Ideas of Landscape

One of the key ideas behind using computer games to visualise archaeological landscapes is that they take us away from the god-like view from above that typical computer-based visualisation provides.  In Ideas of Landscape, Matthew Johnson reflects on the dichotomy between the romantic, Wordsworthian view of landscape, rooted amongst other things in the view from above, and Hoskins' assertion that "the real work [in the study of landscape] is accomplished by the men and women with muddy boots..."

Computer visualisation, particularly of remotely collected landscape data (for example the airborne lidar used here) has almost inevitably forced us to explore only one path; landscapes become data objects, interpreted as a whole and understood as abstract entities, devoid of sense and experience.

The first person view of game-based visualisation places us back in the realm of "muddy boots" landscape is explored and experienced, like Hoskins we "explore England on foot".  Does that improve our understanding of landscape?  At one level probably not, arguably morphology of landscape is best appreciated from above, but landscape is more than form and function, and the relationship between elements of landscape is better appreciated from the ground.  Examine if you will the earthworks of West Burton deserted village, in Nottinghamshire.  

The lidar-based terrain model perfectly delineates the banks, ditches, hollow-ways and house platforms of this former river-side village.  But does it provide any sense of what it is like to be amongst that landscape, its scale, the interplay of shadows and light both revealing and exposing its intricacies.  Perhaps using the first-person view of a game some of the complexity of discovery and understanding are recaptured?  Does it help us to experience our technically precise survey data is this way?  On one level I think that it does, at least by forcing us to consider those aspects of understanding achievable only from the ground - a sense of place and time.  Of course these digital visions are just that "visions" elaborate fictions with a kernel of truth, this is a five dimensional space, location, time and imagination (x,y,z,t,i) the extent to which we manipulate imagination to control meaning in these hyper-real spaces is central to their power, but that's another topic...

Hoskins, W.G. 1955. The Making of the English Landscape. London, Hodder & Stoughton.

Johnson, M. 2007. Ideas of Landscape. Malden, Blackwell Publishing.

Landscapes and Light

Archaeologists often rely on lighting effects, particularly low winter sunlight, to reveal subtle aspects of landscape. The animated sequence below uses CryEngine2 to visualise lighting from dawn to dusk on a winter day from an elevated view of the earthworks of West Burton DMV.



The West Burton terrain model is based on 1m resolution airborne lidar, filtered to remove vegetation and buildings. While this is hardly a ground-breaking use of computer game software for visualisation, it does highlight the potential for game engines to tangentially address some more traditional archaeological concerns.

West Burton Deserted Village

Continuing with the aim of using game software for rapid visualisation, here is a very basic rendering of some airborne lidar survey of the deserted medieval village at West Burton, Nottinghamshire.

The original lidar data, a 1m resolution elevation grid, was modelled in ESRI's ArcGIS, filtered to remove buildings and vegetation, and exported as a greyscale heightmap.

The final rendered terrain model in CryEngine has preserved to a remarkable extent the detail in the original lidar data.  Once again, avatar-based exploration gives a new perspective, even to simple landscape models.