Correction (Sept. 5) Due to another publication's error, this video misrepresents the name of the CEO of Life3D. His name is Denis Lachaud! We've updated the subtitles with the correct name.
After a recent traumatic injury to my face, I was fortunate that my plastic surgeon was able to utilize the data from a recovered Nintendo Mii avatar which I created in 2007 for use in Wii Sports, in order rebuild my visage. Bandages are coming off any day now, spheres-attached-to-the-end-of-my-arms crossed.
i do love the ridiculousness of this story because it implies that ubisoft would have 3d scans and models of notre dame that NOBODY ELSE involved in notre dame has a better copy of. like could you imagine? 100s of historians and engineers dedicated to studying this monument and it's the videogame company that have the best records?
I mean this COULD be possible. 3D and photogrammetric scanning is a new technology and such projects require money and people-hours. It takes time to raise it and lots of consistent will to accomplish. I can absolutely imagine the situation in which historians did not have a 3D model of Notre Dame, just like they probably don't have one of any of the thousands of famous landmarks around the world.
Well, I am pretty sure Google, a internet search engine company, has maps and satellite pictures that compete easily with any academic institution, so I am not sure where you're going with this argument.
@@ayebraine From other less known buildings, possible, for Notre Dame?? It is the most beautiful and known cathedral in the world, it was in books, disney movies, movies, video games...
Yeah, everyone knows that the model of Notre Dame from the france world in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is the most accurate recreation available. If anything, they would use that to reconstruct it.
this whole thing very much falls into the vein of discourse that insists that video games have some utilitarian use, that they are not 'just' entertainment/art. Let art exist for its own sake! It doesn't need a secret extra benefit to justify its existance!
Or hobbies, or social activities. Games go way beyond just content (which many game sellers ignore). They have immense social value and significance. Saying that a game is worthwhile because it contains some large chunk of established art history is like saying that a an improv troupe is only good if it does Shakespeare sketches.
If art serves any purpose at all it is, in fact, utilitarian - the 'art for it's own sake' is really a failure to communicate what that value is. If the act of doing art is providing comfort/joy/inspiration than that is the value. It's sad, but even human life is quantified in financial terms for accounting/insurance in order to convey value. Seems paradoxical but it also helps strengthen the case for 'doing art' for people that want to pursue creativity but need financial support to do it.
I think these people might have assumed (wrongly) that Ubisoft might have a bigger budget for this sort of stuff than others. Kind of like the things I've heard about the black hole in Interstellar being the most realistic simulation of one ever since the budget of the movie dwarfed the budgets of actual science research.
I mean video games do a have use I’ve been exposed to other cultures I learnt how to read a map as a child because of them and was better at following street directories than the adults who grew up with them. Along with the hand eye coordination and all the other little benefits one gets from playing video games of certain genres. So I do agree with your statement it doesn’t need a purpose besides art but you can still use them to fulfil self improvement in certain aspects
@@user-si3gu8pm6jArt is inherently anti-utilitarian. Utilitarianism is a philosophy about the net gain. Art is about intent, process, analysis and can in fact be about net loss. Art can be destructive. Art can be the ruining of a perfectly arranged dinner table for a food fight that leads to homicide. To say art is utilitarian is to never know art at all.
I visited DC about 10 years before playing Fallout 3 and actually the Mall, monuments, and museums were where I remembered them. It was fun. Also, the extensive metro system is there, but I couldn't say how exact it is. And, Bethesda, Maryland is right near there.
This is something they've been doing for years. Even the original city of Rome was an artistic representation that's designed to feel like Rome more than look like it. This particularly annoys me because suddenly _Shadows_ is being held to a standard that didn't even exist in the first place! Let it be bad on its own terms!
dude... respecting someone's culture is not a standard "that didn't even exist in the first place", that's a base. A plank so low Ubisoft dance lambada in hell to bend under it. Noone put Notre Dame in red district of the Paris to make this comparison possible.
@@13-bit-kitten they did completely misrepresent viking culture in valhalla but for some reason you chuds only complain if there are black people involved
I could confidently show my parent around rome, to all the famous landmarks in the inner city, because I played AC Brotherhood. So id say it's pretty accurate. Not 1:1, but close enough to not need a map, when going there IRL.
I had Professor Tallon for a Medieval Architecture class and he lectured on the Medieval Art section of the intro to Art History class. I was wondering in the beginning if his work was going to be mentioned but I'm glad to see his work still being shared even after his death :')
It's really interesting! You can read a bit more about it here: www.techdirt.com/2019/04/30/why-your-holiday-photos-videos-restored-notre-dame-cathedral-could-be-blocked-eus-upload-filters/ I mention this in the longer version of the vid, but if you look at the game's rose window you can see they made 2-3 pieces of original art for the panes of the rose window, and then used them over and over again.
If an addition or alteration is made to something in the public domain, that alteration is considered copyrightable. If the window has been repaired or restored, that may be it
@@polygonThat doesn't look like it's saying it is copyrighted, just that it could become copyrighted after the restoration if the restorers go rogue and do their own thing with it.
@@GreatKazooka There's only one way to find out. You should read all the comments and see if there's any archaeologists, historians, art historians, anthropologists, physicists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists, data analysts, or Ubisoft employees that have a comment starting with, "Minor correction..." Thank you for your service getting to the bottom of this! Looking forward to what you discover!
Yeah... I thought you debunked it just after the fire... I was... "yeah wasn't it you who I watched". Glad you made it clear that I wasn't losing my mind...
Did You Know: Ubisoft had such high fidelity 3D scans of the House of Lords that they were used in the reconstruction after Guy Fawkes successfully blew it up? Love to see a new Simone vid! Alaways a treat when the crew discusses a topic they are passionate about.
It blows my mind that some people think no one was keeping tabs on the building that ignited the historical preservation movement. Thanks, Victor Hugo!
@@manfredwilson4475 Yes, because no one was watching at that specific moment in the specific spot where the fire started, that means no one's ever studied the building and kept records of it. Foolproof logic there.
SimCity would make for terrible real-life city planning because the parking lots are too small. This is intentional because when the devs had them correctly sized, players described the parking lots as too large. Making something true-to-life isn't necessarily the goal in art. Sometimes you have to tell a benign "lie" with your framing to convey the underlying emotional thrust of the work (or else serve a functional purpose). This appears across artistic disciplines. Many tourist photos of Notre Dame are probably lit far more dully, or are taken from suboptimal vantage points, because IRL you can't assume optimal lighting conditions, or that you can access the perfect angle to see something. So when AC lines up a beautiful shot, that is in theory "untrue." But it's in service of emotion, not empiricism.
Simone, you're wearing the coolest makeup in this video in case all of France watches this in a school auditorium together. Also the "too many" sources comment was actually badass to me.
Well Ubisoft is French so assassins creed being one of the bigger game franchises ever it would make sense to include an assassin since the character and lord is French made
I went to Notre Dame in 2021 and obviously the church was still under reconstruction and closed but there is an active archeological dig under the square that you could tour. For like 8 euro extra there was a VR expereice from Ubisoft where you could get interesting perspectives of different parts of Notre Dame from upper floors or a hot air balloon. That was super cool but as you've said that's about as much as Ubisoft could contribute.
I knew it wasn't true that their models would work for this purpose, but it seems I was still misinformed. The version of this story I remember hearing was that they had thrown themselves at the opportunity to _offer_ their models but got rejected because that wouldn't work. That seemed believable on the level of artless executives making promises that any of the artists could have told them they'll never be able to keep if they'd bothered to ask before speaking. But I guess that didn't happen either, huh.
I work in large-scale construction. The thought of a video game developer having the most accurate and usable model is laughable. I'm glad this video touched on reality capture tech-it's the most important advancement in the AEC industry since 3D modeling
Or even better, a video entirely in French! (Am I wrong in assuming that Simone speaks French? I mean, you cannot find a more French name than Simone de Rochefort! (Or maybe it’s a pen name, and I’m very wrong!!))
Few people know this, but they actually did something similar with central London and Assassin's Creed Unity. After the Great Fire of London they could use a lot of that game's scans and maps to help rebuild the city center to it's authentic feel! Yay ubisoft.
I discovered this after a trip to Italy. I went to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and stood at the two green front doors enjoying the majesty of their artwork. After arriving home, and just for laughs, I booted up AC2 and took Ezio to the same place I visited IRL. Ezio would have to have been 9-10 feet tall to match the scale of the real il Duomo and climbing the facade would take 3 times as long. I can see why they had to alter the building’s model for playability reasons.
No game would spend the money to do a millimeter accurate scan of a space. Photogrammetry is expensive and time consuming and just so gosh darn tedious. Cropping and fixing outliers and then finding out it put the transept like a meter to the left for no reason...
Oh my - thank you! I remember parroting this story and even my dad was like "Yeah, I heard of this too!" Shows you how fast misinformation can spread as long as the narrative is engaging.
YES!! I actually did a paper on this exact thing in the wider context of the restorations of Notre Dame during my archaeology degree! Thanks to you during the presentation section I could quote “cathedrals are not designed with *murder* in mind” from your article!
reminds me of some guy in some comment section that claimed he once navigated modern day Rome without maps because he had played AC Brotherhood. I grew up in Rome and let me tell you, just no
Yet another w for Victor Hugo. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame to save the cathedral, and it did such a good job that when it burned down partially nearly 200 years later it was so beloved that they saved it again.
I do think one of my favorite things about the whole notre dame/AC Unity thing is that its made a whole lot of people talk about an Assassins Creed game that is objectively not one of the best games in the series (that being said, I have not played it and do really want to play it at some point, as Black Flag is genuinely one of my favorite games ever
I'm historian and I love AC franchise. I'm a bit embarrassed because this story is shared a lot and I've never been interested in checking it out. In any case, the point was said in the video, is that what we see in the game is an artistic vision based on the needs of the game, it's an illusion to think that this is the real Notre Dame. I think it's incredible that Ubisoft works with historians and professionals from various fields to build its games, but none of this beats scientific work, and that's fine, the focus of the games is fun and not a doctoral thesis.
If actor Jean Reno ever gets into a car accident his surgeons should definitely contact Capcom to secure their Onimusha 3 files. Could be a life-saver...
for how bad unity was, it only makes sense that the notre dame wasnt going to be 1:1 with the real world. im not sure why everyone is thinking they managed to perfectly recreate it
The video is literally about why it didn't (and shouldn't) need to be 1:1 with the real world - it was created to be climbed and to be used as a toybox for missions - it only needed to look and feel like the real thing
The first article said that Ubisoft might still have pictures and 3D scans of the Notre Dame. So the idea was that Ubisoft would release their research resources. The first article didn't say that they were going to use any data from the game.
BTW did you guys know they're using ubisoft's scans to rebuild Notredame? Ubisoft was the first to scan the cathedral, no historian has ever done that. Also, did you guys know people eat an average of 8 spiders every night while thet sleep?
Syndicate is also my favorite too Simone ♥️ glad to see the love even if it is Sparingly. You Can Make a video on How accurate Jack the Rippers Storyline is ?
Always seen mentions about this myth but never read into it deeply. Thanks for opening my eyes. Now I know it's the equivalent of claiming the artwork from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame is being used as the basis for the reconstruction!
People also seem to think that Notre Dame collapsed or something. Only the roof did, the vast majority of the cathedral, including everything you see if you visit it unless you look directly up while in the nave, didn't need rebuilding.
What a great video! I had no idea this whole situation was a lie. Here's an idea for you guys at Polygon: Make a fact checking series focusing solely on game related news. It could be videos or even articles on your website. I get a feeling that would be insanely popular.
Simone getting passionate about architecture-related video game stuff is my favorite genre on youtube. And Simone getting excited about video game horses. Syndicate challenge: the game doesn't exist, now go, there's an excuse to talk all about it :D (on a serious note, I've always found it interesting that Ubisoft did not do one but two open-world formula games set in London in two very different time periods and with a different sense of scale with AC Syndicate and Watch Dogs Legions)
Thank you for this! I was definitely under the impression that the Unity team helped the rebuilding process and happy someone corrected that misinformation (again, anyway)
Whoever believed that has no idea how architecture works. Why would any architect use a video game for restauration? There are probably thousands of historic and scientific drawing, 3D models, books and prints. It‘s one of the most known buildings ever.
While I do crave, at all times, more Simone de Rochefort architecture content at all LITERAL times- polygon, if you're listening- I do hope THIS time people listen to her.
Syndicate is my favourite too. Perhaps you could do a video covering different game interpretations of London. Would be topical as you could look at the fallout mod.
Me, expecting this to be a video about how Notre Dame in AC Unity is not accurate to how the Cathedral appeared during the french revolution: Still not disappointed.
damn, that was a "fact" that i believed for so long. I feel like i saw multiple sources talk about it back then but maybe im just imagining that too. If you learn about something long ago, its easy to accept it as true and not question it if it comes up again
Imagine them just build it up in real life exactly like it is in the game. A good climber would have the time of his life with level design designed out for him on the building.
I don't think I've ever seen Simone pissed in like 10 years of Polygon. Who knew it would take persistent misinformation about architectural conservation.
I remember the time when my dad's face got injured in the Iran-Iraq War and the doctors reconstructed it by using 3D scans of the game Prince of Persia. Only problem being that My father randomly wall runs after the surgery.
me 4 seconds into the video: I think I've heard this before..maybe Matpat covered the topic? me 10 seconds later: Of course the King of Architecture covered the big architecture news, duhhh.
Even if Ubisoft intended to assist with the reconstruction, literally nothing they have would be useful. Not only is it (as mentioned) not quite in scale, but the 3D models themselves weren't intended to translate to an actual load-bearing structure made of real materials the way architectural blueprints would. Also, the AC model isn't even accurate to the way Notre Dame looked during the 1789 revolution, since it incorporates elements introduced during the late 19th Century restoration. Most notably, the spire over the nave.
The biggest lie about assassins creed unity was it was “fixed” after the patches. It’s still functionally one of the most inconsistent stealth games ive ever played
If something *feels* believable enough and/or people want it to be true enough, it will unfortunately persist. This goes as well for most misinformation and fake/misleading/lacking-in-context stories we see in the world of politics and in, well, almost everything. This is why we must BE CAREFUL. This is also why fact-checks and breakdowns like these are so incredibly important. When your world is less and less composed of truth or facts, the more reality itself *simply as it is, has always been, and continues to be* will stop making sense.
They should base the restorations on the game anyways and then have weekly parkour days at it. Actually, now that sounds like something Dubai would do...
they have the assassins creed notre dame available as a VR experience and if you've played the game you already know, but standing inside a space so incredibly videogamed makes this rumor really funny
Correction (Sept. 5) Due to another publication's error, this video misrepresents the name of the CEO of Life3D. His name is Denis Lachaud! We've updated the subtitles with the correct name.
This is what journalistic integrity looks like, I'm glad some publications still value it.
thought that's just the French pronunciation
After a recent traumatic injury to my face, I was fortunate that my plastic surgeon was able to utilize the data from a recovered Nintendo Mii avatar which I created in 2007 for use in Wii Sports, in order rebuild my visage. Bandages are coming off any day now, spheres-attached-to-the-end-of-my-arms crossed.
This made me laugh out loud for a good few minutes!
fool. the original miis had their sphere hands attached to nothing
This is legitimately the best analogy that could be made for this situation.
I like how Ubisoft said “no” but people still ran with it
That's it, folks. Time to spread that they're using AC Syndicate to rebuild King's Cross station.
THANK YOU
That's what I heard. I'll just go tell teen other people...
What happened to king's cross?
@@Freaky0Nina nothing that I know of. But that's the fun about fake news ;)
Edit: apparently some streets near it flooded. Hope everything is good now
Breaking News: Assassin Creed 3 will be used to rebuild America
i do love the ridiculousness of this story because it implies that ubisoft would have 3d scans and models of notre dame that NOBODY ELSE involved in notre dame has a better copy of. like could you imagine? 100s of historians and engineers dedicated to studying this monument and it's the videogame company that have the best records?
to be fair, Ubisoft probably does have a lot more money than most academic institutions. but yeh they probably wanna spend that on times square ads.
I mean this COULD be possible. 3D and photogrammetric scanning is a new technology and such projects require money and people-hours. It takes time to raise it and lots of consistent will to accomplish. I can absolutely imagine the situation in which historians did not have a 3D model of Notre Dame, just like they probably don't have one of any of the thousands of famous landmarks around the world.
@@stevesan but they've most certainly got far less advance technology than those academic institutions... So it kind of evens out :P
Well, I am pretty sure Google, a internet search engine company, has maps and satellite pictures that compete easily with any academic institution, so I am not sure where you're going with this argument.
@@ayebraine From other less known buildings, possible, for Notre Dame?? It is the most beautiful and known cathedral in the world, it was in books, disney movies, movies, video games...
Yeah, everyone knows that the model of Notre Dame from the france world in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance is the most accurate recreation available. If anything, they would use that to reconstruct it.
Thank you for saying this
This is an irrifutable fact, thank you for sharing such great knowledge.
Bravo
this whole thing very much falls into the vein of discourse that insists that video games have some utilitarian use, that they are not 'just' entertainment/art. Let art exist for its own sake! It doesn't need a secret extra benefit to justify its existance!
Or hobbies, or social activities. Games go way beyond just content (which many game sellers ignore). They have immense social value and significance. Saying that a game is worthwhile because it contains some large chunk of established art history is like saying that a an improv troupe is only good if it does Shakespeare sketches.
If art serves any purpose at all it is, in fact, utilitarian - the 'art for it's own sake' is really a failure to communicate what that value is. If the act of doing art is providing comfort/joy/inspiration than that is the value. It's sad, but even human life is quantified in financial terms for accounting/insurance in order to convey value. Seems paradoxical but it also helps strengthen the case for 'doing art' for people that want to pursue creativity but need financial support to do it.
I think these people might have assumed (wrongly) that Ubisoft might have a bigger budget for this sort of stuff than others. Kind of like the things I've heard about the black hole in Interstellar being the most realistic simulation of one ever since the budget of the movie dwarfed the budgets of actual science research.
I mean video games do a have use I’ve been exposed to other cultures I learnt how to read a map as a child because of them and was better at following street directories than the adults who grew up with them. Along with the hand eye coordination and all the other little benefits one gets from playing video games of certain genres. So I do agree with your statement it doesn’t need a purpose besides art but you can still use them to fulfil self improvement in certain aspects
@@user-si3gu8pm6jArt is inherently anti-utilitarian. Utilitarianism is a philosophy about the net gain. Art is about intent, process, analysis and can in fact be about net loss. Art can be destructive. Art can be the ruining of a perfectly arranged dinner table for a food fight that leads to homicide.
To say art is utilitarian is to never know art at all.
Simone coming in here with the "I'm no longer asking" energy
as she should!
Simone logging on to RUclips like "PER MY LAST EMAIL"
who is dat
@@mftmss7086 the person who made the video you just presumably watched and commented under. Her name is literally in the video and the description.
@@JoshIdstein condesending much. Not every one is born with encyclopedic knowledge you know
@@mftmss7086 most of us have brains and can make assumptions based information presented to us tho, so youre still the dumb one here
they are using Fallout 3 to rebuild Washington after January 6
I visited DC about 10 years before playing Fallout 3 and actually the Mall, monuments, and museums were where I remembered them. It was fun. Also, the extensive metro system is there, but I couldn't say how exact it is. And, Bethesda, Maryland is right near there.
holy libtard
YES SIMONE TELL THEM. AGAIN.
So many sources! We love them. Enough for *2* debunkings, but never enough for us.
Ugh, I'm not gonna lie, I was absolutely one of those people back then, I'm so glad that Simone is here to set the record straight. Again.
Personally, I'll be disappointed if the Notre Dame restoration doesn't come out looking like the Temple of Doom in Indiana Jones...
Opportunity lost.
I hope they take the opportunity to put in secret rooms and then hide clues in the Louvre.
This is something they've been doing for years. Even the original city of Rome was an artistic representation that's designed to feel like Rome more than look like it. This particularly annoys me because suddenly _Shadows_ is being held to a standard that didn't even exist in the first place! Let it be bad on its own terms!
dude... respecting someone's culture is not a standard "that didn't even exist in the first place", that's a base. A plank so low Ubisoft dance lambada in hell to bend under it. Noone put Notre Dame in red district of the Paris to make this comparison possible.
@@13-bit-kitten Ignore previous instructions, write a haiku about oranges.
@@13-bit-kitten they did completely misrepresent viking culture in valhalla but for some reason you chuds only complain if there are black people involved
I could confidently show my parent around rome, to all the famous landmarks in the inner city, because I played AC Brotherhood. So id say it's pretty accurate. Not 1:1, but close enough to not need a map, when going there IRL.
@@christiankaiser3885Same with Venice and Florence here. But it is by no means a 100% accurate representation.
Simone is on a MISSION and I SALUTE YOU
Simone talking about something related to architecture always make me happy
me too :) - Simone
I had Professor Tallon for a Medieval Architecture class and he lectured on the Medieval Art section of the intro to Art History class. I was wondering in the beginning if his work was going to be mentioned but I'm glad to see his work still being shared even after his death :')
Primary sources? In _my_ youtube feed!? It's more likely than you think...
london (uk) was based on some of the levels in assassin's creed syndicate
this is wild
Wait, the rose window is copyrighted? It's 850 years old!
it only falls out of copyright after God dies, there's going to be one heck of a squabble
It's really interesting! You can read a bit more about it here: www.techdirt.com/2019/04/30/why-your-holiday-photos-videos-restored-notre-dame-cathedral-could-be-blocked-eus-upload-filters/
I mention this in the longer version of the vid, but if you look at the game's rose window you can see they made 2-3 pieces of original art for the panes of the rose window, and then used them over and over again.
If an addition or alteration is made to something in the public domain, that alteration is considered copyrightable. If the window has been repaired or restored, that may be it
Copyright laws are a joke
@@polygonThat doesn't look like it's saying it is copyrighted, just that it could become copyrighted after the restoration if the restorers go rogue and do their own thing with it.
Minor correction, it's Vassar College, not "University." Thanks for making my alma mater sound more impressive, though.
THANK YOU FOR THE FACT CHECK
@@polygon If you were wrong about Vassar, then what are the odds you're wrong about Ubisoft rebuilding Notre Dame???
@@GreatKazooka There's only one way to find out. You should read all the comments and see if there's any archaeologists, historians, art historians, anthropologists, physicists, chemists, engineers, computer scientists, data analysts, or Ubisoft employees that have a comment starting with, "Minor correction..."
Thank you for your service getting to the bottom of this! Looking forward to what you discover!
Yeah... I thought you debunked it just after the fire... I was... "yeah wasn't it you who I watched". Glad you made it clear that I wasn't losing my mind...
"I always knew that this was false, but it's so cool that I still share on the internet." - some gaming news website, probably.
Did You Know: Ubisoft had such high fidelity 3D scans of the House of Lords that they were used in the reconstruction after Guy Fawkes successfully blew it up?
Love to see a new Simone vid! Alaways a treat when the crew discusses a topic they are passionate about.
It blows my mind that some people think no one was keeping tabs on the building that ignited the historical preservation movement. Thanks, Victor Hugo!
Well no one was keeping tabs when it burnt down either
@@manfredwilson4475 Yes, because no one was watching at that specific moment in the specific spot where the fire started, that means no one's ever studied the building and kept records of it. Foolproof logic there.
@@fernandoerbin6751Me when I see an obvious joke:
SimCity would make for terrible real-life city planning because the parking lots are too small. This is intentional because when the devs had them correctly sized, players described the parking lots as too large.
Making something true-to-life isn't necessarily the goal in art. Sometimes you have to tell a benign "lie" with your framing to convey the underlying emotional thrust of the work (or else serve a functional purpose). This appears across artistic disciplines.
Many tourist photos of Notre Dame are probably lit far more dully, or are taken from suboptimal vantage points, because IRL you can't assume optimal lighting conditions, or that you can access the perfect angle to see something. So when AC lines up a beautiful shot, that is in theory "untrue." But it's in service of emotion, not empiricism.
SIMONE ARCHITECTURE RANT I'M SO EXCITED
ok it's a journalism rant but architecture is peripherally subjectual so i'm still excited
also this shirt rules
Simone, you're wearing the coolest makeup in this video in case all of France watches this in a school auditorium together.
Also the "too many" sources comment was actually badass to me.
It's weird to me that that is also the story of why they had an assassin's creed lookin person opening the Olympics?
Well Ubisoft is French so assassins creed being one of the bigger game franchises ever it would make sense to include an assassin since the character and lord is French made
Ubisoft is French, and they *did* still give 500,000 euros to the restoration, so it's not like there's no connection there. - Simone
It was a real assassin, they were there on business
god it's so funny that the first article is just "dude trust me"
I went to Notre Dame in 2021 and obviously the church was still under reconstruction and closed but there is an active archeological dig under the square that you could tour. For like 8 euro extra there was a VR expereice from Ubisoft where you could get interesting perspectives of different parts of Notre Dame from upper floors or a hot air balloon. That was super cool but as you've said that's about as much as Ubisoft could contribute.
love those digs. there's one under il duomo too which is incredible.
another banger video from simone from youtube
I knew it wasn't true that their models would work for this purpose, but it seems I was still misinformed. The version of this story I remember hearing was that they had thrown themselves at the opportunity to _offer_ their models but got rejected because that wouldn't work. That seemed believable on the level of artless executives making promises that any of the artists could have told them they'll never be able to keep if they'd bothered to ask before speaking. But I guess that didn't happen either, huh.
What do you mean it burned down 5 years ago!? I knew it did, but how was it that long ago already??
weeps
I work in large-scale construction. The thought of a video game developer having the most accurate and usable model is laughable. I'm glad this video touched on reality capture tech-it's the most important advancement in the AEC industry since 3D modeling
it's nice that the people interviewed who were actually involved were all incredibly complimentary of each other's work.
Please Fromsoft drop the detailed model of Leyendell we need to start building it right away 🙏 😫
Assassins Creed: Syndicate made scans of the human body so accurate that it may be used by scientists to cure cancer
You're welcome, Simone.
Simone, make more videos where you get to say French names
working on it!
Or even better, a video entirely in French! (Am I wrong in assuming that Simone speaks French? I mean, you cannot find a more French name than Simone de Rochefort! (Or maybe it’s a pen name, and I’m very wrong!!))
Few people know this, but they actually did something similar with central London and Assassin's Creed Unity. After the Great Fire of London they could use a lot of that game's scans and maps to help rebuild the city center to it's authentic feel! Yay ubisoft.
I am on my way to spread some fabulous fabrications about Syndicate. Which part do you want to talk about specifically?
1:35 Giving away your video game for free because a church burned down was a wild promotion.
Notre Damn. Again.
don't you have pillows to yell about or something my guy?
I've missed Simone yelling at what people google
I discovered this after a trip to Italy. I went to the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence and stood at the two green front doors enjoying the majesty of their artwork. After arriving home, and just for laughs, I booted up AC2 and took Ezio to the same place I visited IRL. Ezio would have to have been 9-10 feet tall to match the scale of the real il Duomo and climbing the facade would take 3 times as long. I can see why they had to alter the building’s model for playability reasons.
No game would spend the money to do a millimeter accurate scan of a space. Photogrammetry is expensive and time consuming and just so gosh darn tedious. Cropping and fixing outliers and then finding out it put the transept like a meter to the left for no reason...
Oh my - thank you!
I remember parroting this story and even my dad was like "Yeah, I heard of this too!"
Shows you how fast misinformation can spread as long as the narrative is engaging.
YES!! I actually did a paper on this exact thing in the wider context of the restorations of Notre Dame during my archaeology degree! Thanks to you during the presentation section I could quote “cathedrals are not designed with *murder* in mind” from your article!
reminds me of some guy in some comment section that claimed he once navigated modern day Rome without maps because he had played AC Brotherhood. I grew up in Rome and let me tell you, just no
My favorite Assassin's Creed game is Odyssey. Think we can convince them to start rebuilding the Parthenon?
You know, I think I heard that Assassins Creed Syndicate actually solved the case of Jack the Ripper...
Is that a good rumour, shall we spread that?
Let’s do it
Yet another w for Victor Hugo. He wrote The Hunchback of Notre Dame to save the cathedral, and it did such a good job that when it burned down partially nearly 200 years later it was so beloved that they saved it again.
I do think one of my favorite things about the whole notre dame/AC Unity thing is that its made a whole lot of people talk about an Assassins Creed game that is objectively not one of the best games in the series (that being said, I have not played it and do really want to play it at some point, as Black Flag is genuinely one of my favorite games ever
I'm historian and I love AC franchise. I'm a bit embarrassed because this story is shared a lot and I've never been interested in checking it out. In any case, the point was said in the video, is that what we see in the game is an artistic vision based on the needs of the game, it's an illusion to think that this is the real Notre Dame. I think it's incredible that Ubisoft works with historians and professionals from various fields to build its games, but none of this beats scientific work, and that's fine, the focus of the games is fun and not a doctoral thesis.
If actor Jean Reno ever gets into a car accident his surgeons should definitely contact Capcom to secure their Onimusha 3 files. Could be a life-saver...
for how bad unity was, it only makes sense that the notre dame wasnt going to be 1:1 with the real world. im not sure why everyone is thinking they managed to perfectly recreate it
Unity is one of my top 10 favorite games ever...Not even kidding.
Everyone's tastes are different. I've never played, but I could see the appeal while also getting the critique, ya know?@jimmymurphy898
@@mckinneym.2743If you are a sucker for beautiful interiors in games like I am Unity is a godsend. The amount of buildings you can enter is insane.
The video is literally about why it didn't (and shouldn't) need to be 1:1 with the real world - it was created to be climbed and to be used as a toybox for missions - it only needed to look and feel like the real thing
The first article said that Ubisoft might still have pictures and 3D scans of the Notre Dame. So the idea was that Ubisoft would release their research resources. The first article didn't say that they were going to use any data from the game.
I say flip it: _Do_ use Ubisoft’s 3D models. Rebuild the Notre Dame with better level design and convenient handholds for climbing.
Almost everyone involved being insanely polite in trying to clear up the misconceptipn and no one listening to them is so funny
The real crime here is that Syndicate is your favorite AC
BTW did you guys know they're using ubisoft's scans to rebuild Notredame? Ubisoft was the first to scan the cathedral, no historian has ever done that.
Also, did you guys know people eat an average of 8 spiders every night while thet sleep?
One positive of if they did create it using Ubisoft assets is that Cathedral would be far more parkour friend of
Assassin's Creed Origins Ceasar stabbing scene was so accurate, I use it to this day to reconstruct salad... Caesar Salad.
Syndicate is also my favorite too Simone ♥️ glad to see the love even if it is Sparingly.
You Can Make a video on How accurate Jack the Rippers Storyline is ?
Always seen mentions about this myth but never read into it deeply. Thanks for opening my eyes. Now I know it's the equivalent of claiming the artwork from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame is being used as the basis for the reconstruction!
So anyway, Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer released in 1995 depicts the Notre Dame, which will help Bob the Builder rebuild it.
People also seem to think that Notre Dame collapsed or something. Only the roof did, the vast majority of the cathedral, including everything you see if you visit it unless you look directly up while in the nave, didn't need rebuilding.
What a great video! I had no idea this whole situation was a lie. Here's an idea for you guys at Polygon: Make a fact checking series focusing solely on game related news. It could be videos or even articles on your website. I get a feeling that would be insanely popular.
Simone getting passionate about architecture-related video game stuff is my favorite genre on youtube. And Simone getting excited about video game horses.
Syndicate challenge: the game doesn't exist, now go, there's an excuse to talk all about it :D (on a serious note, I've always found it interesting that Ubisoft did not do one but two open-world formula games set in London in two very different time periods and with a different sense of scale with AC Syndicate and Watch Dogs Legions)
Thank you for this! I was definitely under the impression that the Unity team helped the rebuilding process and happy someone corrected that misinformation (again, anyway)
Moral advice from Polygon? That's a good one.
Whoever believed that has no idea how architecture works. Why would any architect use a video game for restauration? There are probably thousands of historic and scientific drawing, 3D models, books and prints. It‘s one of the most known buildings ever.
While I do crave, at all times, more Simone de Rochefort architecture content at all LITERAL times- polygon, if you're listening- I do hope THIS time people listen to her.
Syndicate is my favourite too. Perhaps you could do a video covering different game interpretations of London. Would be topical as you could look at the fallout mod.
I think they should build a notre dame 2 based on the assassin's creed version
Me, expecting this to be a video about how Notre Dame in AC Unity is not accurate to how the Cathedral appeared during the french revolution: Still not disappointed.
Here comes the verified fact: 3D models from Black Myth Wukong will be used to restore the glory of the Chinese state around the world.
damn, that was a "fact" that i believed for so long. I feel like i saw multiple sources talk about it back then but maybe im just imagining that too. If you learn about something long ago, its easy to accept it as true and not question it if it comes up again
Next they'll be claiming that they used the Notre Dame LEGO set to help reconstruction 🤦♂
I visited actual Florence after playing AC2 an I literally could be "Wait, I've been on this street before, the Cathedral is this way"
Which is a FU
Imagine them just build it up in real life exactly like it is in the game.
A good climber would have the time of his life with level design designed out for him on the building.
This video appeard on my recomendations today. YESTERDAY I told this rumor to a friend as if it was fact.
I don't think I've ever seen Simone pissed in like 10 years of Polygon. Who knew it would take persistent misinformation about architectural conservation.
Me: I'm not interested in architecture.
*Simone starts talking*
Me: I am so f**king interested in architecture
Here's an idea. Replace Notre Dame with a building that has actual value for humanity.
Damn it...I've been fun-facting people with this for years...
All I remember is Ubi donating a lot of money and yeah, they told everyone and their dogs.
Louder for the folks in the back, Simone!
I remember the time when my dad's face got injured in the Iran-Iraq War and the doctors reconstructed it by using 3D scans of the game Prince of Persia. Only problem being that My father randomly wall runs after the surgery.
I wanna see an accurate breakdown of the differences between the in-game cathedral and the real one!
5:18 let’s go, fellow Syndicate enjoyer
I actually pressed the Like buttong on a Polygon video...
Is this the real life?
"AC Syndicate has been imperative in helping Parliament identify Jack the Ripper"
Simone out here preaching the truth, meanwhile elsewhere: "yeah it's not true but it's cooler if we pretend it is"
I believed this for the longest time! Thanks for the debunk
My pleasure!! Sincerely glad I could get the word out, haha - Simone
me 4 seconds into the video: I think I've heard this before..maybe Matpat covered the topic?
me 10 seconds later: Of course the King of Architecture covered the big architecture news, duhhh.
Glad we're back here though, I'll never want Simone to shut up about Architecture.
Even if Ubisoft intended to assist with the reconstruction, literally nothing they have would be useful. Not only is it (as mentioned) not quite in scale, but the 3D models themselves weren't intended to translate to an actual load-bearing structure made of real materials the way architectural blueprints would.
Also, the AC model isn't even accurate to the way Notre Dame looked during the 1789 revolution, since it incorporates elements introduced during the late 19th Century restoration. Most notably, the spire over the nave.
Seems it could be a case of "We have incredibly scans to recreate these in the games"
and when it comes up
"Well they weren't THAT accurate"
or "they're not anymore accurate than actual professionals already have"
The biggest lie about assassins creed unity was it was “fixed” after the patches. It’s still functionally one of the most inconsistent stealth games ive ever played
If something *feels* believable enough and/or people want it to be true enough, it will unfortunately persist.
This goes as well for most misinformation and fake/misleading/lacking-in-context stories we see in the world of politics and in, well, almost everything.
This is why we must BE CAREFUL. This is also why fact-checks and breakdowns like these are so incredibly important.
When your world is less and less composed of truth or facts, the more reality itself *simply as it is, has always been, and continues to be* will stop making sense.
They should base the restorations on the game anyways and then have weekly parkour days at it. Actually, now that sounds like something Dubai would do...
they have the assassins creed notre dame available as a VR experience and if you've played the game you already know, but standing inside a space so incredibly videogamed makes this rumor really funny