Ioulia Popenko
Philadelphia 2000
American Institute of Architects is developing a virtual
reality model of city of Philadelphia, which is supposed to be completed
by the year 2000. This extensive, fully detailed virtual model of Philadelphia
- including not only the streets and the buildings, but also underlying
infrastructure, such as utilities, transportation, phone and cable lines
will be a present to the city from the AIA Philadelphia 2000 conference.
An early version of this model has been introduced in June 1997 at the
A/E/C Systems show in Philadelphia. Architects, engineers, and city planners
are eager to get their hands on this project, because they will be able
to use it to design new structures and manage renovations in the context
of the facilitiesí actual surroundings. The cityís travel industry will
also boom, because this model will enable tourists to see whatís available
to them and plan their excursions. A VRML version of this model is
planned for the Internet, which would serve as a tour guide for the tourist
and also offer great advertisement capabilities.
Initial plans for the model were not this grand.
The idea for the project belongs to the designers at Bentley Systems
(Exton, PA), they wanted to demonstrate the modeling and rendering
capabilities of the companyís CAD products. The plan was to create
a walk through of the city to show at the A/E/C Systems conference. It
was supposed to consist of texture-mapped models of the exteriors
of buildings. Thus, the company began photographing some key downtown
buildings and using the photos as textures and templates for MicroStation
models of the structures. At some point in the process, however,î we realized
that it could be much bigger than just a visualization model,î says Charlie
Ferrucci, Bentleyís director of marketing communications. As
a result the group consulted Mike Rosen and Associates (MRA), a Philadelphia
Architectural company known for its involvement in virtual reality projects.
MRA recommended a plan for developing a
very detailed, integrated model - ìone that could be left to the city in
a shape and form that would be extremely useful to a lot of separate entities,î
says Rosen. The model will also have tremendous marketing potential
for the many businesses and organizations whose property would be included.
To finish the project by the planned date, the
company has already started to go through the city building by building,
and model each structure from top to bottom. ìThe plan is to create a business
around this, where we charge people to model their buildings and
integrate them into the modelî, says Rosen. Bentley has already added more
details to the buildingsí exteriors by integrating ìstreet furnitureî,
such as trash cans, lightening signs, and low level texture along the sidewalks
and benches . In addition to using Bentleyís MicroStation and MasterPiece
software, the company will use a range of tools to enhance the images as
well as the Real 3D Pro 1000 (Real 3D; Orlando, FL) to drive the model.
There are a lot of technical challenges the company
has to deal with - one of them is the size of the database. In order to
have every restaurant, hotel and museum in the model, the company need
a monster filing system to keep track of everything. Representing
the details of various structures also offers some puzzles to solve.
Getting the necessary resolution for far-away views of the building
is easy, but in order to be meaningful when you are close up, you
have to take incredible high resolution images. If you are far away to
get the whole building in the shot, you cannot get a close-up detail;
to get close up detail, you canít be very far away.
There are also some creative obstacles. For example
how do you get to the airport from the center city. Everything between
the downtown and airport will not be modeled.
I did not get a chance to view even the preview
of the model. I just could not find it on the Web, so I am
in no position to comment on the details of the project.
If the model would be completed according to the
plans stated I believe it would be a good example of the virtual reality
project that serves many purposes at one time, entertainment, architectural
design, etc.
Bibliography.
1. Computer Graphics World, June 1997, p 30 - 32.