Research Computing has been working with Professor Nicola Camerlenghi to create a 3D reconstruction of the Basilica of St. Paul in Rome, using the Unity Game Engine. The collaboration was initiated by the Neukom Institute and supported by a CompX grant. On February 20 we held a tech discussion over lunch with interested members of ITC, as part of an on-going series of interesting technical applications that ITC is creating. Professor Camerlenghi, an art historian, described the long history of the site, its destruction by fire and recreation, and the diverse sources of information he has mined for data about its state over time.
Stephen Gaughan, in charge of RC’s part of the project, described the web site and data presentation we are creating to support Prof. Camerlenghi’s scholarship. Doug Hill described how the Unity Game Engine is being used to bring the CAD models and 3D scans alive in real-time walk- and fly-throughs of the Basilica, and presented a demo of the visually arresting reproduction of the state of basilica in 1823, just before the fire.
