NVIDIA has announced that Ars Europa—an association committed to promoting art, history, and European traditions through advanced technologies—will use its latest-generation GeForce GTX graphics cards for the Hercules Project.

This initiative involves the three-dimensional reconstruction of Italian archaeological environments in Virtual Reality, allowing visitors to explore them as they were originally designed and built. Thanks to the power of NVIDIA GeForce GTX cards and the most advanced VR headsets, viewers can enjoy a fully immersive journey into the past.

The Hercules Project will begin with Ambrogio Immortale, presented in Milan in December 2017, on the 1620th anniversary of the death of Saint Ambrose—a bishop who worked tirelessly for the beauty of Milan and the well-being of its people, becoming the city’s patron saint.

In Virtual Reality, visitors will be able to explore areas of Imperial Roman Milan and buildings from the era of Saint Ambrose that no longer exist. Other ancient masterpieces will follow. The experience is presented as an interactive video in mixed technique, where a narrator describes the monument and the historical context. Meanwhile, viewers can look around in 360 degrees, hearing the voices of ancient laborers and watching them as they build one of the early Ambrosian basilicas—stone by stone.

Users can interact with the video, walk through the construction site and surrounding streets, visit the buildings, move objects, and experience every moment firsthand in a thrilling journey through time.

The project is modular and designed for different levels of accessibility: the video can be viewed from a computer using a mouse, from a smartphone with an affordable headset, or—ideally—through high-end VR equipment for a completely immersive experience that makes you forget the 21st century and become a virtual citizen of Milan 1,600 years ago.

According to Fausto Crepaldi, Digital Media Director and Director of the interactive video:

“At last, the viewer becomes the protagonist of the story—choosing what to see and how to interact. To relive the past in first person is without doubt a fascinating achievement.”

Cinzia Ligas, Project Lead for Hercules at Ars Europa, stated:

“Ars Europa already uses NVIDIA technologies to develop VR projects for Industry 4.0. Now, we aim to offer the broader public an immersive experience of historical and artistic beauty.”

Zvi Greenstein, NVIDIA General Manager & Head of Business Development for Virtual Reality, added:

“A truly immersive VR experience requires enormous computing power. In fact, the latest headsets demand three times the power needed for high-resolution video playback. GeForce GTX, with GeForce Experience and GameWorks VR, is the ultimate platform for VR. It maintains a steady 90 FPS video stream for headsets, eliminating input lag and motion blur that can ruin the VR experience, strain the eyes, or even cause headaches.”

After producing numerous 3D cultural projects—such as The Paths of Faith in Lombardy, A Day in the European Parliament, A.D. 1300: Pilgrimage on the Via Francigena, Robert Schuman: Spirit of Europe (also presented at the 65th Venice Film Festival), and Saint Charles Borromeo: The Splendor of Humility—Ars Europa now embarks on this groundbreaking Hercules Project to show that culture can be both engaging and fun, like a videogame, and that the most advanced technologies can serve to promote the beauty of art and history.