NITETIME MUD // VISUAL CANON AND CONTINUITY
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VERIFIED / DEPLOYED

Characters, rooms, exits, cameras and objects can carry stable visual
instance IDs. These identify one particular thing even if its display
name or location changes. A visual definition ID instead identifies a
kind or canonical design. A profile version identifies which revision
of structured visual canon was current. They are different tools.

Photographs can preserve those IDs plus room and object canon,
Character appearance versions, visible clothes and equipment, zones,
lighting and explicitly known state. Scene records contain detached,
renderer-safe data rather than live game objects.

CONTINUITY WITHOUT INVENTION

The order of authority is simple:

  1. Current structured MUD state describes the live world now.
  2. An immutable snapshot describes its photographed moment.
  3. Reference images are continuity aids, never authority over either.

Unknown weather remains unknown. Unspecified light, materials, door
state or views beyond an exit stay unspecified. A renderer should not
turn missing information into established Nitetime history.

ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT

Rich authored visual canon currently concentrates on the Garage proof
area and selected objects there. Other places and objects generally
receive safe profiles derived from their current descriptions. This
allows a valid snapshot without pretending every prop already has a
full art bible.

Character reference metadata and builder approval tools exist. They
can record an approved base reference and its history.

PLANNED / NOT VERIFIED AS DEPLOYED

Stable IDs and reference fields do not prove automatic reference-image
production, synchronization, selection or renderer use. Room and
object reference libraries are not broadly populated, and automated
continuity imagery must not be advertised as a live feature.