IDIA Lab is designing and producing a virtual simulation of the villa of the Roman Emperor Hadrian, which is located outside of Rome in Tivoli, Italy. This project is under contract with the Virtual World Heritage Laboratory (VWHL) at the University of Virginia (UVA), directed by Dr. Bernard Frischer and funded by the National Science Foundation. This large-scale recreation will reconstruct the entire villa complex in consultation with the world’s foremost villa scholars and educators. The project is being authored in the game engine of Unity 3D as a live 3D multi-user online learning environment and will allow students and visitors to immerse themselves in all aspects of the simulated villa.

The project will not only accurately recreate the villa buildings but also include a complete Roman avatar system, non-player characters with artificial intelligence, furniture, indigenous vegetation, dynamic atmospheric system and sophisticated user interface. The interface will not only provide learning, navigation, reporting and assessment opportunities but will also allow users to change the position of the sun to any date in 130 AD using data from the Horizons database at JPL NASA - testing theses of astro-alignments of architectural features during solstices and equinoxes. UVA students will be briefed on the culture and history of the villa as well as learn the virtual environment for five weeks prior to immersing themselves within it. The avatar system will allow for them to enter the world choosing class and gender - already being aware of the customs and behavior of the Roman aristocracy, soldier, slave or politician. This project will be delivered to VWHL at UVA in early March.