XELB12
our investment in time
IDEA
XELB 12 is an ongoing "Playable Virtual Medieval Tour" project started in 2024, created initially as a source of fun and information for the community, upon relocation of Pixbit's Studio to the city of Silves - one of the most iconic references of the Gharb al-Andaluz.
As a contribution to the community and a need for an engaging experience to cast brand awareness and educate about 3D outputs, in one month we recreated the city of Silves in the 12th century when it was ruled by the Moors. The collection of documented archaeological sites was vast in artifacts but limited in descriptive environment visuals.
The idea is to have an interactive tour of the city in the 12th century, populated with various hotspots of reconstructed remains or places that are far gone and only exist in brief descriptions of the past. The visitor will be able to fly over the city or walk on the streets and enter specific places to get immersed onto the culture and fascinating variety of facts that can finally be experienced.
PURPOSE
The support of visuals and interaction to efficiently communicate complex subjects, has been the entire purpose of creation of PIXBIT. Either for strategic ends such as Archviz, or for cultural and educational purposes such as this.
We estimate that everybody wins. Here are the key takeaways:
Local Citizens can obviously have a refreshed view over their heritage. During the course of our prototype presentation, some were really surprised to see their city in such exuberant detail. The point of agreement to all local visitors was never having had the "true feel" of the architecture, location of strategic buildings and overall surroundings. Basically the bits of information all came together. The Medieval Fair has cast light to the relevance of the Moorish culture, but it would still be far from the true aesthetics, architecture and Almohad culture.
The most engaging activity of city inhabitants was to self-locate their home places. The controller was taken on their own hands and once discovered their place, it was time to look for the surrounding buildings and investigate what they were. It took an average of 30 minutes per visitor and some fights over who gets the controller (not just kids...). Mesmerized by their findings, they asked for the continuation of the tour's development and pin pointed what they would look like to see done.
Some even commented that their ancestors used to tell some fascinating tales. Urban Legends are almost lost in the midst of so much culture appropriation, discredit and miscommunication. On our set of demonstration of this Tour, the visitors revived them by sharing, unaware of being responsible to bring them back to life. This has no price.
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept
Schools can study on the project itself. Since the information used to build it is complex, curated and directly extracted from published sources, teachers can use it as a new and engaging media to support the communication of content. We estimate a playtime of 3 hours to completely experience all content, and with the contribute of a teacher guiding the class toward the necessary topics, would make wonders.
Student engagement has been a source of worry in our time, and this is a new approach to the missing link: Interest. The world has thought us to live in a rush, therefore it gets unsustainable to take time to read. A virtual tour cannot make up for any book, but learning what can be assisted by technology and creativity, is already the present. Learn it.
Touristic Agents can use it as a marketing tool to attract tourists, creating a new segment of digital tourism and broadcast to the world how Silves was. The city is almost a museum. Decades of abandonment and natural disasters left it only with the skeleton of a great civilization. Even so, conserved and a source of pride and profit. The castle makes the city's postcard, the streets hide countless secrets that only a trained eye can see, even the people (sometimes unaware) show habits of the enduring legacy of Moorish domain (names, words, cuisine, handicrafts, architecture, jewelry, fashion...) The touristic value is irrefutable, but its sustainability is in question.
Urban Regeneration and Real Estate Integrating heritage into modern real estate can attract both local and international buyers who value history, creating an appealing mix of historical tourism and contemporary living. Virtual tours can help investors demonstrate the fusion of heritage with modern development plans.
Heritage Preservation: although it is not our purpose to replace a visit on site, the tour allows for some conservation of the actual ruins. Some sites are closed to the public for being either too dangerous to the public or to the monument itself, in terms of mass tourism. Others are in phase of discovery, leaving no space for visits to happen. And finally, the pieces that are too big to be exhibited at the museum. All of this can be possible with this Virtual Tour.
Government & Cultural Institutions have a new tool to support the defense of the national patrimonial value of Silves for UNESCO with the Algarvensis Geopark project. This virtual tour can enhance global recognition, attract international interest, and drive sustainable tourism that respects the area’s heritage, fostering national pride, cultural exchange, and international cooperation. The new normal will be to capitalize on emerging technologies such as VR/AR for for cultural preservation. XELB 12 encompasses all, plus: It's playable.
Local Business Owners and Community Investors As an integrated need for the public to relate to the actual city, we include an overlay scenario of nowadays references that the visitor can toggle On/OFF. This gives the chance to "Local Business Placement" that can serve as an extra marketing strategy. Furthermore, the promotion of this Tour can lead to increase touristic foot traffic.
Beta footage of the project + Mood concept
RESEARCH
the castle of Silves - outside view
unearthed ruins of the Palace - Castle's inside view
multifoil arch replica on ruins' site
On site, this are the remains of a great civilization (from various web sources under cc licensing)
With much respect for history and heritage, the development of the project follows a thorough methodology of research and application of every media & technology available to sustain argumentative visuals. Therefore, we resorted to captures using Geographic Information System (GIS) for terrain, actual buildings, streets and water ways; 3D Scans captured by Drone; research based on cultures of the same era that preserved documentation of the century in focus; research on documented geographical modifications of the terrain and environment due to natural disasters/key historical events and finally: research on other documented sites around Silves ( incl. Portimão, Loulé, Aljezur, Seville, Granada and Cordoba) to fill in the gaps.
First steps of 3D modelling based on the published documents and collected data
There is just so much that documents can bring back and there is just enough to make the scientific path for discovery. The collection of documented archaeological sites was vast in artifacts but limited in descriptive visuals. The amount needed for visual representation and "True Feel" is NEVER enough (we are at least 825 years away), and the ones that survived, are subjected to constant re-evaluation due to new discoveries. So how to solve this?
In the absence of clear definition, historical documents or argumentative discoveries:
We use parallel objects of study, not imagination.
Disclaimer: The goal of this tour is to combine knowledge and entertainment, offering an engaging experience for all participants. We strive to present topics in a way that is accessible and enjoyable, avoiding overly complex or "tedious" ways of presenting knowledge. Just like a Game Designer curates play experiences, we aim to keep the tour balanced and fun. While we prioritize accuracy, we reserve the right to focus on well-supported, validated information and avoid unsubstantiated theories or viewpoints. This tour is not specifically aimed at academic audiences, and as such, the selection of topics is designed with the general public in mind. We maintain flexibility in our approach to ensure that the experience remains both informative and engaging.
DEVELOPMENT
idealistic visuals that illustrate the work behind the screen (AI gen)
The prototype development started in July 2024 with one month due date. The main focus was to reconstruct the most extensively covered archaeological sites: the Palace inside the castle and the Castle Walls (A1 of the map bellow). We mapped other areas of interest for future expansions and Hotspots and included an overlay map that can be toggled ON/OFF (A8) for references to the present.
In future development, we will be crafting interesting sites such as the main Mosque, the public baths, a ship wreck, the Medina & Suburbs, the Markets, the Port and the Shipyard. We are gathering also some famous tales like the "Legend of the Moorish Maiden", popular urban myths and beliefs. The whole city is suitable to virtual hypothetical representation.
With the interior of the palace done, we moved to the castle walls and soon became necessary to build the view from the castle, so we collected the GIS data from which was built the rest of the city and surrounding terrain for an epic view.
infographic map of our project - available satellite elevation data of Silves - satellite color capture of Silves
It was so fascinating to navigate in the palace's interior as it was to fly over the city and see all the surroundings of the castle. We decided to make a player experience that could resemble it by adding the necessary User Interface (UI) and Navigation. At this point it was strategically left aside the possibility for mobile development due to limited time and resources, lack of flexibility for future changes and intense need of testing. Portability will be only addressed when the project reaches destination.
mix of collected data throughout the 3D development of the city
When the terrain was finished, it was time to populate it with architecture, vegetation, rock, and detail. We overlaid a bunch of maps with all the past and actual discoveries of sites to get the clear map of where the streets were. We studied the importance and placement of the vegetation in the river banks, together with the evolution of them. Visually the river would have been way larger and steeper and in specific times even branched out in a thin water-body surrounding the city. All due to the advanced knowledge of this people on how to naturally maintain "their main road": the Arade river.
For the aesthetics and fundamentals of their architecture, there are only a few ruins of it. Some from the Palace, others from suburban areas. This leads to very different results as they were for different classes and purposes. We compiled information about other surrounding or connected cities, to get a variety of generic models in the spectrum, that can be repeated along the terrain.
3D examples of some generic Almohad houses of the 12th century
The detailing phase included some extra powers to blend the art with the technology. Compilation and final build proved to be light, good frame-rate, space for improvement in navigation systems and minor challenges that could easily be overcome with intensive testing. The main challenge was to control the high flux of ideas to include in the project. There is just too much beauty in History that it would take up to 3 years to add it all. We think of it as expansion packs.
captures of the prototype close to the presentation date
EXHIBITION
One month of prototype left us no time to prepare any set. Anyway, we made it with care, music and pillows and it worked just fine. The floor was populated by kids that acted as the main agent for calling adults. They couldn't believe they were playing a game of their own city. Although nothing in common, the teens called it the "the GTA of Silves" using a popular name amongst gamers, which was perceived as a compliment.
photos taken on the exhibition
The adults were more passive, sometimes shy for staring for long in confusion or disbelief but once they could understand what sort of thing was going on, they entered and appreciated the walk-through. We believe it was just too unbelievable due to the location vs type of project. It's a city where usually the opened doors are only cafes or handicrafts. And a project like this would display in a monumental wall.
Parents and Teachers immediately understood the interest that could have from teens and kids and looked at it as a way for better transfer compiled information. Some parents only felt compelled to enter just to prove a point to their rebel teens: how important History is.
Roman numeric system apparently is very unpopular nowadays. We took this as an important note so that the century in question would never be misunderstood again, that is the reason to call it XELB12.
There was the need for a guided experience due to the fact that navigation was still lacking on intuitive moves and because there is not enough content yet.
We captured the interest of a very broad age group. We were surprised and were not prepared to the needs of elderly visitors (but improvised), that experienced our tour guided by voice. They appreciated the possibility to revisit and ask questions and make us drive there again for detailed explanations. The peripheral device (controller) could have been more well received if the experience was not exhibited, meaning, if no one was watching. We estimate that if the experience was presented in a personal display such as a Tablet or PC, the engagement would skyrocket. It was also surprising to see a 3 year old dominating the controller as if it was intuitive.
Overall it was a success amongst many nationalities and ages.
The stats of the experiment. (nr of Visitors, nationalities, ages, necessary material)
WHAT'S NEXT?
We listened and the negotiations are ongoing with the town representatives. We also search for investors and partners that can add not just money but also value to it. This phase is not our favorite, due to the fact that we don't know what is "to wait" nor to waist valuable time choosing meting outfits. But we are doing it for the sake of defending the public interest. Until then, the project is getting ready to meet the public again.