Walking in ancient Rome

Perhaps, from the very beginning of humanity, there is an opinion that in the past the world was much more perfect, more logical, simpler, more honest and noble than it is now. The roads were straighter, the rulers were wiser, the girls were more beautiful, and the sugar was sweeter. This opinion was especially strongly entrenched in the collective subconscious of Western nations, among which, at some point in history, the conviction arose that with Ancient Rome, which once gave their ancestors the foundations of all modern civilization, these same ancestors got a little excited. Yes, the slogan "to the ground to destroy, and then ..." has its charm. But the burning of the most developed city on Earth, which had a unique infrastructure and internal organization, which couldn’t create a worthy resemblance for many centuries later - this step was unequivocally assessed as doubtful.

Therefore, obviously, the idea that arose about 10 years ago to recreate the image of Ancient Rome in a three-dimensional virtual model received such support in society. The project was taken over by the Virginia Institute of Advanced Technologies in the Humanities ( IATH ) and the University of California at Los Angeles ( UCLA ), with financial support from a number of international funds, high-tech companies and private investors, mainly from America ** and Italy. And so, on Monday, the work was completed, and now everyone can wander through the streets, the density of history on which is literally going off scale.

Rome Reborn 1.0, which spent a total of $ 2 million, shows Rome from the early Bronze Age settlements to its heyday under the rule of Emperor Hadrian in the 2nd century AD. AD, when the population of the city reached the number of 1 million people, and soon followed this fall of the Empire and the destruction of the city in the Gothic wars of the 6th century. AD About 7,000 buildings and structures are presented in the form of detailed models, allowing to consider their internal structure and the various mechanisms used in them. For example, in press presentations, the authors love to show how the Colosseum worked, all of whose service rooms were located on underground levels connected to the surface by elevators.

The project site contains video clips and static pictures of the views of Rome 320 AD. Everything else can be seen when Rome Reborn finally mastered in a specially equipped building next to the Coliseum, which will become part of the exposition of the Museum of Roman Civilization. As planned by the organizers, handhelds with built-in GPS positioning will be in great demand among tourists, which will show how thousands of years ago the place where the person is at the moment looked like.
')
Of course, the specification of models and textures, especially inside buildings, today lags behind the capabilities offered by modern computer technology, because even such a simplified model requires large computational powers and an impressive amount of disk space to function. However, later recreated Rome will be overgrown with new and new details and beauty, becoming more and more like reality. This is possible thanks to a convenient control system, which the authors of the project are so proud of.

A huge international team of archeologists, historians, architects and designers participated in the creation of models. A lot of student work in universities in the US, Italy, Britain, Germany and other countries was one way or another devoted to Rome Reborn. In the process of work, the latest technologies of precise laser scanning of real objects and structures were used, and thousands of documents were digitized, which preserved the appearance of the lost buildings forever. Structures, the appearance of which could not be restored according to the documents, were recreated with the help of a meticulous study of the methods and construction techniques available and common at that time. As the head of the project, Bernard Frischer, acknowledges, without the disinterested help of such a large number of people, the project could have been dragged out much longer.

The physical model of this virtual world allows you to visually show the various properties of structures. Such, for example, as acoustics in rooms and on the areas, their capacity and efficiency of ventilation.

The already mentioned Rome Reborn 1.0 control system will make it possible in the near future to start creating the same models of other cities, since there is no shortage of those who want to become, in a sense, a “second Rome”.

* The sponsors include: Tecnark Italia, Alitalia, Intel, Microsoft, Multigen-Paradigm, nVidia, Shuttle Computers, Kirk Matthews and Creative Kids Educational Foundation, Mellon Foundation, National Science Foundation, the Rose family from New York, as well as an anonymous private sponsor .

** If you wish, the fact that the main role in this project was played by companies from the United States (a country that many sharp political scientists, historians and other amateurs talk to talk about is often called the “Last World Empire”) you can add a bunch of meaningful hints of retreats , but I still keep from it.