Column

The still — eight sieve trays stacked inside a glass column, the brass that holds them, the risers between them, the reboiler underneath and the condenser head above. It is also every light in the game and the air between them.

Everything stands as children of the Column host entity, built from the geometry constants in Still.module, so the trays, the growths and the pilot all agree about where the floor is. Shapes are assembled as triangles by ColumnGeometry and uploaded one merged mesh per part, which is why eight plates of trays, weirs, skirts, ribs, risers and a hundred and sixty bubble caps cost a few dozen draws rather than a thousand entities.

What is in it

Part	What it is
still_shell	the dark cabinet the still stands in, ribbed, inward-facing
still_wall_glass	the column wall — beaded condensation, a rim that carries the light
still_frame	a flanged collar at every plate joint, and six tie rods
still_deck_n	plate n's perforated sieve tray, with the hole the riser below comes up through
still_brass_n	the weir ringing the tray, and the bubble caps standing on it
still_skirt_n	the narrow shelf, the six wall brackets, the ribs under the tray
still_hoods_n / still_lenses_n	six hooded inspection lamps on the wall, eight pilots in the tray's underside
still_rim_n	the lit strip let into the weir, and a slot around every bubble cap
still_riser_n / still_riserglow_n	the brass cage from plate n to plate n+1, and the violet it fills with
still_reboiler / still_ember	the kettle below plate 1 and the fire in it
still_head / still_condenser / still_seal_ring	the dome, its hoops, and the seal

The annulus between the tray shelf and the wall is deliberately open: it is the channel the shaft is read through, so a camera anywhere near the wall sees the rims of the plates above receding into the dark.

What it listens to

It emits nothing. It answers core's events with light:

• plateEnter(n) — the plate the ketyl stands on burns brighter than the ones above it, and its raking lamp comes up with it.
• riserOpen(n) — riser n fills with violet and breathes. The level is written into the entity's own instance lane, so one material serves all eight.
• plateCleared(n) — a flash through the whole shaft.
• sealed() — the ring in the head comes up.
• phase(name) — title and intro light the whole column, for the shot that establishes it before control is handed over.

The atmosphere

The sky is off and the clear colour is near black: the still is sealed inside something and there is no daylight anywhere in it. The ambient is a dim cold violet; everything else is emissive or a lamp. The post-process chain is fog, bloom, an ACES tonemap and a vignette, and the interior is baked once into the reflection environment — a metal with nothing to reflect renders black, and this still is all metal.