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Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

persepolis.getty.edu

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Re: Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

#201

Post by rurban »

truly wrote: post #63

Does anyone know what technology is used underneath? It is obviously compiled to webgl, but what are they using for development? Unity? Some other engine?

Just a normal, very old 3D CAD model. See http://www.persepolis3d.com/bbc_english.html

They made 2 documentary films out of it, the first as interviews with the archeaologists, and then this one 2006 as a 12min 3D rendered walkthrough movie. The Getty WEBGL version is just taken from this old model, with better resolution and lightning. They are constantly changing the colors, due to ongoing internal fights/theories.

You really need to compare it to the classical greek architecture (the Artemis temple of Ephesos from the same period), and the very similar older egyptian 1000 column halls, and the babylonian/assyrian palaces.

Re: Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

#204

Post by _fat_santa »

shadowofneptune wrote: post #110
stackbutterflow wrote: post #37

This is really cool. Seeing these beautiful colors I realize how much how I imagine the ancient world is shaped by museum artifacts and photos in textbooks, which show raw and brown/grey/white stones, rusty tools and weapons. I've grown thinking about pre-medieval times as a landscape of ruins. It would be like if future humans were picturing our current world as nothing but bombed cities. It's a really cool project.…

Now imagine for a moment if we painted our modern marble statues and architecture as they did. The ruins mentality is a big part of neoclassicism, to the point where the designer of the Bank of England building made a sketch of how the building would look in a thousand years' time: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Ae...

Speaking of painting sculptures, I wonder why they never try to re-paint Greek and Roman sculptures. I've read some articles that show what the statues would have looked like back in the day and paint makes them look spectacular.

Re: Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

#208

Post by mercer »

vanderZwan wrote: post #58
stackbutterflow wrote: post #37

This is really cool. Seeing these beautiful colors I realize how much how I imagine the ancient world is shaped by museum artifacts and photos in textbooks, which show raw and brown/grey/white stones, rusty tools and weapons. I've grown thinking about pre-medieval times as a landscape of ruins. It would be like if future humans were picturing our current world as nothing but bombed cities. It's a really cool project.…

> I've grown thinking about pre-medieval times as a landscape of ruins. Jimmy Carr joked about that in QI once, how movies and series set in ancient Rome and Greece also tend to do this. [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58rbknKBJvc

They do say that about the Acropolis where the Parthenon is!

Re: Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

#209

Post by 2dvisio »

ar_imani wrote: post #44

I visited Persepolis several times. Saw lots of images and illustrations, but this one is the coolest. Thank you.

It would be such a great addition to their tour. I hear recently they’ve added vr headset but not sure if the quality of reconstruction is similar…

Re: Persepolis of ancient Persia rendered in WebGL

#210

Post by johncla99 »

tarsinge wrote: post #83
choward wrote: post #82

Horrible UI but would be cool otherwise. On an Android and the performance was fine but way too much finger swiping.

On a laptop with trackpad it was enjoyable for me.

I was completely unable to get it to "scroll": iPhone, MacBook running Firefox or Chromium, trackpad, arrow keys, the handle thingy on the right edge of the browser... nix nada nothing.
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