Immerse yourself digitally in the ancient empire of Persia

Dutch digital production company Media.Monks created Persepolis Reimagined - a complementary immersive experience - for Getty Villa Museum in Los Angeles. In order to open up the physical exhibition about the history of the ancient Persian Empire to a wider global audience. To tell and educate about the often overlooked influence of ancient Iran.

Media.Monks created an interactive web experience that allows people to visit a 3D re-creation of the capital of Persia, Persepolis - at the height of its splendour. Complementing the physical experience at the museum, but also working on its own. The project took nine months to create from start to finish.

Collaboration for accurate re-creation

In order to offer historically and culturally accurate information to educate users, Media.Monks collaborated closely with a team of experts from the Getty Museum. A fine collaboration between archeologists, historians, art experts, curators, creatives and technologists.

From 3D re-creation of the architecture, colours, reliefs and materials to vegetation, landscape and sound elements. They even consulted a professor in ancient Persian music to create the music featured on the website. Giving an impression as close as possible of the real Persepolis in its glory days.

Using cutting edge digital technologies

Crucial to an immersive experience is creating seamless transitions from start to end. From the preloader to the title sequence and into the WebGL* initialisation, the Persepolis Reimagined experience is packed with tricks to make this happen.

For example, when the preloader is finished, you scroll down, revealing the rest of the city as you move towards the Gate of All Nations - the entrance to Persepolis. A seamless transition between rendered video and WebGL. Avoiding an abrupt cut whilst marrying two different techniques.

A historically accurate recreation of this scale requires the use of cutting-edge technologies and clever optimisations in order to deliver optimal performance on any device. A serious amount of prototyping led to this amazing 3D re-creation.

*WebGL is used for rendering interactive 2D and 3D graphics within any compatible web browser.

Feedback

The response is incredibly positive as people appreciate being able to re-visit history reconstructed in such an accurate and interactive, innovative way. Bringing history to life - for everyone, all over the world.

Persepolis Reimagined has been visited by a large number of unique visitors, including many visitors from Iran. They are proud to be able to share their ancient history. A part of their history that isn't often shared with the world.

A fantastic example of how 3D craft can re-create worlds that we can no longer visit in real life. Bringing history to life.