Rendered Images

Below are latest rendered images from 3DS Max of the recreated castle.

"Real And Virtual Pendulums Swing As One In Mixed Reality State."

This article found on the Science Daily website interested me and thought it would be worth while commenting on the content. It is not specifically directed at my project but is an overall view virtual environments and the real world it mimics.

The article briefly gives an example of technology that can mix reality state in a physical system. The University of Illinois created a virtual pendulum that can sense the motion of a real world one and began swinging as one.

"In a mixed reality state there is no clear boundary between the real system and the virtual system. The line blurs between what's real and what isn't."
said U. of I. physicist Alfred Hubler.

Hubler also goes on to say that virtual worlds are becoming more and more accurate depictions of the real world. There could come a point, a phase transition, where the boundary between reality and virtual reality disappears, And that could present problems.

From my experience in 3D computerised technology and the output that it creates I understand that it sometimes it is difficult and nearly impossible to tell if a picture is real or not. I believe this is a benefit to society however, one of these benefits are to learn.For example Flight & driving simulators that are real and 'mimic' the real world can indeed teach people skills and use their interaction as a means of learning how to use a car, boat, plane so forth.

A virtual historical reconstructed environment of Nottingham castle I believe will also benefit society and potentially be used in the Nottingham castle museum due to the model being as accurate as the material gained from it's history. As only a small amount of the medieval castle is present visitors may use this virtual environment as a 'step up' from the existing hand made model that is viewable in the museum.



The article can be found on this websitehttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080310131511.htm

Machupicchu

Machupicchu

An application that was created by Pavel Kornev on Quest 3D is a virtual flythrough of the famous ancient city in Peru. At the first instance the camera flies through the scene so a user can see the whole city from birds eye view. Once the camera has settled down on the ground a user can freely move around the city.

One of my favourite attributes in this application is that the camera is in first person but also capable from lifting off the ground and a user can choose where to go and what to see from above. I feel this sort of camera could be used instead of a first person camera for Nottingham castle. and allow a user to guide themselves around the castle grounds quickly.

Earthworks

Is a travelling exhibit that presents interactive virtual reconstructions of ancient architecture in the world. Exhibit visitors may choose up to 90 interactive video topics, many also reinforced on exhibit panels, a timeline, and a giant map of the region.

"This is an especially exciting project, as it brings together our most ancient heritage with our most advanced technology."--William Ferris, Former Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities, 1998.

The unique way that Earthworks present their information by having a program that consists
of many video scenes, most less than a minute long. At the end of each scene
the user may select another scene to view, another Earthwork location or a different culture location.
The way a user can interact with this project differs from the way I will use real-time technology when reconstruction Nottingham Castle. This project interacts when a user selects a video to watch and they can watch a walk through of a scene (Sometimes 3D generated models) and have actors that move and talk in the scene. A user can then move to a different area, time and/or culture. The experience is set apart from other projects and makes these ancient sites memorable, engaging, visual using spatial navigation and multi-voiced interpretation.

If more time were available for the Nottingham castle reconstruction, then a possible direction the project could go in would be to use actors and involve the use of further interaction by enabling users to walk to a certain points on the castle grounds and revealing information by both visual type and speech.

The website

http://earthworks.uc.edu/index.htm

After a few weeks of modelling, looking at images, modelling and more modelling i have managed to recreate a vast amount of Nottingham Castle. I have also reduced the amount of polygons used from 59 thousand to just under 20 thousand so far, this will be useful later in the real-time stage. The more polygons there are the more information the computer has to process.

Below are a few images of the historically reconstructed 3d model thuus far...

Rome Reborn

"Rome Reborn 1.0," is a true 3D model that runs in real time based at the University of Virginia , shows almost the entire city within the 13-mile-long Aurelian Walls in 320 A.D. Visitors can navigate with complete freedom through key sites such as, the Colosseum and the Temple of Venus and Rome.

The simulation, which is aimed at students, scholars, and people interested in history, can be easily updated to reflect the latest knowledge about the ancient city.

" The digital model thus also consists of two types of materials: (1) highly detailed models of buildings that can be reconstructed on the basis of reliable archaeological evidence (examples: the buildings in the Roman Forum and the Forum of Julius Caesar; the Flavian Amphitheater; the Temple of Venus and Rome; etc.); and (2) buildings and other features that are known only by type and by frequency in the particular regions of the city. It has been estimated that there are approximately 200 buildings of the first type; and there are an estimated 7,000-10,000 in the second category (assuming, as seems reasonable, that in the regionary catalogues, the term insula refers to apartment units, not to entire apartment buildings)." - Taken from the Rome Reborn Website.

This project really interests and has influenced me due to the level of detail that the 3D model posses and the use of real-time technology that enables user to navigate through 'Rome' in 320 A.D.

This Historical computerised reconstruction is so far ten years in the making and is the largest of it's kind to date. I would like to have a similar outcome to my own Nottingham castle reconstruction and allow users to Navigate through the castle grounds as it was in the 15th Century.

Due to my limited time on the project and only myself researching, 3D Modelling and creating the suitable real-time environment my model will clearly not be as highly detailed as 'Rome Reborn' but will have the basic user navigation in a real-time environment and an accurate 3D historical reconstruction of Nottingham Castle.

The Website

http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/

Useful Websites

Useful websites

Whilst reconstructing the castle on 3DS Max, a few websites were found that I found quite useful. The first of these was a site that had castle terminology and also links to British castles that shows images of specific terminology. Using this I was able to name objects in my 3D model accordingly.

http://www.castlewales.com/casterms.htmlAnother was a model castle site where models of keeps, houses & castles. Although this did not help me specifically for Nottingham castle, it was interesting to read the information on other castles and I did use the example of a Norman keep as a visual aid when creating the keep in the Upper Bailey.

http://www.buildmodelcastles.com/html/castles.html