Our work is focused on turning landscape-scale surveys comprising many thousands of three-dimensional elevation points into rapidly developed game-based visualisations. To visualise archaeological surveys the key is to find game software that is capable of quickly generating large landscapes based on real data. We have settled on Crytek’s CryEngine as our usual tool.
After experimentation we have developed a work-flow that copes equally well with fairly small landscapes (of a hectare or so, usually derived from GPS topographical survey) and much larger landscapes (tens of hectares) based on terrestrial laser scanning and airborne lidar. The in-game landscape models can be dressed with vegetation and trees (accurately located based on survey results) and structures (modelled separately in open-source software) and populated with artificial intelligence - birds that fly away when you approach them. Stick around long enough and the sun will set (and eventually rise again) it may rain, or become foggy, a gale may blow, listen and you will hear the wind in the trees and the birds singing, you are exploring a real archaeological landscape after all.
After experimentation we have developed a work-flow that copes equally well with fairly small landscapes (of a hectare or so, usually derived from GPS topographical survey) and much larger landscapes (tens of hectares) based on terrestrial laser scanning and airborne lidar. The in-game landscape models can be dressed with vegetation and trees (accurately located based on survey results) and structures (modelled separately in open-source software) and populated with artificial intelligence - birds that fly away when you approach them. Stick around long enough and the sun will set (and eventually rise again) it may rain, or become foggy, a gale may blow, listen and you will hear the wind in the trees and the birds singing, you are exploring a real archaeological landscape after all.
