We actually took GIS data from the real DC and modelled the world. So the map should be very close to accurate.
The Division 1 was handcrafted, so we cut a lot of the world away that wasn’t interesting, small alley ways and such.
I can’t tell you how happy it makes me to hear that you enjoyed the work that went in.
On the GIS side of things, didn't Ubi team up with some European nonprofit to make other real world locale into games for educational purposes? Can't remember the details, but I used to work for a museum and my boss wanted us to do something like that. And I was like that'd be nice, but we're not Ubi.
It would be awesome to read about your production pipeline, like did you go from drone footage to photogrammetry to dozens of artists manually fixing things, or? Was there much ML involved?
I wish I could show you our internal demonstrations of it. Basically we would plot the map in snowdrop using GIS, then raise cuboids from the shapes on the map. Then we would manually try to match google street view with something in our template library, and modify the object to match reality.
It was a very manual process, but we based the map on the real thing so distances should be 1:1.
You're likely thinking of the Discovery Tour line derived from Assassin's Creed. https://www.ubisoft.com/en-gb/game/assassins-creed/discovery...
"[F]reely roam Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and the Viking Age to learn more about their history and daily life. Students, teachers, non-gamers, and players can discover these eras at their own pace, or embark on guided tours and stories curated by historians and experts."
I didn't find The Division too interesting, just couldn't get into it. I also don't really understand why they keep going on with that Tom Clancy label. The guy's been dead for almost a decade. If they feel the need to badge his name all over it, it feels like it's just B-content and they need to stick such labels on it to sell it.
I think his early books were pretty good but the later series were just drivel IMO. I don't think he even wrote them himself.
Some of the geography has been futzed with for gameplay purposes, which was incredibly confusing as someone who could navigate the area without a map!
Not walking simulators but low-key “just sorta look around” games I like: Gone Home and What Remains of Edith Finch.
Edit: Corrected the Finch title, thank you!
The pub over the road from Parliament was a bit jarring but understandable.
https://www.ovationvr.com/ https://virtualspeech.com/ https://virtualorator.com/ http://presentationsimulator.com/