IBM and Chinese Palace Museum open Forbidden City virtual 3D tour

Tony Austin
Saturday, 25 October 2008 06:52

Opinion and Analysis

See the introductory video at the bottom of this page.

Visitors to the virtual Forbidden City are able to take tours that correspond to major historical topics and stories from the Forbidden City, such as Dragons of the Forbidden City, the Supreme Golden Halls of the Forbidden City, the Imperial Garden, and the Symbolic Animals in the Forbidden City.

Rather than being an isolating virtual experience, the Virtual Forbidden City allows visitors to see and interact with each other and with a wide range of volunteers, staff, and automated characters.

Dress up as an imperial eunuch, watch the emperor feasting or training fighting crickets, engage in activities such as archery attended by an imperial courtesan, stride around in as an imperial warrior.

To welcome the broadest range of visitors, a simple, easy to use interface guides interactions with the Virtual Forbidden City.

As they explore the Virtual Forbidden City, visitors can choose to simply observe the buzz of activity, participate in activities that provide insights into important aspects of the Qing dynasty, or even take guided tours that uncover new insights into the stories of the Forbidden City.

In addition, the Virtual Forbidden City also provides "an unequalled way for people to plan a visit to the real Palace Museum.

Visitors to the Palace Museum will be much better able to find their way and to understand the significance of places and things they encounter because of their experiences in the Virtual Forbidden City."

Don't miss this chance to visit (virtually) The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time, and see things previously out of bounds to mere mortals.

TECHNOLOGY NOTES:
Beyond Space and Time is comprised of a portfolio of customized, integrated products and services including WebSphere Application Server, Advanced ESB (WebSphere Message Broker) DB2, GarageGames’ orque Game Engine, and other open source components. BladeCenters running Linux Blade servers support the highest level of performance and robustness. IBM Rational software tools facilitated the design, development, and testing of the project applications.

SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS: The Virtual Forbidden City virtual world application runs on Windows XP/Vista, Mac OSX, and Linux.