The Museum of Archeology of Catalonia virtually recovers the Iberian city of Ullastret in 3D

Produced by the Catalan Cultural Heritage Agency and the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia-Ullastret, The recreation project of this Iberian city has an immersive projection room in which visitors can tour this important archaeological complex in the Western Mediterranean in 3D..

Since the end of last July, the Ullastret headquarters of the Museum of Archeology of Catalonia (Museum of Archeology of Catalonia – MAC), offers its visitors an immersive cultural experience to learn in detail about the Iberian city of Ullastret, one of the most outstanding Iron Age archaeological sites on the Peninsula, thanks to an ambitious 3D virtual reconstruction project.

To carry out the virtual reconstruction of the Iberian city, a specific period has been chosen, he 250 aC, which is the period for which we have the most data and the one that allowed for a more faithful reconstruction by a multidisciplinary team., who has scientifically advised the study in charge of virtual modeling, produced by the Catalan Cultural Heritage Agency and the MAC.

For the 3D recreation of this Iberian city from more than 2000 years, Those responsible have used the video game creation engine Unreal Engine 4, developed by Epic Games and freely available for use also in education, architecture, virtual reality visualization, cinema and animation, that offers high graphic quality in the creation of realistic landscape environments.

Visitors can view this virtual tour, about six minutes long and available in Spanish, Catalan, French, english and german, in the immersive room created for this purpose and simulating the size of a home in this Iberian city, equipped with three screens to offer a playback surface 13 square meters and equipped with Full HD projectors and surround sound, with original ambient sound recordings of the natural environment and the site.

Precisely one of the peculiarities of this project has been the use of the powerful Unreal Engine 4 compared to other common computer tools used in architecture or archeology, which also allows the creation of immersive experiences, for example with the Oculus Rift virtual reality glasses, Samsung Gear o HTC Vive, be very easy, as its creators claim.

“There is already a first experience available for the HTC Vive glasses that is currently being shown at specialized conferences in the sector - they point out on the MAC website -. Other applications will be developed later, both visits to the site and pedagogical resources for schools, always starting from the possibility that this model offers of walking through the streets, enter the houses and discover the stories of the Iberian city in a direct and personal way”.

Scientific rigor in 3D modeling

For video development, The 3D modeling team has worked closely with the MAC-Ullastret team of archaeologists to translate all the information collected into a detailed volumetric reconstruction. Street by street, the houses were built and fitted into the relay; All of them start from similar construction schemes, but each one has been adapted to its place and to the information available.

The Ullastret 3D project is marked by scientific rigor in the archaeological part and by maximum realism in the visual presentation. Photographs of real materials have been used (land, walls, piedras, walls, etc.) and ambient lighting on the outside to recreate a totally realistic texture, in which the fog, shadows or clouds give realism to the image.

Both the streets and the interiors have been enriched with objects from the archaeological collection exhibited in the monographic museum of the site., like amphorae, shields or swords. Other objects such as cars or boats have been modeled after known examples..

[youtube]https://youtu.be/b6AtV1JXEIc[/youtube]