​It's been awfully quiet around here for a few years so I thought I'd share what's been going on.
In 2016 I co-founded Disir Productions www.disirproductions.se/ with a very interesting group of people in the world of archaeology. John Ljungkvist is one of the leading experts in Swedish Iron Age research and is arguably the key person in the efforts to figuring out the riddle of prehistoric Gamla Uppsala. Daniel Löwenborg is a renown GIS-guru and a world-class 3D-scan technician using cameras and drones, and Helena Hulth comes from field archaeology, has extensive business experience, and is our CEO.

We've joined forces for the purpose of visualizing history. One of our first projects was an app for iOS called Augmented History - Gamla Uppsala, developed as a collaboration with another Uppsala startup, Upcraft Productions. The app uses the GPS and gyro of the device to locate and position the user in a virtual version of the place they are in. The result is that the screen becomes a window into the past. Our first prototype was set in Gamla Uppsala and the user could walk around the palace complex and the burial mounds of the Vendel era. 
The project got picked up by Region Uppsala who wanted to visualize five tourism sites around the region - Uppsala cathedral, Öregrund, Vik castle, Skokloster castle, and Lövsta bruk ironworks. The app is Visir Uplandia and the first two sites are launched so far; Uppsala cathedral year 1509 and Öregrund year 1626.
​If you are not on-site the app has a joystick mode which is accessed by going to the map and choosing 'play offsite' on one of the locations.  

It is available for free on iOS and Android.

​Android - https://bit.ly/2JcHWhD
iOS - https://apple.co/2sxJRpY

Parallel to developing these apps we have experimented with VR applications and in April we launched Uppsala VR at Gamla Uppsala museum. It is based on the latest findings from the exciting research projects around the site.
It is a station where you put on an Oculus Rift mask and explore the site outside of the museum virtually as it may have looked 1,400 years ago. The VR station is a permanent exhibit on the top floor of the museum and is one of a kind right now in Sweden, so please go and check it out if you are ever in Uppsala!

So that's a bit about what's been going on over here. I would love to hear any comments or feedback if you've been to the museum or tried the app!

​

Video released by Riksantikvarieämbetet.

It's been too long since the last update so here's a double one. 
First off we go to the southeastern parts of the map. As mentioned in earlier posts the map is a compressed miniature-version of Iron Age Sweden with geographical liberties taken to fit in certain key locations.

Strolling from Uppsala to Ismantorp is probably the most offensive geographical distortion that I will make in the Iron Age project as it is in reality 200+ km from Uppsala. In my defense I think it's worth including very interesting locations in one manageable open-world map because I don't want to juggle several maps and I don't want to omit these awesome ring forts… They're just too good to leave out.

My reasoning is that this distance can be covered by foot (and boat) in a few days and that is well within what I think is reachable territory. In the game world distances feel more expansive which gives me a bit more freedom to compress areas. 

Looking northwest over my version of Iron Age Ismantorp, beyond which you can actually make out the great hall of Uppsala and the mounds in the distance. I based the crenelated design on Eketorp (see below reconstruction) but used a google map top view of the Ismantorp ruins to block out the fort and the buildings within. I am not certain what Ismantorp looked like, but some of the better preserved masonry match Eketorp's and the forts coexisted. Ismantorp is about 50 percent larger than Eketorp. 

The reconstruction of Eketorp was built in the 1970s on top of the ancient ruins, using stones from the ruins as the bottom layers of the wall. It is built according to the second phase (400-650AD) but has some houses reconstructed from the third phase (1170-1240AD) - wooden houses on the right above. More info on Eketorp can be seen in this neat video by BirkaViking -  

Some pyre burning in the sunset. 

I'm calling this Ismantorp, but it is really more of an unnamed fort similar to it. The real Ismantorp had nine gates which would have been a defensive weakness and it may have been a more open marketplace than a fortress. 
These fortified walls surround the quaint peasant town and protect the denizens from raiders. In the late 6th century this town already has at least 300 years of history and is a well-established landmark. There are new houses being built and lingering remnants of old foundations. I currently have only four houses but ideally I'd like most houses to be unique. 

I had a very specific pattern I wanted for the dry stone wall and I found it difficult to get those very fine deep cracks right with displacement maps. Having grout filling in the cavities would require less tessellation but unfortunately they didn't use grout. The wall pieces ended up being pretty tessellated but it does make some nice silhouettes up close and LODs well at a distance. 
I'm impressed with how CryEngine renders an entire fort filled with individual assets as well as the surrounding forests and some 6 km viewing distance beyond at 25-30 fps… And that's on a pretty slow PC. I haven't even done any optimization work yet.

To the east of Uppsala is the Stockholm archipelago, in real-life about 50 km distant - in my map about 2 km. 
Eventually there should be more islands and variation and the flora should be a bit more subdued with trees twisted by the elements.  

Above is a small outpost manning one of the beacons in the signal system that warns about impending attacks from ocean raiders. 

Well, that's it for now. As usual, these images are WIP. Pretty much everything needs polishing and there's a lot more work to get the right feel of these places. Keep a lookout for more updates..

Hope you like and thanks for stopping by!
Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions or comments.

The Iron Age project was featured by Crytek in the Best of CRYENGINE free SDK video for GDC 2014! 
I'm very very honored to be included alongside such amazing artists whose passion projects showcase the power of the engine. I should also say it was pure joy to deal with the friendly folks at Crytek while preparing for this!

Check it out and enjoy some pretty amazing digital worlds!

Step inside and warm your bones by the hearth!
Herea work in progress of the large hall and a longhouse in Iron Age Uppsala. The halls are boastful structures erected for other purposes than mere living spaces. Some halls around Scandinavia during this time are as long as 80 meters. They are carefully planned constructions built to last and many are covered in intricate designs and ornaments. 

Big thanks to Henry Rothwell over at Digital Digging for featuring this little project among legitimate archaeology articles.
If you're interested in archaeology drop by the site for some really interesting reading!

http://digitaldigging.net/digital-iron-age-environment-recreating-uppsala-bit-bit/

Thanks to Litos456 and the staff at crydev.net for another kind feature of the Iron Age project!
There's been an explosion of amazing showcases over there and it's a huge honor to get noticed. 

The article has some updated images and more info so pop over there and check it out :)
 

Finally have a chance to post an update! 

This one is regarding the smaller scale stuff.. So far I've been viewing the world from a large perspective and not really bothering too much with the finer details. The past week I decided to focus on one house and try to get a library of smaller objects started. It is a three-aisle longhouse of about 25x9 meters with walls of clay over a wooden lattice and thatched roof. I imagine it being an older house with many memories and it has probably been repaired for the last time.  

Once it has reached the end of its life, it will be gutted and burned ceremoniously to honor the years it offered warmth and shelter to its inhabitants.

And once again CryEngine proves its awesomeness with auto-culling that keeps the exterior frame rate unaffected by all the stuff inside the house.  

So there it is, the first Iron Age interior which gives me a much better idea of overall direction. I'm stoked to get some finer details in the scene and it's no where near budget limits. So I'll keep filling the interiors with interesting items.

Since I'm aiming for historical accuracy in the environment I am very influenced by archaeological findings from the Iron Age up until around 500 CE and there's definitely still many fascinating items on my to-do list. I've also been fortunate to make valuable connections with Swedish archaeologists who have been very generous and helpful to guide me in the right direction. 

Stay tuned for more updates and let me know if you have any thoughts! 
 

Winter is coming and the nights get darker.. Allowing the chance to spot some aurora!
Be sure to watch this little mood-video in HD!

The aurora is made using a mesh with scrolling textures as a base shape and a particle system with animated textures for a disordered look. It's definitely a work in progress and there is lots more to do..
I'm also continually adding more small objects to my asset library and that's slowly making the scene more interesting.

I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Many thanks to the good people at http://www.crydev.net for featuring my work! 
I feel very honored and it does wonders to the ol' spirit :)

The kind article is among many showing the power of CryEngine. 
Check it out!