Operator found the Orion SVS 30957 flythrough merely good and asked for a more
dramatic nebula. Replaces the cosmos-scale primary with STScI's "Exploring the
Cosmic Cliffs in 3D" (Carina Nebula, Webb NIRCam — NASA SVS 31348), sourced from
its 4K master (Clifs-3d-STScI.mp4, 3840x2160) via the content pipeline:
trim 10-34s (clears the title card ~8s and end-credit card ~102s) + crossfade-loop
-> 4K master + supersampled 1080p base (5.5 Mbps, crisper than the old 2.9 Mbps
1080p-native Orion encode).
- build_pool_manifest META: cosmos -> SVS 31348 Cosmic Cliffs, new CCBY_WEBB
credit (NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI). Labels retuned for the Carina framing
(emission nebula / protostar; redshift -> distance ~7,500 ly).
- Regenerated manifest.json (also corrects stale JPL-Orion provenance left when
129bb23 updated META but not the manifest) + all ring-edge transitions from the
new base (cosmos-orbit / abyss-cosmos now zoom from the Cosmic Cliffs).
- docs/content-candidate-pool.md: record the swap + history.
269 passed, 2 skipped. New base verified text-free + full-frame by-eye across the
loop; final look to be confirmed by the operator (no Chrome on the box).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Replaces the JPL "Orion: Dust and Death" primary (captioned throughout — we'd
cropped it, losing framing) with STScI's "Flight Through the Orion Nebula"
(visible light, NASA SVS 30957) — a full-frame, text-free flythrough of the same
nebula. Sourced via the content pipeline (trim 10–34s + crossfade-loop → 1080p
master + base); cosmos-orbit / abyss-cosmos transitions regenerated from it.
- build_pool_manifest META: cosmos -> SVS 30957, license CC-BY-class (NASA/ESA/
STScI), new trim window.
- Remove the now-obsolete decaption_cosmos() crop helper (the new source needs
no caption removal).
- docs/content-candidate-pool.md: record the source swap; drop the crop note.
269 passed, 2 skipped. New clip verified text-free + full-frame by-eye;
final look to be confirmed by the operator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The `immutable, max-age=1y` media header pinned stale footage in the browser for
a year, so a re-sourced or re-cropped clip (e.g. the de-captioned cosmos) never
showed without a manual cache clear. Switch /media to `no-cache` (store, but
revalidate every load): instant altitude swaps already come from the in-memory
blob preload, so the HTTP cache only matters on (re)load — where a conditional
request is a cheap 304 when unchanged but picks up edited clips immediately.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The cosmos primary is NASA/JPL's "Orion: Dust and Death" — an annotated
visualization with lower-third captions ("DUST FILAMENT", "BLUE BUBBLE", …)
burned in throughout, so trimming can't avoid them (only ~4s of our window is
caption-free). The candidate-pool doc wrongly called it text-free.
- build_pool_manifest.decaption_cosmos(): crops the cosmos base/master to the
top 66% of frame height (16:9 preserved, center-x, ~1.5x tighter framing),
re-fit to 1920x1080 — the recorded, reproducible form of the fix (media is
gitignored). Applied in place; re-ran generate_media() so the cosmos-orbit /
abyss-cosmos transitions use the cropped base.
- docs/content-candidate-pool.md: correct the "text-free" note; document the crop.
269 passed, 2 skipped. De-caption verified by-eye on both caption moments;
final look to be confirmed by the operator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The cosmos→orbit, reef→abyss and abyss→cosmos transition clips were stale
leftovers from an earlier 5-scale ring, built against old/placeholder footage —
so those edges flashed placeholder frames mid-zoom. Only orbit-coast and
coast-reef had been rebuilt from the current real bases.
- build_pool_manifest.generate_media(): now rebuilds EVERY ring edge from the
current real primary pool bases (the orbit-coast recipe applied uniformly),
overwriting the stale clips, and bakes a reversed companion (<edge>.rev.mp4)
per edge via an ffmpeg `reverse` pass.
- app.js: a `reversed` step (an ascending / zoom-OUT ring move) now plays the
baked .rev clip instead of the forward zoom-in, so going up recedes from the
current scale. Both directions are added to the in-memory preload set.
Media is gitignored (generated locally / on deploy); regenerated all 10 clips
locally. 269 passed, 2 skipped; node --check clean; clips serve 200.
Visual result to be verified by-eye by the operator.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The generic .hidden { display:none } is defined earlier in the stylesheet than
.dev-panel { display:flex }; equal specificity meant source order won and the
panel stayed visible with the toggle off. A two-class .dev-panel.hidden rule
wins, so all dev controls/data truly hide when Dev Mode is disabled.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Adds a single "Dev Mode" switch at the bottom of the control panel (off by
default, persisted in localStorage). When on, a panel appears below it with all
dev controls and data; when off the default view is just the experience + the
three control fieldsets.
Dev panel:
- Pool picker: a <select> of the current altitude's pool members — choose any
clip to override the random landing pick; a "Re-roll random" button re-runs
the server-canonical pick. Rebuilds on each landing.
- Active clip metadata (id, title, source, license, base_file).
- Annotations & affect: keys with salience/window/tier counts (read-only;
editing stays in /author.html).
- RenderPlan JSON — relocated here from the always-visible panel.
- Cache & playback: preload status (N/total), memory-vs-network for the active
clip, live resolution/duration/loop position.
Frontend only — no API changes; everything is read from data the renderer
already has. Factored pickRandomMember() out of landScale() so the initial
landing, ring advances, and the re-roll button share one pick.
Design: docs/superpowers/specs/2026-06-25-simulator-dev-mode-design.md
269 passed, 2 skipped; node --check + server smoke clean. Frontend behavior
to be verified by-eye by the operator (no headless browser in repo yet).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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