The Mouse that built Edinburgh Castle

14-04-08

Tourists can now tour Edinburgh castle without leaving the comfort of their own home and are able to familiarise themselves with the Castle thanks to the latest internet-based 3D technology.

An accurate photo-realistic model of the Castle and surrounding city has been created by T3D, the interactive 3D modelling and animation company, so staff and visitors alike can 'fly around' the building to familiarise themselves with its layout. The technology used to create the 1.5 kilometre square model enabled T3D to create an accuracy of 10 cm across the whole scene. The final result is a feature rich experience, and the fully interactive tour is not prescribed and gives viewers total freedom to move around the Castle, as they want.

The castle is home to the Scottish Crown Jewels (Honours), the Stone of Destiny, the giant 15th century siege gun, Mons Meg, the Scottish National War Memorial and the famous One O'Clock Gun, which is fired daily at 1.00pm. The castle also contains several military and regimental museums all of which can be located on the interactive model.

"The technology used by T3D has created a stunning, interactive 3D model of Edinburgh Castle for its new official website. Balancing leading technology with engaging user experience was vital and T3D's expertise helped us achieve this. The 3D model is central to the website, enhancing the visitor experience and giving a taster of the kind of 'wow' our visitors can expect from a world class attraction."

Linda Kong | eCommunications Manager, Historic Scotland

Tony Tickle, managing director of T3D, says: "Our 3D tours are created in incredibly small file sizes making them easy to integrate into any website, Edinburgh Castle has been an exciting project to be part of."

Greater Manchester based T3D is the UKﾒs leading 3D modelling and Animation Company specialising in the development of highly interactive web and offline based solutions that allow the full control of models and the natural interaction and movement within virtual environments.

View Edinburgh Castle in 3D