The Roman Villa of S. Cucufate, located near Vila de Frades, in the Alentejo, is one of the most important remains of Roman presence in Portugal. It's an architectural impressive structure of great historical interest, and it was also a very important center of agricultural activity between the middle of the first century and the final of IVth century AD.
The S. Cucufate's Project has as main objective, to develop a digital artifact of this architectural complex, combining the traditional aspects of digital reconstitution with the use of virtual worlds, allowing the analysis of several chronological horizons, that often overlap in a particular archaeological context, using the interactivity dinamic resources, available through avatars and digital worlds.
For now, I am developing modeling tests of the various structures and objects, using Sketchup and Blender. The final models created, will be subsequently exported for integration in Vivaty.
looks amazing, and very promising. I look forward to see more.
First tests, about how to put all parts together...
The necessity to produce models, as light as possible, to make them workable in 3D Worlds, caused the modeling process in Sketchup, a bit slower than initially expected.
By other side, while working, in a reconstitution scenery, the process of building's simplification should be very cautious; an inappropriate simplification can destroy all the monument integrity and jeopardize the final result.
However, the first of buildings (the roman temple) is almost done. It still needs some texture work, but nevertheless, it was possible to complete the first tests of import from Sketchup to Vivaty, and also start conceiving the first interactive items of the scene.
The first of a long serie of walks through this scenery, was done today. Here are some images of that moment.
Soon, I will leave here a bit more about this project...
Hello Pedro,
It looks amazing! I appreciate your building habilities...
Keep going!
Fernando Pinho
Hi Fernando,
Thanks for yor comment! About building abilities, believe me, it's more a matter of perspiration and patience...
BR
Sketchup is can be tricky for creating vrml models. what looks great in the program translates for non-existent faces in vrml, textures are a small nightmare, and it generats a lot of ifs faces to process in vivaty. still, it's imho one of the best solutions available. those screenshots look amazing! are you modeling interiors as well?
Hi Artur,
First of all, let me thank you, your interest and comments.
I agree with you about the problems about Sketchup exportation, to vrml files... It's surely not a peaceful issue, and there's always something loss in translation.
Nevertheless, it is true that Sketchup, is a fantastic tool for modelling (I'm using it, professionally, in a daily basis, for the last 3 years, producing technical schemes and documents for some projects - (http://sketchupdate.blogspot.pt/2011/09/sketchup-case-study-andre-silva.html) - and I'm finding it, very suitable and handy to develop 3D models for situations, like the S. Cucufate's project. In fact, I can´t imagine, how hard it would be, model all this buildings using the modelling "limited" resources, provided by Vivaty...
About your question, it's my intention to give access to some spaces inside the main villa and to produce an itinerary for the visit. However, as you understand, these are complex models (for me anyway), and I'm going to try to manage all the project with LOD's and Switches. Besides that, time is always an precious resource, and I've a short schedule to end all the work...
BR
pretty awesome work! i must admit i'm very curious to see the babel implementation.
sketchup is a great tool. i use it extensively with children wich have no previous 3d experience and it's amazing how quickly they take up the tool and start to make stuff with it.
Nice work Pedro . I'm also developing a world with many buildings, and always afraid to enter details and impair performance. I'm modeling in 3ds max and no problems when exporting to Vivaty.
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5939242/cucufate_animateste01.flv