Urban design response 2 (pixel art post)
Being an avid gamer myself, I was immediately drawn to this post discussing the relationship between architecture and pixel art. It is very much the case that pixel art is one of the several forms of art that exhibit instances of aesthetic and functionality, in the sense that the subject’s form can also serve a greater purpose, namely, as you had suggested, the ability to understand historical architecture better.
One aspect of pixel art that you have discussed is this idea of restoration, which is no doubt key to the preservation of historic buildings, for they hold intrinsic value and can provide a tangible link between past and present. On the topic of the Orszaghaz project that you brought up, I admire your vision of being able to provide a model of a building that anyone can access at any time, a rather detailed minecraft model at that! A unique precedent on the relationship between videogames and architecture that sprung to mind when I read this post is Assassin’s Creed Unity, the eight major instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
As the game is set in 1789 Paris, the game developers had undoubtedly considered key landmarks within Paris’ built environment, one that I’d like to discuss is Notre Dame and more specifically, its spire. Burning in early 2019, the city of Paris has introduced plans to rebuild it and even reopen by 2024 to coincide with the 2024 Paris Olympics. During that time, Ubisoft, the game developers, expressed their desire to provide their expertise and around €500,000 in financial aid, in the rebuilding of the spire (BBC News, 2019).
Though the digital version of the in-game building was modelled over a period of 14 months, there are differences in scale and design as the spire is tailored towards the game’s assassin-oriented mechanics and as such, there are additional ledges, beams and cables to climb onto (Gilbert, n.d.). The initial idea of recreating the historical monument through the lens of a videogame sounds fantasy-like, however, the truth is the game was developed between 2010 – 2014 and Ubisoft at the time, did not possess 3D mapping technology to recreate (in-game) monuments.
The game in fact relied on photos and videos of modern-day Notre Dame to create the in-game monument, thus, is not 100% accurate. This is not to say that it cannot ever be executed however, Notre Dame receives around 12m visitors annually and is one of the most photographed monuments in the world. Photography, especially high-resolution and drone images are crucial in the recreation of artficially intelligent algorithms to create accurate maps and 3D models using photogrammetry (Rea, 2019).
Though it seems like a disappointment that the game wasn’t able to provide architectural assistance, the sole fact that it was brought up shows that there is potential. I believe with current technologies to document historical monuments, we can create more accurate representations and help out in the rebuilding and digital recreation for walkthrough purposes as you propose, of historical monuments.
References
BBC News (2019). Notre-Dame fire: Assassin’s Creed’s maker pledges aid. [online] 17 Apr. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47963835.
Gilbert, B. (n.d.). As France rebuilds Notre-Dame Cathedral, the French studio behind ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is offering up its ‘over 5,000 hours’ of research on the 800-year-old monument. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/notre-dame-fire-assassins-creed-maxime-durand-ubisoft-interview-2019-4?r=US&IR=T.
Rea, N. (2019). Can ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Help Rebuild Notre Dame? How Restoring the Cathedral Will Require Both New and Ancient Technology. [online] Available at: https://news.artnet.com/market/how-technologies-old-and-new-will-be-needed-to-rebuild-notre-dame-1520689.
Urban design response 2 (pixel art post)
Being an avid gamer myself, I was immediately drawn to this post discussing the relationship between architecture and pixel art. It is very much the case that pixel art is one of the several forms of art that exhibit instances of aesthetic and functionality, in the sense that the subject’s form can also serve a greater purpose, namely, as you had suggested, the ability to understand historical architecture better.
One aspect of pixel art that you have discussed is this idea of restoration, which is no doubt key to the preservation of historic buildings, for they hold intrinsic value and can provide a tangible link between past and present. On the topic of the Orszaghaz project that you brought up, I admire your vision of being able to provide a model of a building that anyone can access at any time, a rather detailed minecraft model at that! A unique precedent on the relationship between videogames and architecture that sprung to mind when I read this post is Assassin’s Creed Unity, the eight major instalment in the Assassin’s Creed franchise.
As the game is set in 1789 Paris, the game developers had undoubtedly considered key landmarks within Paris’ built environment, one that I’d like to discuss is Notre Dame and more specifically, its spire. Burning in early 2019, the city of Paris has introduced plans to rebuild it and even reopen by 2024 to coincide with the 2024 Paris Olympics. During that time, Ubisoft, the game developers, expressed their desire to provide their expertise and around €500,000 in financial aid, in the rebuilding of the spire (BBC News, 2019).
Though the digital version of the in-game building was modelled over a period of 14 months, there are differences in scale and design as the spire is tailored towards the game’s assassin-oriented mechanics and as such, there are additional ledges, beams and cables to climb onto (Gilbert, n.d.). The initial idea of recreating the historical monument through the lens of a videogame sounds fantasy-like, however, the truth is the game was developed between 2010 – 2014 and Ubisoft at the time, did not possess 3D mapping technology to recreate (in-game) monuments.
The game in fact relied on photos and videos of modern-day Notre Dame to create the in-game monument, thus, is not 100% accurate. This is not to say that it cannot ever be executed however, Notre Dame receives around 12m visitors annually and is one of the most photographed monuments in the world. Photography, especially high-resolution and drone images are crucial in the recreation of artficially intelligent algorithms to create accurate maps and 3D models using photogrammetry (Rea, 2019).
Though it seems like a disappointment that the game wasn’t able to provide architectural assistance, the sole fact that it was brought up shows that there is potential. I believe with current technologies to document historical monuments, we can create more accurate representations and help out in the rebuilding and digital recreation for walkthrough purposes as you propose, of historical monuments.
References
BBC News (2019). Notre-Dame fire: Assassin’s Creed’s maker pledges aid. [online] 17 Apr. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47963835.
Gilbert, B. (n.d.). As France rebuilds Notre-Dame Cathedral, the French studio behind ‘Assassin’s Creed’ is offering up its ‘over 5,000 hours’ of research on the 800-year-old monument. [online] Business Insider. Available at: https://www.businessinsider.com/notre-dame-fire-assassins-creed-maxime-durand-ubisoft-interview-2019-4?r=US&IR=T.
Rea, N. (2019). Can ‘Assassin’s Creed’ Help Rebuild Notre Dame? How Restoring the Cathedral Will Require Both New and Ancient Technology. [online] Available at: https://news.artnet.com/market/how-technologies-old-and-new-will-be-needed-to-rebuild-notre-dame-1520689.