the third one
• Use spectator mode for increased movement options, and no "Stop flying quick drop"
• Upload better fotage
• Teach Remi basic cinematography

Summary for the 52nd Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 09/07/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

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This was a little bit of the building meeting but more of an actual building meeting.

Trailer wise there is an update. Shiki Eiki's Court is going to take a little longer so we couldn't really get started on Eientei since I don't want to slow down the progress of Shiki Eiki's Court. I also want us to focus on one build at a time so things get made quicker. I've said it before. A lot of the contributors can build Japanese styled builds in their sleep, so Eientei should go relatively quickly and easily.

Izayoi has taken up the task of finishing the Canal of Willows and working on Genbu Ravine so we have more natural landmarks for the trailer.

Katrix also mentioned that we should port builds into neogensokyo when they are "Trailer Ready" because we can't film in the Creative Flats. FYI "Trailer Ready" means that the build doesn't have to be absolutely done, there can be a couple of empty rooms, but you wouldn't want the more "iconic" parts of the build empty.

After we covered all of that, we continued work on Shiki Eiki's court.

List of builds confirmed for the trailer:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• Ancient City
• Genbu Ravine
• Canal of Willows
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime in Late September/Early October

Next building meeting is on September 21st, 2019 4PM EST.

Summary for the 53rd Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 09/21/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

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This was a little bit of the building meeting but more of an actual building meeting.

Yesterday Nick and I finished the important parts of ShikiEiki's court so that build is now trailer ready. Temp builders can now go to it and work on the interior on the 2nd and 3rd floor. The theme of the build is ancient Rome/Greek and Neoclassical. Please do your best to stick with the theme, it's good to have a challenge.

Now that the important parts of ShikiEiki's court is done, Eientei can finally begin progress. As I said before we're very used to creating Japanese themed builds, so Eientei will most likely go bye quickly. That and Eientei has been a build that has gathered a lot of hype.


A month ago Nick, Birb and I made some concepts for Eientei. Today we revisited them. Nick and Birb's concept was styled with JR's Eientei as inspiration. In my mini concept of Eientei it was designed as a Shinden-Zukuri styled build due to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense describing Eientei as the following:

"The building is built like an ancient Japanese manor, but it shows no signs of wear."

It was decided we'd fuse both styles together, so we made a new mini model.

A board was also made on what should be included in this build. A few of the ideas were the following:

• A Clinic house for Eirin
• A herb garden for Eirin
• Storehouse
• Tea Room
• Mochi pounding area
• Farm
• Secret lab where Eirin stores a bunch of Reisen clones heh

Since we're filming the trailer in the old Gensokyo 3 world (new one isn't done yet) I copied and pasted the designated area for it into creative. After that the building meeting slowly came to a close.
With the basics done,in the coming days we'll be deciding on the color schemes of the build, and how it should be designed. Be on the lookout for an announcement by me in the Gensokyo-Project chat room in YC's discord for when we start that.

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List of builds confirmed for the trailer:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• ShikiEiki's Court
• Eientei
• Ancient City
• Genbu Ravine
• Canal of Willows
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime in Late September/Early October

Next building meeting is on October 5th, 2019 4PM EST.

Summary for the 54th Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 10/05/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

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Little bit of a building meeting but more of a building meeting

We started off this building meeting a little late but eventually we got on track.

Nick showed off a couple of builds for the Kappa Mines he and Iku made. One of the designs is a Large blast furnace. He is open to anyone wanting to help, so be sure ot send him a message on discord if you're interested.

Purp finished one of the apartment buildings for the Lunar Capital. We took a quick look at that and then moved on.

Finally we started to work on the floor plan and color pallete of Eientei. We did that until we got side tracked and started to roast on Gensokyo 2 builds (aha).

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List of builds confirmed for the trailer:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• ShikiEiki's Court
• Eientei
• Ancient City
• Genbu Ravine
• Canal of Willows
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime in Early/Late October

Next building meeting is on October 19th, 2019 4PM EST.

Summary for the 55th Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 10/19/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

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This was more of a building meeting.

This building meeting started slooow. As we had to wait for more people to arrive.

But once it got started it went as smoothly as the others.

Since a lot of our builders are in school or work, much progress hasn't been done. Unfortunate but understandable.

We did some more research on japanese builds and worked on revising the floor plan for Eientei. Hallway A and B will be similar to Genso2, as it will be "underground".
Underground meaning that you'll have to go downstairs to get to the hallways. However the hallway itself will be in a different location accessible via command blocks.

After revising the floorplan together, we naturally split apart to work on other builds like Lunar Capital and Birb's Dragon Palace for Heaven. Meanwhile I worked on converting the mini model of Eientei to it's actual size.

We worked until we got tired, and eventually the building meeting ended.

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List of builds confirmed for the trailer:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• ShikiEiki's Court
• Eientei
• Ancient City
• Genbu Ravine
• Canal of Willows
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime in October/November

Next building meeting is on November 2nd, 2019 4PM EST.

Summary for the 56th Gensokyo v3 Building Meeting 11/2/2019:
*ctrl+c* *ctrl+v*
Communication is key, during the breaks we have between these meetings talk to others about projects, work on things etc. etc.
Pro-tip for terraforming so you're not suffering. Just terraform the area around the place you're porting in. Saves more time, saves more lives.

---

This was more of a building meeting.

This building meeting also started slooow. As we had to wait for more people to arrive.

But once it got started it went as smoothly as the others.

Same as before a lot of our builders are in school or work or both, so much progress hasn't been done. It gets hard this time of the year.

We continued where we left off on Eientei, making the mini model to scale. We needed a bit more space for the building since Shinden-Zukuri builds are on the wider side, so we copied and pasted a bit more land from NeoGensokyo3. There's not much of a difference in the mini model and the to scale model. Everything transitioned over well. We can finally get to constructing the actual building. Which should go well since we have had designs/color schemes designed before hand.

We worked until we got tired, and eventually the building meeting ended.

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List of builds confirmed for the trailer:

• Hakurei Shrine (of course)
• Bits of the Forest of Magic
• Marisa/Alice/Kourindou (any of the 3)
• The Human Village
• The SDM
• Voile's Hisoutensoku Fighting Stage
• Aki Farm
• Youkai Mountain
• The Toad Pond
• ShikiEiki's Court
• Eientei
• Ancient City
• Genbu Ravine
• Canal of Willows
• The Floor of Chireiden (lol)

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A date for the trailer hasn't been decided on yet but you can expect it coming sometime before 2020. (lul)

Next building meeting is on November 16th, 2019 4PM EST.