Relive Rome™: Walk in the footsteps of Marcus Vitruvius.

[Ken Rigby (MellaniuM, Tele3dworld)]

Until now, you could visit Rome and “do as the Romans do”, with Relive Rome™ you will also be able to “do what the Romans did and experience in a virtual environment what Romans experienced in 200AD”.

What was it really like to live in the ancient Rome; Caput Mundi was the center of the world, with its mad emperors, brutal entertainment and its seductive lifestyles?

Through Relive Rome™, it is expected that 10 million people a year worldwide will experience the city’s past, tele-immersed in the experience of a 3D first person perspective environment containing monumental sights and sounds of the time, where they will take part in history and historical events with other people as it unfolds from the comfort of their homes anywhere the world with a broadband connection.

Relive Rome™ places the visitors inside ancient Rome, as if they are actors on the stage of history.

This is being achieved using the latest 3D technologies and digital animation from the gaming and film industries. The setting for this experience will be based on the “Rome Reborn” reconstruction of the entire ancient city. 10s of 1000s of characters (some with AI capabilities), digitally created, will populate the city - its streets, housing, the Forum, Pompey Theatre, Senate House and Coliseum, breathing life into the experience. In order to provide visitors to Relive Rome™ with an experience as close to life as it was almost 2,000 years ago, the principal characters with which they will interact have been reconstructed using skeletal remains found at various archaeological sites throughout Italy. Although entertaining, the content of Relive Rome™ respects the same high level of historical accuracy used in the “Rome Reborn” reconstruction.

Relive Rome™ is a response to a problem common to cultural sites around the world. That is, while walking around such sites it is very difficult for the visitor to visualize and interpret their surroundings, which frequently appear to them to be just a pile of ancient stones. Relive Rome™ gives the user the visual context, sense of community, and tele-immersive experience that assists them to better understand the magnificent archaeological sites of the Coliseum, Theater of Pompey, Roman and Imperial Forums and other sites, as they explore around the city of Rome.

The Relive Rome™ concept fully embraces the Edutainment approach to communication, that is, “educational entertainment”. The user learns about history and culture in a highly entertaining manner, stimulating their interest through emotional involvement in a tele-immersive experience where they can find themselves as leading actors. Relive Rome™ is a strong step in the direction of providing more exciting and attractive forms of conveying global identity to both visitors and the public in general.

Relive Rome™, is an interactive and tele-immersive edutainment software package for PC, MAC, and Linux and will be readily available from good stores from autumn 2009. The package contains the 3D engine software and maps to enter the Relive Rome™ Virtual Real World; additional maps, and other "Relive" in the 'InterVerzaL' brand products of historical interest will be made available in the form of downloads from the web-site.

It is not a coincidence that the Relive Rome™ concept was developed about Rome. This city, with its immense wealth of cultural heritage, inspired the creators of the project to develop a new concept for communicating and learning about history and culture - an opportunity to experience history first hand rather than learn passively using 2D texts and images.

Relive Rome™ will be the first in a series of MMO Virtual Real World interactive edutainment packages to be developed in cities worldwide, on other cultural and historical themes.

Relive Rome™ and the concept is owned and managed by MellaniuM Ltd.

Relive Rome™ will available in the autumn of 2009

For further information please contact: skype: id joe133952

See http://mellanium.com

Copyright©Ken Rigby for Tele3DWorld and MellaniuM 2008