prompter: I would like like to make a TARDIS in unity. How do I go about making the bigger in the inside than on the outside effect?

assistant: One way to achieve this effect is by using a technique called "portal rendering." This involves creating two separate scenes: one for the exterior of the TARDIS and one for the interior. The exterior scene would contain a portal object that leads to the interior scene. When the player enters the portal, they are teleported to the interior scene, which appears larger than the exterior due to clever camera positioning and scaling.

Another approach is to use a shader that distorts space in real-time. This would involve creating a custom shader that warps space around the TARDIS as the player moves through it. This technique can be more challenging to implement but can provide a more seamless experience for players.

Creating a convincing "bigger on the inside" effect will require careful planning and experimentation with different techniques. Good luck with your project!

prompter: Would having the Tardis be a moving object cause any issues?

assistant: Having the TARDIS be a moving object can cause some issues with the portal alignment and rendering. You need to make sure that the portal camera follows the movement of the TARDIS and that the render texture is updated accordingly. you can use a script to disable the movement of the TARDIS when it is near a portal.

A few ways to prevent possible issues when the TARDIS is a moving object are:

- Use a rigidbody component on the object and set its velocity to zero when you want it to stop.
- Use Time.deltaTime to smooth out the movement and avoid stuttering.
- Use transform.position instead of AddForce to move the object directly.
- Adjust the drag and mass of the object to control its acceleration and deceleration.

assistant: This depends on your technique for achieving this effect. If, for instance, when the user steps inside the Tardis, they are teleported to another section of the map, then no. As long as you are tracking the rotation and position of the object it should be fine to have it move. 

Let me know if you have any more questions for me!

prompter: I think the best approach would be to have the shader distorting space as the player is walking into the TARDIS, and then have them teleported to a different section on the map as soon as they're inside. Let's do that.

assistant: A TARDIS is an example of non-euclidean geometry. In Unity, you cannot create a truly non-euclidean space, but it can be achieved visually.
Here is one method of achieving this:
Create two layers in the scene which occupy the same space, but cannot collide or interact with one another. One will contain the model of the outside of the TARDIS. The other will be the model for the inside.
Create a portal at the entrance and when its plane is crossed, the portal changes the layer of the object that crosses to the layer that corresponds with the sector.
Create four stencil buffer shaders: read and write for each layer. The read shader is used for the game object sector and the write shader is used for the portal game object.
One set of shaders is set to reference 1 and the other set is set to reference 2. Write shader 1 only references read shader 1 from behind the portal.
When the player camera crosses the portal plane and enters the sector, the read shader comparison is changed from equal to always.

prompter: Thank you. How can I make sure that the shader comparison is done correctly at the right moment only when the player camera goes through the door of the TARDIS?

assistant: To ensure that the shader comparison is done correctly at the right moment when the player camera goes through the door of the TARDIS, you can use a script that checks the position of the player in relation to the portal. When the player crosses the portal plane, the script can trigger the shader comparison to change from equal to always. You can also use a trigger collider placed at the entrance of the TARDIS to detect when the player has entered the TARDIS and enable the script to trigger the shader comparison. By doing this, you can make sure that the effect is only applied when the player enters the TARDIS and not when they are just looking at it from outside.