La Basilica Di San Pietro

unlocked.microsoft.com

130 points by geox 15 hours ago


debo_ - 13 hours ago

This brings back memories of Microsoft's acquisition of SeaDragon. At the time they had a really compelling demo (at least for me) of reconstructing 3D locations based on a smatterings of photos.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seadragon_Software

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFSsTwXLqsc

jpgvm - 13 hours ago

Seeing a digital version of it in such detail only further reinforces how important it is to experience it in person.

Few sights of man-made things have instilled as much awe in me as La Basilica Di San Pietro and most of them are also in Rome (namely the Pantheon and Moses @ Basilica di San Pietro in Vincoli).

regularfry - 13 hours ago

This reminds me strongly of Microsoft Photosynth. Can't help wondering what the lineage between the two looks like.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynth

https://medium.com/@dddexperiments/why-i-preserved-photosynt...

sangeeth96 - 12 hours ago

Direct link to the virtual tour: https://virtual.basilicasanpietro.va/en

pluc - 13 hours ago

What does AI have to do with this? They thoroughly scanned the thing, where's the need for AI?

oatsandsugar - 13 hours ago

Absolutely gorgeous imagery, and it seems to have a functional purpose as well, as a digital twin for structural modeling.

Incredible work.

The work in the related stories are equally gorgeous. Thanks for sharing mate.

antimatter15 - 11 hours ago

Looking at the source code with web inspector it seems to be powered by 3D gaussian splatting and BabylonJS (https://doc.babylonjs.com/features/featuresDeepDive/mesh/gau...).

Zelizz - 6 hours ago

It would be nice if they'd let you see the whole thing at once.

gretch - 7 hours ago

Any way to experience this on a VR headset? I have a Valve index

treve - 12 hours ago

Chrome-based browsers only I presume :')

mistercheph - 10 hours ago

It's not preserved until the data and source code are open, I'm sure these corporate exercises are impressive to potential clients, but they have absolutely nothing to do with preserving, studying, or expanding access to art and culture.

znpy - 13 hours ago

dumb question: could we, in the future, use some kind of gen ai to generate a videogame map (i'm thinking quake 3 arena / openarena) of buildings like these ?

(not just the basilica di san pietro)

elif - 11 hours ago

Okay can we please play quake in this map now?

einpoklum - 13 hours ago

So this is one of the vanity project Microsoft undertakes using the vast amounts of money it makes off of proprietary software?