settled-reach/spikes/quaternius-aesthetic/BRIEF.md

title, description, type, status, date, agents

title	description	type	status	date	agents
Quaternius Stack Aesthetic Validation Spike	Two-track spike: Quaternius character rig through toon shader, and Trellis1-generated clothing on the Quaternius rig. Pipeline tension is the primary output.	spike	ready	2026-03-18	TYRE, ARAMINTA

Situation Brief — Character Pipeline Validation

To: TYRE, ARAMINTA From: Jeroen Date: 2026-03-18

What we know

The 3D isometric pivot is live. The asset pipeline is split:

• Environment assets — Trellis1 generative pipeline, working, solved
• Characters — Trellis1 failed (wrong proportions, broken normals, outline pass artifacts). Route closed.
• Clothing and accessories — Trellis1 unproven on rigged items. This spike investigates whether it can work.

The Quaternius Universal Base Characters pack has been identified as a candidate character rig foundation. It is CC0, Godot-compatible, ships with a matching animation library, and has a modular clothing system on the same rig.

The core question

Can we build a character system where:

• The Quaternius rig provides the body, skeleton, and animation anchor
• Trellis1-generated meshes provide clothing and accessories attached to that rig

If yes, the in-game clothing catalogue becomes generative — every item found across the Reach is a unique output, not a hand-authored or pack-sourced mesh. This directly supports the design intent of clothing as individual purchasable items with genuine variety.

If no, we understand exactly where the pipeline breaks and can scope the alternative.

What is NOT decided yet

• Whether the Quaternius rig becomes the character foundation
• Whether Trellis1 clothing is viable on any external rig
• Whether to acquire Patreon Source tier for any Quaternius pack
• How the character compositor is implemented

This spike produces the evidence. Decisions follow the evidence.

Aesthetic reference

The target aesthetic is Invisible Inc — isometric, toon-shaded, readable at gameplay zoom, eclectic human detail. ARAMINTA has seen this reference. All verdicts are measured against it.

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Spike Brief — Quaternius Stack Aesthetic Validation

Timebox: 1 session Agents: TYRE (import, scene setup, rig integration), ARAMINTA (asset generation, aesthetic evaluation) Blocks: Character spike rewrite, all asset acquisition decisions

Two parallel tracks

This spike runs two tracks simultaneously. Both feed the same verdict doc.

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Track A — Quaternius rig through toon shader

Owner: TYRE (setup), ARAMINTA (evaluation)

Packs — standard tier (free) only:

Pack	What we're testing
Universal Base Characters	Body mesh + rig through toon shader
Universal Animation Library	Idle animation on Quaternius rig
Modular Character Outfits — Fantasy	One pack-sourced clothing piece as baseline

Download current versions. The Animation Library rig naming was updated January 2026 — confirm it matches the Base Characters before importing.

Steps:

1. Import one Universal Base Character (Regular proportions, either gender — TYRE's choice)
2. Apply existing toon shader unmodified
3. Place in current isometric scene at gameplay zoom
4. Add one idle animation from the Universal Animation Library
5. Attach one clothing piece from Modular Character Outfits Fantasy as a baseline clothing reference

Screenshots — Track A:

• Gameplay zoom
• Heavy zoom (character editor scale per D-146)
• Pulled-back crowd scale

Track A acceptance criteria:

• Character reads legibly as a person at gameplay zoom with toon shader active
• Outline pass behaves correctly on Quaternius mesh density — no face eating, no artifacts
• Idle animation plays without deformation artifacts
• Pack-sourced clothing piece attaches without visible clipping at gameplay zoom

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Track B — Trellis1 clothing on Quaternius rig

Owner: ARAMINTA (generation and attachment), TYRE (rig integration support as needed)

The question: Can ARAMINTA generate a clothing or accessory mesh via Trellis1 and attach it to the Quaternius rig cleanly enough to be usable in-game?

Steps:

1. Using the Quaternius rig as reference, generate one clothing item via Trellis1 — ARAMINTA's choice of item and prompt approach
2. Attempt to attach the generated mesh to the Quaternius rig
3. Apply toon shader
4. Evaluate: does it deform correctly with the idle animation? Does it clip? Does it read at gameplay zoom?

Attempt at least two different item types if time allows — one body garment, one accessory. Different mesh complexity will reveal where the pipeline holds and where it breaks.

Screenshots — Track B:

• Generated item attached to rig, toon shader active, gameplay zoom
• Same, with idle animation playing (or paused mid-motion if that shows deformation more clearly)
• Failure cases are as useful as successes — screenshot those too

Track B acceptance criteria:

• At least one generated mesh attaches to the Quaternius rig without catastrophic deformation
• At least one generated mesh survives the idle animation without visible tearing or clipping
• ARAMINTA documents exactly where the pipeline succeeded and where it broke — partial success is a valid and useful result

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Track C — Character in environment (brief, after Track A)

If Track A produces a viable character, place them in a minimal existing scene from the Trellis1 environment pipeline.

Steps:

1. Place Track A character in an existing interior scene
2. Screenshot at gameplay zoom — character and environment together

This is a single screenshot, not a full stage. It answers whether the character aesthetic is consistent with the environment aesthetic that is already working.

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What NOT to build

• Multiple body types — one proves the pipeline
• Full animation set — idle only
• Full room layout — use an existing scene
• Any game logic — visual validation only

Hard constraints

• No Adobe products or services
• Standard tier only for Quaternius packs — do not acquire Source tier before the verdict is in
• Do not modify the toon shader to accommodate the assets — evaluate what the current pipeline produces unmodified
• Do not discard failure results — document them

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Primary output — Pipeline Tension Report

This is the main deliverable. ARAMINTA authors it. TYRE contributes the technical observations.

The report answers three questions directly:

1. Does the Quaternius rig work as a character foundation? Viable / not viable / viable with conditions. One paragraph.

2. Does Trellis1 clothing attach to the Quaternius rig? This is the critical tension. Three possible outcomes:

• Clean attach — generative clothing pipeline is viable
• Partial attach — viable with constraints (document what the constraints are exactly)
• Failed attach — generative clothing is not viable on this rig (document where it broke and why)

3. Are the two pipelines visually consistent? Does a Trellis1 clothing item on a Quaternius body read as coherent through the toon shader, or do the two sources fight each other aesthetically?

Secondary outputs:

• Screenshot set (minimum 8 images across all tracks), filed where TYRE sees fit
• Source tier recommendation: which Quaternius packs justify acquisition based on what the standard tier produced
• Flag to Jeroen if the character compositor brief needs rewriting based on findings

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This spike does NOT produce

• A locked decision on the character system
• A commitment to the Quaternius stack
• A commitment to the Trellis1 clothing approach
• Any game code

Jeroen reviews the Pipeline Tension Report before any decisions are made.