[HN Gopher] Rome in 3D
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       Rome in 3D
        
       Author : GizmoSwan
       Score  : 103 points
       Date   : 2021-01-31 15:22 UTC (7 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (relivehistoryin3d.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (relivehistoryin3d.com)
        
       | canada_dry wrote:
       | To think that this is roughly 3 centuries _after_ Nero and the
       | great fire! Incredible history.
        
       | madhadron wrote:
       | The only thing that makes me sad in this is that the buildings,
       | especially the big monuments and temples, are plain white, and
       | not brightly painted.
        
         | GizmoSwan wrote:
         | They are not white, the are color of the stones and concrete
         | with some details that were painted.
         | 
         | Here is one the monuments in color. Look for the video within
         | the content.
         | 
         | https://relivehistoryin3d.com/2019/11/10/trajans-column-full...
         | 
         | More about the history of the monument:
         | https://www.nationalgeographic.com/trajan-column/
        
         | HuShifang wrote:
         | I was wondering about this too. Elsewhere on their site they
         | discuss recoloring marble busts of the caesars, so they may not
         | be unaware of this...
        
       | GizmoSwan wrote:
       | I found virtual 3rd trailer about Colosseum district to be
       | amazing.
        
       | ROARosen wrote:
       | Here we go! Seems to have been Hacker-bombed. Not accessible to
       | me right now. (Error 508 Resource Limit Is Reached)
        
       | SeeManDo wrote:
       | Reminds me of this project, well done:
       | 
       | https://www.google.com/books/edition/Synagogues_in_Germany/5...
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cluU6n2W0c
        
       | personlurking wrote:
       | Here's an AMA by someone who also made a 3D model of Rome
       | 
       | https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/5yf9rm/iama_...
        
       | boffinism wrote:
       | "an attempt to give you an opportunity to take a look at Rome as
       | it really was, by the eyes of humans who lived there in that
       | time".
       | 
       | They never mention _which_ time. Do we think they know that Rome
       | still exists?
        
         | jb1991 wrote:
         | 320 AD in the video.
        
         | Gys wrote:
         | The videos refer to 320 AD. I agree it should be more clearly
         | stated.
        
       | cblconfederate wrote:
       | Love these. I think the studio Altair4 makes some of the best
       | visualizations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNIEYmxFgF4. I
       | once made a model of rome myself in opensim ;)
        
         | mstade wrote:
         | Great video, thanks for sharing! I've visited Rome a few times
         | and most of the areas in the video I know quite well, it was
         | really fun to see a visualization of the old buildings. The
         | Pompeii theatre blew my mind!
         | 
         | I wish they'd done the pantheon though. I know it wouldn't be
         | as impressive as the other renders - Forum Romanum was amazing
         | - but I'd love to see the front of it intact with the gold
         | ornaments and what not. Great video nonetheless!
        
           | cblconfederate wrote:
           | Pantheon is among their other videos:
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2E44dz5sFk
        
       | pmontra wrote:
       | Great project.
       | 
       | It would be even greater if they add people in the streets,
       | possibly walking, not static. That would turn it into a real city
       | and not only perfectly conserved ruins.
        
       | cableshaft wrote:
       | Needs an assassin that likes to climb up the side of buildings
       | and fall from the top into haystacks, but otherwise, very cool.
        
         | icefrakker wrote:
         | I don't get why people feel the need to shove pop culture
         | references into everything. Why not share a meme too while
         | you're at it?
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | Could you elaborate? Is this a pop culture reference?
        
           | maxnoe wrote:
           | The Assassin's Creed video game series
        
           | cableshaft wrote:
           | It is. Assassin's Creed games are often set in places and
           | time periods where they can have the assassin climb on famous
           | landmarks and ancient architectures.
           | 
           | Rome was a location you could visit in at least one of the
           | games (I want to say both Assassin's Creed 2 and Assassin's
           | Creed Brotherhood), and you could even climb the Colosseum
           | itself. So when I saw the video, it instantly made me think
           | of the game.
           | 
           | As for the haystack reference, a common trope in Assassin's
           | Creed games is to reveal a region you have to find a tall
           | structure and climb to the top. Usually they let you jump off
           | from the very top and fall into something to break your fall,
           | usually a haystack. It's super unrealistic but saves you the
           | effort of climbing back down again.
           | 
           | You can see the Colosseum climbing in action in this video,
           | although the time period in the game it's a ruin already,
           | including the fall into a haystack:
           | https://youtu.be/gkHTYydSPks
        
         | Udik wrote:
         | Frankly I was thinking too of Assassin's Creed. I've never
         | played it but from videos I've seen it looks like they're able
         | to give the impression of entire cities recreated with a fair
         | level of accuracy, and populated with crowds, animals and
         | everyday objects, with realistic elements such dirt and smoke.
         | 
         | I wonder how hard it would be to port the material used to
         | create these videos (that might be accurate from a historical
         | point of view but overall look way too schematic) to AC's
         | engine- not to enjoy killing enemies in the context if the
         | imperial Rome, but to provide a realistic environment to move
         | through in real time. I think it would be loved by casual users
         | and specialists alike.
         | 
         | For example, check this reconstruction of Athens in the 5th
         | century BCE, it beats these ancient Rome videos in every
         | possible way:
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/-a8cWF-29lI
        
       | dinkleberg wrote:
       | This is really cool. It's unclear if this is a community effort
       | or not (getting page timeouts), but it would be great to see some
       | experts in texture and lighting help bring this to the next level
       | because the models already look great.
        
       | martimarkov wrote:
       | I wonder what engine they use for this. It doesn't seem to be
       | Unreal, Unigine or Unity.
       | 
       | I'd be curious to learn which one it is and why they choose it.
       | :)
        
       | f6v wrote:
       | Well done, great to see the Sevastopol university alumn here!
        
       | spurgu wrote:
       | Resource Limit Is Reached
       | 
       | The website is temporarily unable to service your request as it
       | exceeded resource limit. Please try again later.
        
         | amelius wrote:
         | Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btKooS7k3nw
        
           | spurgu wrote:
           | Thanks!
        
       | billfruit wrote:
       | Any general use tools which can be used for such large scale
       | modelling, not including minecraft which actually speaking seems
       | terrible for the purpose.
        
       | fatbird wrote:
       | This seems like a ripe topic for an academic/open source wiki
       | approach to 3D modeling and representation. Imagine if some
       | group, or academic consortium, got funding to build an MMO world
       | and to make available to academics the tools to build it out--3D
       | modelers like Sketchup for buildings, behavioural scripting for
       | NPCs, economic modeling of the surrounding environment... all
       | available for people to walk through.
       | 
       | Obviously no one history department has the budget to licence a
       | serious game engine or maintain an open world; but one would
       | think an endowment from a benefactor plus cooperation and funding
       | from a group of seed universities would be enough to get it
       | started.
        
         | prox wrote:
         | As someone who used to make architectural visualizations (I was
         | trained as visualiser) , it would be great to set up some sort
         | of Patreon / Sponsorship with interested parties. I think this
         | is something that could work with the right crew. Would
         | definitely be in.
         | 
         | The content could even be favorably licensed so historically
         | accurate games and teachings in ancient history could be made.
        
       | T-A wrote:
       | Newer (Dec 16, 2020) video:
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kveAOZfDA44
        
       | diego_moita wrote:
       | Belissimo! I went to Rome a couple years ago and this adds a lot
       | to understand what I saw.
       | 
       | But there's one thing I'd love to see: the filth and life. I want
       | to see horse manure and mud on the streets, urine and faeces
       | pouring from houses, the immense slums that would surround the
       | city but left so few archaeological remains, graffiti on the
       | walls, wear and tear on the streets (like what you can see in
       | Pompei), the smoke from kitchens, pubs and bakeries, etc.
        
         | simplicio wrote:
         | Not 1:1 recreations, but the Assasins Creed games scratch this
         | itch. Im not a big video-gamer, but do love history, so usually
         | buy them when the price drops down to a couple bucks just cause
         | its neat to spend a couple hours walking around the historical
         | recreations.
        
           | Brakenshire wrote:
           | Would love for someone to buy up the rights to use the engine
           | and models for Assassin's Creed and develop stories which are
           | historically realistic.
        
             | Udik wrote:
             | Building upon this idea: UbiSoft could license a version of
             | the engine stripped of its game features (e.g. combats &
             | health, climbing of buildings) with the purpose of creating
             | historical reconstructions. These would be open source
             | projects supervised by historians; every single detail
             | could be discussed and improved, and changes merged via
             | pull requests. Maybe UbiSoft's interest in the deal would
             | be the free usage of the generated contents in the next
             | instalments of its game.
        
               | lachenmayer wrote:
               | They already do this, it's called "Discovery Mode" and is
               | specifically aimed at education. See this trailer:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yMDdQKfv70
               | 
               | It's also available as a stand-alone if you don't already
               | own the game: https://store.ubi.com/upc/discovery-tour-
               | by-assassin-s-creed...
        
         | lazypenguin wrote:
         | I agree, those tiled roofs are far too clean!
        
         | pachico wrote:
         | Have you watched Rome the TV show? I think you might enjoy it.
        
           | mstade wrote:
           | Great show, cancelled too soon!
        
             | ddalex wrote:
             | It had to be cancelled because the extensive (and
             | expensive!) sets burned :( and it wouldn't be cost
             | effective to recreate them...
        
               | jakear wrote:
               | How's that for irony.
        
               | mstade wrote:
               | Oh wow really? Don't these kinds of big budget
               | productions have massive insurance policies?
        
               | woobar wrote:
               | Fire that destroyed part of the set happened a year after
               | the show was cancelled. Fire was reported in August 2007,
               | cancellation was announced in July 2006.
        
           | simplicio wrote:
           | I have and did! The best (and first?) of the trend of gritty
           | historical fiction TV series.
        
         | Osmium wrote:
         | Sincere question: why do we assume people in the past were so
         | filthy?
         | 
         | I'm sure there are notable examples of unhygienic cities or
         | buildings (I've read about a few) but in general one suspects
         | there may be a tendency to exaggerate the "uncivilized" nature
         | of people from the past. Romans clearly put a lot of values in
         | their baths, for example, which suggests a people who value
         | cleanliness.
         | 
         | Uninformed on this, so interested to hear a perspective!
        
           | throwaway2245 wrote:
           | The great horse manure crisis of 1894 happened (primarily in
           | London) when horse manure was no longer valuable enough to
           | pick up for a profit.
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horse_manure_crisis_of_1.
           | ..
           | 
           | It seems highly unlikely to me that this would have been a
           | problem in Ancient Rome.
        
             | 5h wrote:
             | That was a hypothetical problem, as per that link
        
           | rsynnott wrote:
           | It's often exaggerated (as you say, bathing was popular in
           | the Roman world, and also in the medieval Islamic world and
           | even in many parts of medieval Europe), but ultimately they
           | did not have sanitation (as in sewers, etc) to the same
           | extent we do, and they had beasts of burden.
           | 
           | That said, I'm not sure to what extent this applies to
           | Ancient Rome (as in Republic to fall of western empire). They
           | _did_ have sewers, with public toilets attached to them, and
           | they probably didn't have that many horses wandering the
           | street, as the horse collar hadn't been invented yet. Ancient
           | Rome presumably wasn't as bad as a large medieval city (which
           | wouldn't usually have had proper sewers), and things may even
           | have gotten worse later on, because at a certain point
           | bathing really did become a lot less common in much of Europe
           | (due to weird medical beliefs and religious objection to
           | public bathhouses).
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | jweir wrote:
         | This reminds me of the project to recreate the audio landscape
         | of 18th century Paris. Now we need the smells.
         | 
         | https://enfilade18thc.com/2015/07/14/the-sound-of-paris-june...
        
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