Ancient Rome Brought Back to Life

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Ancient Rome has been brought back to life through a unique digital reconstruction project, said to be the world's biggest computer simulation.

An international team of architects, archaeologists and experts spent 10 years working on a real-time 3D model of the city called Rome Reborn.

Some 7,000 buildings were scanned and reproduced using a model of the city kept at a Rome museum.

Users enter the city at the time of Constantine and see inside buildings.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6743991.stm

[one...two...tree 2,762]

very cool.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

very cool.

Given how advanced 3-d imaging and animation is these days - driven largely by the games industry I'm a little surprised that this hasn't happened before now.

The last spiderman games did a pretty geographically accurate model of New York City, which is obviously far larger than ancient Rome. Guessing that this is a lot more detailed than something you'd see in video game - although some of those fictional gameworlds are pretty detailed. Like those Elder scrolls RPGs and World of Warcraft. Even the last Grand Theft Auto game was impressive - just for the sheer size of the gameworld.

Edited June 12, 2007 by erekose

[one...two...tree 2,762]

very cool.

Given how advanced 3-d imaging and animation is these days - driven largely by the games industry I'm a little surprised that this hasn't happened before now.

The last spiderman games did a pretty geographically accurate model of New York City, which is obviously far larger than ancient Rome. Guessing that this is a lot more detailed than something you'd see in video game - although some of those fictional gameworlds are pretty detailed. Like those Elder scrolls RPGs and World of Warcraft. Even the last Grand Theft Auto game was impressive - just for the sheer size of the gameworld.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out why it took them 10 years. The building of the actual models in 3D wouldn't take long at all - perhaps time was spent on pinpoint accuracy?

[almaty 19]

nice

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

very cool.

Given how advanced 3-d imaging and animation is these days - driven largely by the games industry I'm a little surprised that this hasn't happened before now.

The last spiderman games did a pretty geographically accurate model of New York City, which is obviously far larger than ancient Rome. Guessing that this is a lot more detailed than something you'd see in video game - although some of those fictional gameworlds are pretty detailed. Like those Elder scrolls RPGs and World of Warcraft. Even the last Grand Theft Auto game was impressive - just for the sheer size of the gameworld.

Yeah, I'm trying to figure out why it took them 10 years. The building of the actual models in 3D wouldn't take long at all - perhaps time was spent on pinpoint accuracy?

Guessing that's probably what happened. I remember hearing that they had reconstructed a Roman Villa not so long ago - this is probably the same group. They've probably got surveyors involved..

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Surprised no-one has yet come up with a Rome MPORG

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Surprised no-one has yet come up with a Rome MPORG

That would be awesome! Although how many people would choose to be peasants?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Surprised no-one has yet come up with a Rome MPORG

That would be awesome! Although how many people would choose to be peasants?

There is a Conan the Barbarian MPORG coming out for the PC and XBox 360 - from what I've seen its very close to the spirit of the original stories. I've never really got into online games - because of the monthly charges, and that I just don't have the time to invest in those sorts of immersive video-games anymore. These days I like quick-fix games - Nintendo DS type-stuff.

Edited June 12, 2007 by erekose

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Surprised no-one has yet come up with a Rome MPORG

That would be awesome! Although how many people would choose to be peasants?

It would be an interesting experiment if you're into politics - some of those multiplayer online games have fairly established political movements. For a game based on Republican Rome that would be quite impressive to see – work your way up in the government, join the senate etc.

It’s an interesting phenomenon – a mate of mine did his dissertation on “Democracy and the internet” – and did a bit about the original Ultima Online. Apparently a number of the players, who weren’t happy with the way the service provider was running the game (basically it became a hunting ground for powerful, high-level players) to kill off the newbies – banded together and stormed Lord British’s Castle and killed everyone inside. That was back when it was a 2-d isometric game. With the possibilities available to players with 3-D games – there’s a lot more functionality they can include to improve the playing experience. Also a lot more opportunities for online political representation - which opens up some interesting possibilities. You could be First Citizen of Rome online, but a bum in real life. Weird eh?

Republican Rome had a pretty interesting system of government - there weren't any political parties as such - each candidate was pretty much out for himself. Inevitably that mean't that the political arena was dominated by the aristocracy – who (much like today) would benefit themselves at the expense of the rest of the populace.

BTW One of the civil wars (when Caesar was growing up) was essentially fought over a political appointment being taken away from one senator and given to another.

Julius Caesar gets blamed with destroying the Republican system of government - but that's not really a fair accusation. Romans were paranoid about dictatorial government, but their constitution was so plutocratic that exceptions were routinely made that bent and broke the established rules – like allowing people to have multiple consulships, to be in office for 15 years rather than 10 etc. That’s kind of how they ended up with the Imperial System – it was really inevitable – Augustus just made a big, long-term exception for himself – hence “dictator for life”.