Redhill: Visual Impact on an Archaeological Landscape

I've been working on a visualisation to attempt to illustrate the visual impact of a proposed development on an archaeological landscape.  Such work is usually the preserve of landscape architects working with high-end CAD and landscape design software (see for example Griffon, et al in press).  In this example I've attempted to use CryEngine as a low-cost visualisation tool to present a ground-level view of the landscape in order to assess likely visual impact.

We're looking at the hinterland of the Roman cult site at Ratcliffe on Soar, Nottinghamshire.  This is an archaeologically important landscape (protected as a Scheduled Ancient Monument) which is poorly understood and substantially affected by previous developments including railway, power station and major roads.  The issue is the extent to which proposed future development will intrude on what remains of the unspoilt landscape setting of the Roman site.

Initial work was carried out in ArcGIS, building a terrain model and a series of land use masks derived from Ordnance Survey mapping.

GIS derived terrain model and land use mask for use in CryEngine

The terrain and masks were then used in CryEngine to build a basic landscape with correctly located river, woodland, fields and building placemarkers.  First results are below.  The overall visualisation now needs considerable work to add existing buildings, the development and landscape detail in key areas.  Results will be tested against ground level photographs for general reliability.

A selection of images from the initial CryEngine visualisation showing
the rivers Trent and Soar, woodland and building placemarkers.

I'm not convinced that CryEngine (or my modelling skills) are up to the task, particularly with the approximations in vertical scaling inherent in CryEngine, but it's an interesting project, and worth a try.

Griffon, S. et al in press. Virtual reality for cultural landscape visualization. Virtual Reality.