As part of the ongoing work with CHAIA (University of Évora), Beta Technologies upgraded their long-term project for the virtual recreation of the city of Lisbon just prior to the 1755 earthquake which utterly destroyed most of the downtown.

As further research reveals more fascinating aspects of a Lost City that we don’t know any more, and with the technological advances of both the Second Live viewer (which now allows realistic shadows) and OpenSimulator (upgraded to 0.6.6 for this stage of the project), several old areas were remodelled, and a whole new section added (the Patriarchal Church and its piazza, of which there are no images or engravings from the period, only textual descriptions and some blueprints). Thanks to the untiring work of the research team at CHAIA, and the thorough expertise of Beta Technologies’ modelling team in the area of virtual archeology, the Baroque Lisbon that was lost can be revived in an immersive environment.

The video footage from inside OpenSimulator is amateurish and poor and just meant as an example; Beta Technologies hopes that adequate funding in the future might lead to the development of a professional documentary.

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