what about virtual tourism to vastly widen the VR audience?

[crespo80]

Until now, virtual tourism was nothing but a joke, in the best case a 360° tour with lifeless photos to look at, or a pre-recorded video.
But with the actual PC power and the rift we can be inside an accurate virtual representation of the most magnificent hystorical cities of the world like Rome, Athens, Beijing, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, at the apex of their beauty, or even an historically accurate full reproduction of a city of a lost civilization like the Maya, Inca etc.; with all the sounds of a live city, the citizens doing their jobs, the animals, the shops etc.
I'm thinking about an "Assassin's creed" enviroment without the violence (yeah, the best part I know, but not for the audience we're aiming to).
With an high stature guide inside the enviroment to come along with you (a Vergilius or a Cicerone) and explain all the stuff.
It can be used a modern game engine without the need of complex physics (we dont' have to damage the buildings or interact too much with the objects).
The virtual tour can even be a side-product of a game: if you have to reproduce an entire city for a game like "Assassin's creed", you can just put some more effort to make it historically accurate, leave out the game story and add a guiding character.

This way, VR could appeal part of the audience that is not even attracted by casual consoles like the Wii, but would like to make an awesome "cultural virtual voyage": but this is not an alternative to real tourism, but a complementary experience that's faaaaaar more appealing than a tv documentary!

[Qoheleth]

Yeah, I've been thinking about this too, but more for a specialized group. I have friends who are professors in the field of Theology, more specifically old and new testaments, and I've yet to ask them what they would think about being able to visit some historical sites, or examine virtual artifacts in 3d. Maybe they will get a kick out of viewing the Gilgamesh and Atrahasis epic artifacts in virtual reality.

[brantlew]

Good idea. How about kicking it up a notch and literally walking through those ancient cities?

http://www.mtbs3d.com/phpBB/viewtopic.p ... =60#p73183

[Fredz]

But with the actual PC power and the rift we can be inside an accurate virtual representation of the most magnificent hystorical cities of the world like Rome, Athens, Beijing, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, at the apex of their beauty, or even an historically accurate full reproduction of a city of a lost civilization like the Maya, Inca etc.; with all the sounds of a live city, the citizens doing their jobs, the animals, the shops etc.

Cryo Interactive developed several adventure games in the same (historical) vein. They were only using 360° still rendering with 3D animated models and they must have aged badly, but I guess they could still be immersive with head tracking in warped 2D on a Rift. Or at least it could give ideas for future developments.

Some examples (developed by other companies after 2002, but with a similar technology) :
- Egypt 3: The Egyptian Prophecy (2004) ;
- Jerusalem: The Three Roads to the Holy Land (2002) ;
- Arthur's Knights II: The Secret of Merlin (2002) ;
- Versailles II: Testament of the King (2001) ;
- Atlantis III: The New World (2001) ;
- Odyssey: The Search for Ulysses (2000) ;
- Pompei: The Legend of Vesuvius (2000) ;
- China: Intrigue In The Forbidden City (1998).

The funny thing is I saw a predecessor of these games ("Le Louvres" IIRC) in a multimedia festival where it was also the first (and only) time I could try an HMD (Dactyl Nightmare SP on a Virtuality system IIRC).

[Additives]

Don't be afraid to think small on this one, how about things like the museum, the top of the Eiffel tower, or the Jeffersonian in DC. Even small sites could have a large draw.


That said, I have been to the Cairo museum and I would hate to have to accurately model, or even scan all of the artefacts there, which you would have to do or you would kind of be missing the point.

[2EyeGuy]

The Cairo museum isn't what it once was, so it's slightly easier to scan everything now. The Arab spring has done a lot of damage. Hopefully things will get scanned before Egypt deteriorates further.

I think those games you listed would work well in head-tracked 2D. The Egypt one has been remade already for the iPhone. On the PC it apparently uses Direct3D 7. It might (or might not) be more difficult than a simple driver hack though.

But I think we should start with demos of Google Street View in VR, for when we want to demo the system for mothers and grandmothers.

[rhinosix]

Don't be afraid to think small on this one, how about things like the museum, the top of the Eiffel tower, or the Jeffersonian in DC. Even small sites could have a large draw.

Or houses. It would be useful for people who travel a lot, or work in remote locations.

It might become common to pay someone to come to your home, remove the furniture, scan the room, and scan each piece of furniture individually.

One thing I'd love to have is 3D scans of is paintings. At the moment our digital archives are mainly 2D. It would be cool to not just have the image, but the complete 3D shape of the brushstrokes, the frame, and back of the frame. Might also be fun to do a 3D printed reproduction.

[Fredz]

I thought it would make no sense for paintings since they are mostly 2D, but you'd miss the eyes of Mona Lisa following you when moving around her.

[rhinosix]

I thought it would make no sense for paintings since they are mostly 2D, but you'd miss the eyes of Mona Lisa following you when moving around her.

Well, we think of paintings as 2D because that's how we're used to seeing them in books and online. But when you see an original up close you can see that many artists use thick layers of paint and all kinds of techniques to build up the image. You can actually see the shape of each brush stroke.

I want to be to have gloves with this kind of haptic technology to feel the texture: http://www.disneyresearch.com/research/ ... ch_drp.htm

[LazloTheGreat]

Until now, virtual tourism was nothing but a joke, in the best case a 360° tour with lifeless photos to look at, or a pre-recorded video.
But with the actual PC power and the rift we can be inside an accurate virtual representation of the most magnificent hystorical cities of the world like Rome, Athens, Beijing, Constantinople, Jerusalem, Cairo, at the apex of their beauty, or even an historically accurate full reproduction of a city of a lost civilization like the Maya, Inca etc.; with all the sounds of a live city, the citizens doing their jobs, the animals, the shops etc.
I'm thinking about an "Assassin's creed" enviroment without the violence (yeah, the best part I know, but not for the audience we're aiming to).
With an high stature guide inside the enviroment to come along with you (a Vergilius or a Cicerone) and explain all the stuff.
It can be used a modern game engine without the need of complex physics (we dont' have to damage the buildings or interact too much with the objects).
The virtual tour can even be a side-product of a game: if you have to reproduce an entire city for a game like "Assassin's creed", you can just put some more effort to make it historically accurate, leave out the game story and add a guiding character.

This way, VR could appeal part of the audience that is not even attracted by casual consoles like the Wii, but would like to make an awesome "cultural virtual voyage": but this is not an alternative to real tourism, but a complementary experience that's faaaaaar more appealing than a tv documentary!

I fully agree with the powerful mass appeal of this concept. I posted similar thoughts in another O.R. forum. Rift-ready games with cool rendered geography/architecture could have an optional "Ava-Tourist" mode where one could be offered historically acurate info either through a virtual guide or otherwise. You could experience it either with the bustling population or choose "Ghost Town" mode for a more structure-focused exploration. Even for original landscapes/architecture created specifically for a game, one could opt for such a tour, complete with accompanying behind-the-scenes/art design info. Thus, after "getting into the game" one could further opt to "get behind the game" serving as the free-roaming "DVD EXTRAS" for the gaming world.

Then joining all this with the online component, how geeky-cool would it be to regularly meet up and hang with a buddy from across the country in one of the taverns of Skyrim? Or, thanks to Assassin's Creed II, to stroll the streets of Rennaissance Italy with your special lady-friend? Suddenly long-distance relationships seem just a lttle more fun and a skosche less estranged. Perhaps very soon the streets of 3D rendered Google Maps will be populated with otherwise geographically separated friends catching up walking through Central Park even though neither is anywhere near New York. Or maybe they'll opt to see an avatar version of their favorite current band in cyber-concert together a la "second life" -styled cyber-venue but one that hasn't existed since the 1970s. Can't hear what your buddy's saying over the sound of the band? Turn down the band and turn up your friend, maybe even pause the band for only the two of you, Tivo-style... yet actually annoy absolutely no one else "there." Or, hey, maybe match.com could very soon arrange a good old fashioned chemistry-confirming cyber "pre-date" in one of Namielus' movie cinemas.

Or how about being an up-close virtual "ghost" spectator in, say, a popular MMORPG/MMOG the way people attend footbal games? ("Do you play 'Battlefield Heroes?'" "No, but I do love to peek in and watch the heroes on the battlefield sometimes.") A whole new kind of cyber-sports celebrity could come about, complete with, announcer & color commentator feeds, sponsor endorsments, etc., lol.

And how cool is it that none of this is about "one day in our future this will be possible," but rather sometime mid January, or March, or late December, as soon as Joe So-and-So wraps up the last bit of coding, or Larry Whose-its just O.R. tweeks his already created program... that this will be ready. Pretty amazing that we are right now essentially within the final "couple minutes before midnight" to simply roll up our sleeves behind our typing, mouse-clicking hands and being able to materialize all of this straight away with the requisite, about-to-be currently available tools and components, not unlike when Palmer Luckey realized he was able to go right ahead and just create the Oculus Rift for the very same reasons. We can just go right over and do this now. And the palpable increase in emotional, experiential engagement through this new tech's heightened level of immersion, this now leaves inumerably new, fun, barrier-shattering experiences with big sensoral impact just waiting to be had right before our very eyes. Need I say "literally?"

[DFP]

I think it would be really nice to walk through the sets or 3D renders of virtual locations used in TV shows like Star Trek. Most of the time when you go on a tour "This Show: The Experience" to see real props and sets used in shows and movies, you're basically walking through a warehouse with stuff behind glass.

[kalabalik]

Or even be able to be inside some cartoons/animated films.
Imagine a set from Ice Age or whatever where you can look around but maybe not move too much as the scenes are small in area.
But it would be a possibility to market films in a new way perhaps And shouldnt take too long for the animators to render a set for use.

But i really like the idea to see these places like machu pichu, taj mahal, pyramids, antarctica and such.
Maybe a replica of the titanic to explore freely, being inside a WWII submarine as a spectator or witness the FPV of actual flying birds who had a 360 cam mounted on them.

The possibilities are in truth endless, and VR is a great way to create cultural content without the need of gameplay per se; not having to shoot things or sch to leave an impact on the user.


I'm almost more inclined to prefer more calm vistas and explorative games rather than Doom style FPS games. I'm sure It's going to be awesome to fight mars monsters for a while – but soothing, calm places like the alien world in Contact where you float around in a bubble, witnessing everything around you feels like a great stress-treatment.

[therage79]

Getting really excited reading all these visions...there are the same ideas/dreams I have had since reading 'Ready Player One' last year (I recommend you all go and read it immediately for more VR inspiration).

I think the implications of where we are starting to go with the rift/VR stretch far beyond traditional 'gaming' and I anticipate a mainstream uptake in the mid-term future, around things like social networking, retail, travel, education, sports etc, very much in the way the internet has grown from a technical platform to a lifestyle for most.

Its just nice to be on the bleeding edge!

[adventurer]

This is a great idea to be implemented with the Oculus. Traveling the cities from Assassin's Creed or the ancient Rome is wonderful and the idea is also practical. However, I would like to think of further possibilities. What if the places we travel consists of real people online, not just A.I?, citizens in the cities are mainly real people who traveling together or doing somethings interesting with each other? just like an online game in a massive virtual world like Second Life, we can do the same with Oculus. The city will be a place for a group of people to meet, to socialize and do other activities together. This will greatly enhance the social experience aspect of VR. And I am talking about a place for people to meet, talk, socialize, not just for playing online/LAN games together.
The idea of build a city to travel is marvelous and I think if it's an online experience, traveling, socializing with other is even more fantastic for everyone, not just gamers.

[SouthernCross]

This is a great idea to be implemented with the Oculus. Traveling the cities from Assassin's Creed or the ancient Rome is wonderful and the idea is also practical. However, I would like to think of further possibilities. What if the places we travel consists of real people online, not just A.I?, citizens in the cities are mainly real people who traveling together or doing somethings interesting with each other? just like an online game in a massive virtual world like Second Life, we can do the same with Oculus. The city will be a place for a group of people to meet, to socialize and do other activities together. This will greatly enhance the social experience aspect of VR. And I am talking about a place for people to meet, talk, socialize, not just for playing online/LAN games together.
The idea of build a city to travel is marvelous and I think if it's an online experience, traveling, socializing with other is even more fantastic for everyone, not just gamers.

Simpsons did it!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b72CvvMuD6Q[/youtube]

Second life, bro!

[NZstory]

... being inside a WWII submarine as a spectator ....

Reading that got me thinking about a visit to an aeroplane museum which had a Lancaster bomber on display. It was cool looking from the outside, but I really wanted to see the interior. I can imagine this side of things offering that ability. Sure it's not the real thing but certainly would beat looking at photos of the cabin and cockpit.

[Additives]

...Sure it's not the real thing...

As with everything at this stage, it's not perfect but it's a damn better than nothing.

[SouthernCross]

... being inside a WWII submarine as a spectator ....

Reading that got me thinking about a visit to an aeroplane museum which had a Lancaster bomber on display. It was cool looking from the outside, but I really wanted to see the interior. I can imagine this side of things offering that ability. Sure it's not the real thing but certainly would beat looking at photos of the cabin and cockpit.

I would love a series that would let you be a spectator at various historical events like say the Spanish Reconquista or the battle of Beersheeba where us Aussies made one of the last successful cavalry charges of all time and routed the Turks.

[adventurer]

Second life, bro!

yeah, but Second Life in VR! Image Second Life with Oculus, high end graphic, free motion control to do activities, microphone to speak, people will see no big difference in socializing, travelling, playing with a group of friends in real world and virtual world. That will make VR so appealing!

[hast]

I had similar ideas when I saw the Google WorldWonders project (http://www.google.com/intl/en/culturali ... ldwonders/). It's like Google streetview but for different world heritage sites.

Although for it to be completely engrossing I think it would need video and audio as well. And it might be necessary to have something so you could remove people from the recordings, otherwise it will likely be very confusing if they are warping around as you are moving.

I guess a combined VR simulation and video (for details) would be the best. Kind of like the Sony "SR" augmented reality demonstration from TGS.

[crespo80]

I guess a combined VR simulation and video (for details) would be the best. Kind of like the Sony "SR" augmented reality demonstration from TGS.

I think we have powerful enough hardware and sophisticated enough game engines to render photorealistic 3D models of any modern/hystorical cities with real-time illumination, to bring an awesome life-like experience to even the more demandin user.
Of course, we can neither populate it with credible characters nor use too sophisticated physics yet, but we'll get there eventually

[ElectroPulse]

I don't know about "vastly" widening the VR audience... I'm not sure I know many people who would be willing to drop $300 to walk around in a virtual re-creation of a real scene.

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great idea. I'm a gamer, and as such that is the focus of my interest in VR. However, it just doesn't seem like this would necessarily increase the audience of VR as much as it sounds some would expect. Who knows, maybe it's just the generation that I'm part of (currently a freshman in college), but at least for everyone I know (as far as I know) this wouldn't be a big draw to VR. For me? I will probably mess around with it some and check out whatever the community puts together, but I probably won't spend a whole lot of time wandering around in virtual re-creations of the real world. Even for my parents, who aren't really big gamers (my mom plays Castleville, and my dad plays some World of Tanks), I don't think that they would consider the cost worth it. They would probably enjoy looking through mine for a little while, but won't feel an urge to go out and buy one (I could be wrong, though).

It would definitely be a good application for things that have been mentioned before, such as people in the latter part of their life wanting to see the world, but being unable to travel.

Anyway, the point of my post is this: I don't really see this as something that would "vastly widen" the audience of VR. It's a good idea, but in my opinion the vast majority will just be interested in watching movies and playing games.

[Owen]

More generally, I don't think many people will want to use an HMD for purely passive experiences. When you sit down to watch something like a documentary, you are not really interested in "being there". You want to be in your living room, because thats where your beer and bag of chips and family are. I think its a pretty narrow fringe of people who would use VR to just veg out and take in the scenery. TVs already fill that niche very well.

[brantlew]

I think passive VR cinema could be hugely popular if done correctly. I don't mean rendered graphics - I mean hemispherical camera systems that record super wide video and/or multi-camera systems that can reconstruct a 3D video scene and would allow you to free-look within the video environment (surround view to go with surround sound ). So you are a passive observer but you feel immersed within the show. And this would work for the virtual tour as well as long as you are confined to a moving tour vehicle.

[Fredz]

More generally, I don't think many people will want to use an HMD for purely passive experiences. When you sit down to watch something like a documentary, you are not really interested in "being there".

IMAX Dome/3D shorts and rides are still quite popular as passive experiences, I guess there must still be some market here. If IMAX released all their 360° 2D and 3D movies for the Rift I suppose it could interest some people.

[2EyeGuy]

Even for my parents, who aren't really big gamers (my mom plays Castleville, and my dad plays some World of Tanks), I don't think that they would consider the cost worth it. They would probably enjoy looking through mine for a little while, but won't feel an urge to go out and buy one (I could be wrong, though).

But, if you say "Mum, Dad, I want you to buy me an Oculus Rift", would they be more likely to buy one for you/the family if they can try a demo in the shop of looking around tourist destinations in VR, rather than just Doom 3?

[crespo80]

I don't know about "vastly" widening the VR audience...

I mean widening the "potential" audience, people who would never buy a peripheral to play doom3 but is interested in more traditional cultural content. Maybe they'll end up not buying it anywhere, but they would definitely look at it, and as someone else pointed out, it could be a huge incentive for parents who will not simply buy a gaming peripheral to their children, but a potential enterteinement system for the whole family.

but I probably won't spend a whole lot of time wandering around in virtual re-creations of the real world.

Yeah, you will probably end up playing the game version of assassins' creed, but your parents may better play the "tourist" version of the same game (here in Italy we say "catch two pigeons with one bean" ).
And the intended goal is not a virtual re-creation of a real city they could visit for real, this doesn't want to be an alternative to real tourism, but to immerse you in a glorious vivid and lifefull ancient city at the peak of its beauty, something you could never experience for real! When I was a kid I was always fascinated by those virtual recreations of ancient monuments I saw on TV documentaries (and they were very badly made), and I was merely seeing them on a TV screen without any immersion or interaction, but maybe its' just me

[2EyeGuy]

(here in Italy we say "catch two pigeons with one bean" ).

Italians are more civilised than us. We say "kill two birds with one stone" instead.

[TheLookingGlass]

More generally, I don't think many people will want to use an HMD for purely passive experiences. When you sit down to watch something like a documentary, you are not really interested in "being there".

IMAX Dome/3D shorts and rides are still quite popular as passive experiences, I guess there must still be some market here. If IMAX released all their 360° 2D and 3D movies for the Rift I suppose it could interest some people.

I agree Fredz. I am very interested in "passive" experiences on the Rift. IMAX was the first experience to come to mind as well as other immersive movie theater experiences like Cinerama.

[rhinosix]

"Passive" experiences will always be welcome. It's usually easier to write a meaningful story when you can control the action. Gameplay and choice influence the kinds of story you can tell.

You don't need any special skills or hardware to watch a movie, play, or documentary. And the audience knows how much of a time investment it's going to be. Putting in 2 hours for a complete story is a lot different than putting in 70 hours.

In well constructed stories, nothing is really passive anyway. When you watch a good detective film you're given pieces of a puzzle, and you have to think to put it all together and work out what's going on. Even video games with tons of action can feel passive if you're just forced to shoot swarms of enemies and make arbitrary choices to reach a meaningless goal.

[Moriarty]

This article sums up very well what the potential of "virtual tourism" is. A writer for Eurogamer explores L.A. Noire with his dad who grew up in Los Angeles in the forties and fifties :

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... d-the-city


and this is not even VR and way less immersive ! It shows a glimpse of the amazing experiences that are possible with VR in the future , even for people who are not into games. Here's an excerpt of the long article :

'Virtual Return to Los Angeles' :

"Viewing L.A. Noire was an exciting and thoughtful experience. For a few hours I was able to re-explore the L.A. I knew in the late forties and early fifties with my son. The city was dark, but even with the period's dim street lighting and within the slightly truncated map of the city, we were able to find our way around. The prizes for me were the Richfield Building, Angels Flight (located where it belonged next to the 3rd Street tunnel - it has since been relocated one block south) and the wonderful cars of the era. I was able to remember exactly how to get around from both the towering City Hall and the slightly uncomfortable space of Pershing Square. This seemed a refreshingly thoughtful-almost intellectual-scenario that I would not have expected in something called a game.

"The accuracy with which the city structures and roadways are recreated is really astounding, and the details were almost perfect! Minor faults would not be evident to most who did not live in the city at that time. For sure this was a real as well as a virtual return for me to that complex and dark city at that time.

"To be able to experience it again with my son who was born 20 years after I first left the city was, I think, wonderful for us both."

[Additives]

Great article. I think the problem that the rift alleviates is that to have that type of experience on a screen, you have to be in the right frame of mind. i.e. it requires a bit more a willing suspension of disbelief. In the article, this came from the shared personal history with the area.

Another thing that I think the article highlights is how jaded we have become to the level of current game tech. I really hope passive experiences do well on the platform, because I do think there is a market there. Just recently I was talking to my girlfriends mother about what she would like to see, and a pre-earthquake Christchurch was rather high on the list of wants.

[Fredz]

Yeah, very good article indeed. In a similar vein :
http://kotaku.com/5959328/virtual-touri ... -more-real

Seems there is definitely a market for virtual tourism, I guess all the people who commented this article would be delighted to use the Rift if it supported these games (namely Fallout 3, Assassin's Creed series, GTA IV, LA Noire, Ryū ga Gotoku series, Spider-Man 2, Deus Ex HR).

[Bretspot]

I was thinking it would be fun to recreate some movie scenes, or props.
For instance,

The Hover Ship from Matrix
The boat from JAWS
Jurassic Park (as it was in the movie, or the finished version)
Avatar's Pandora
Hogwarts
The Hotel and house from Psycho (in black and white of course!)
Hill Valley (Past, Past, Present and future) (Back to the future)

I know a lot of these scenes and scenes like this are re-made for various video games, but this would be "easier" since it would be more for touring these places and putting yourself in the movie. Maybe you could use leave props around that you could examine and you would dive a bit deeper into the history of the places.

Just a thought. Any movie (or book) places you'd like to go?

[Fredz]

Nice idea. To expand it a bit further, I'd like to see reimplementations of some movies in game engines. It's probably not always feasible but that could be a fun thing to try. Point of view should be customizable, by choosing the POV of the camera just like in the movie, one of the actors or a free look camera.

Movies I'd like to see this way could be Back to The Future, Jurassic Park, Avatar and The Matrix like you mentionned, or Alien(s), a Knight's Tale, The Game, Payback, Blade Runner, Full Metal Jacket, Pulp Fiction, etc.

I wonder if someone already tried something like that.

[space123321]

Nice idea. To expand it a bit further, I'd like to see reimplementations of some movies in game engines. It's probably not always feasible but that could be a fun thing to try. Point of view should be customizable, by choosing the POV of the camera just like in the movie, one of the actors or a free look camera.

Movies I'd like to see this way could be Back to The Future, Jurassic Park, Avatar and The Matrix like you mentionned, or Alien(s), a Knight's Tale, The Game, Payback, Blade Runner, Full Metal Jacket, Pulp Fiction, etc.

I wonder if someone already tried something like that.

You should give the novel "Ready Player One" a read - this idea is directly in the story as the charcters have to actually act out entire movies directly in the VR world. Pretty cool!

[Fredz]

I intended to read it but I was waiting for the French translation since English is not my mother tongue. Should be available in no time now, the French cover has been published some weeks ago on the author's site. A lot of people are recommending it, should be a great book.

[polipluff]

My question is with the dev kits soon on their way..

Will anyone actually start this project for VR Tourism? Does it have to be from a game? Im sure their is actual software that show video of places on the planet that you just walk around in.

[Fredz]

Will anyone actually start this project for VR Tourism?

Things like that have already been implemented, Virtual Forbidden City by IBM is a good example :
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/press ... /25379.wss
It would just need to be adapted for the Rift, or used with a Rift-compatible stereo 3D driver.

Does it have to be from a game?

If it's not based on a game you'd need to create the 3D models and scenes yourself, which is quite a daunting task for any sizeable environment. Modding games with interesting places like L.A. Noire or Assassin's Creed II (if that's even possible) would be a much simpler starting point. But then you'd have to implement a different and more interesting game mechanic that is best suited to tourism.

Im sure their is actual software that show video of places on the planet that you just walk around in.

You could use video content as a base, but that would defeat the point of having a virtual environment, ie. the ability to move to any place and to be able to look everywhere. That would only be a virtual ride, not a virtual reality experience.

[Moriarty]

Here's another application I would like to see on the Rift :

Paris 3D Saga (video):

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/ ... paris.html

Time-travelling 3D tour shows birth of Eiffel Tower

Imagine visiting the World's Fair of 1889 in Paris, France, and seeing the Eiffel Tower just after it was built. Now thanks to an ultra-accurate 3D reconstruction, you can travel back in time to see it.

Created by Mehdi Tayoubi from French company Dassault Systèmes and colleagues, the buildings in the video are represented exactly to scale, down to minute details such as the flags on the main pavilion. This level of accuracy was achieved by consulting a range of archival sources, such as building plans, drawings and maps, as well as consultations with historical advisors. Often several months were required to model a single building. In many cases, the interior of famous monuments can also be visited virtually.

This snapshot of Paris is just an example of the periods captured for the project, which recreates the city from medieval times to the present. The model can be seen on a range of platforms, such as with online or tablet applications, through an augmented-reality book, in a documentary or even as a virtual reality experience. Interactive sequences illustrate, for example, how buildings were constructed. With augmented reality, an area can be viewed at different moments in time by superimposing models.

According to Jean-Marc Leri, director of the Carnavalet Museum, Paris, who worked with the team, visualising the city with such accuracy changed his perception of historical events. The Bastille prison, for example, stormed by a revolutionary militia in 1789, was much smaller than artistic representations suggest - showing that it was probably quite easy to conquer, contrary to anecdotes.

The team claims that even the oldest models are extremely realistic, due to the extensive information available from the French national archives, but even so the virtual world will be updated as new findings are reported. So far, the focus has been on reproducing buildings, but other aspects of daily life will also be considered in future versions. The team plans to build similar experiences for other cities in the future.

Some youtube impressions :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqEf1SEk0nY[/youtube]

The live event with 9 giant screens :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHSIv-t3bRQ[/youtube]