Infrastructure – VirtualOulu

                                           

VirtualOulu – An Open Innovation Platform for 3D City Applications

VirtualOulu is a detailed 3D city model of Oulu, Finland implemented as an open innovation platform for developing new 3D applications. VirtualOulu contains more than 30 texturized city blocks of Oulu downtown area and the public areas of Oulu University campus, which have been manually modeled by the following companies: eVocons, LudoCraft, CubiCasa, VALO Company and the University of Oulu. This work has been coordinated by the Center for Ubiquitous Computing (UBICOMP) at the University of Oulu.
Click this to dive into VirtualOulu using your web browser.

DOWNLOADABLE CONTENT

VirtualOulu is available as runtime exports (FBX files, Unreal Engine project and Unity3D project) and source materials (Blender and 3DMax).

The downloadable content has been licensed under two Creative Commons (CC) licenses:

(1) runtime exports are licensed under CC by Attribution.
(2) source materials are licensed under CC Attribution-ShareAlike.

In practice, runtime exports can be used in any way including commercial products as long as appropriate credit is given. Any modifications to the original source files have to be shared. The motivation is to allow open utilization of the models while also ensuring that improvements to the models are shared so that the good and up-to-date version of VirtualOulu would be publicly available.

The repository utilized is a “live” one, meaning that content updates are still coming frequently.

Download 3D models for VirtualOulu in an FBX format.

The FBX files for VirtualOulu are stored in the GitHub repository linked above that contains an individual FBX file for each building. You can import these models into game engines such as Unity or Unreal. CC by Attribution

Download VirtualOulu as an Unreal Engine project.

The Unreal Engine project is stored in the GitHub repository linked above that currently contains the project for the example Virtual Reality application “Oulu 2040”. This project can be easily modified for any purpose, however  we will soon also add a “plain” project containg the base Oulu model without additional functionality. Buildings are modeled as static meshes while terrain utilizes the UE Landscape system (downloadable heightmap to be added). Streets are modeled utilizing the UE spline system.  CC by Attribution

Download VirtualOulu as a Unity3D project.

The Unity3D project is stored in a GitHub repository linked above. The project contains a mesh model of Oulu city centre (including streets) as well as a script that generates a larger, low-polygon version using MapBox. CC by Attribution

Download the source materials for VirtualOulu.

The manually modeled source materials for VirtualOulu are stored in a GitHub repository linked above that contains files for both Blender and 3DMax including diffuse texture files. Virtual Campus models are also available. CC Attribution-ShareAlike

LIVE 3D MODEL SERVICE

VirtualOulu is also available as a live database of 3D models. Live 3D model service is used by sending geospatial queries to its API using HTTP. The service provides the 3D models in FBX or glTF formats. The service is at http://live3dmodelservice.ubicomp.oulu.fi.

(1) API description for the live 3D model service.
(2) Example application for creating geospatial queries.

REFERENCE APPLICATIONS

Oulu2040 VR

Unreal Engine application that provides immersive VR views of selected locations how they could look like in 2040 according to the visionary plans of City of Oulu’s City Planning division.

Janitor Run

A Unity3D project in which one plays as a janitor who aspires to get from one end of the Oulu University campus to the other as fast as possible.

Street Art Gangs

Street Art Gangs is a location based mixed reality game that offers the players the possibility to play on the city streets or observe the game from virtual environment in their homes. It has been implemented using Meshmoon and HTML5/JavaScript.

Props

A realXtend/Meshmoon based playful and game like storytelling environment for all ages. It combines a real stage and a virtual stage into a hybrid reality stage where people.

CityKnights

A Unity3D project in which players roam on the streets of physical and virtual city in a “role playing game”. In the game, each game round culminates in a “boss-fight” fought in the Virtual City.

Virtual Library

The Virtual Library application was developed in a collaborative effort with Oulu city library. The user can move from the physical library into various fantasy realms. Source material is available as Unreal Engine project.

ARTICLES AND GUIDELINES

PUBLICATIONS

  • Alatalo T, Koskela T, Pouke M, Alavesa P & Ojala T (2016), “VirtualOulu: Collaborative, immersive and extensible 3D city model on the web” Proc. 21st Annual International Conference on 3D Web Technology (Web3D), Anaheim, CA, USA, 95-103. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2945292.2945305.
  • Koskela T, Pouke M, Heikkinen A, Alatalo T, Alavesa P & Ojala T (2017), “DRUMM: Dynamic viewing of large-scale 3D city models on the web”, Proc. 9th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), Athens, Greece, 8-14. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2017.8055805
  • Alatalo T, Pouke M, Koskela T, Hurskainen T, Florea C & Ojala T (2017), “Two real-world case studies on 3D web applications for participatory urban planning.”, Proc. 22nd International Conference on 3D Web Technology (Web3D), Brisbane, Australia, Article No. 11. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3055624.3075950
  • Alavesa P, Korhonen O, Sepponen J, Martinviita M, Abdrado M, Pakanen M, Koskela T & Pouke M (2017), “Janitor run: Studying the effects of realistic mirror world like game scenes on game experience”, Proc. 9th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), Athens, Greece, 179-180. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2017.8056595
  • Kukka H, Pakanen M, Badri M, & Ojala T (2017), “Immersive Street-level Social Media in the 3D Virtual City: Anticipated User Experience and Conceptual Development”, Proc. ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW), Portland, USA, 2422-2435. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2998181.2998341
  • Badri M, Pakanen M, Alavesa P, Kukka H & Ojala T (2017), “Design, development, and usability evaluation of a system for adding and editing social media banners in the immersive street-level 3D virtual city”, Proc. 9th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games), Athens, Greece, 102-108. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1109/VS-GAMES.2017.8056577
  • Alavesa P, Pakanen M, Voroshilov A, Kukka H, Samodelkin A, Ojala T & Pouke M (2017), “City Knights: Spatial Realism of a Virtual Game Scene and Memorability while Playing a Pervasive Role Playing Game”, Proc. 9th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-Games), Athens, Greece, 71–78. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2017.8055813
  • Pouke M, Koskela T, Günes S, Matero M, Ojala K, Pajukangas J, Pietikäinen N & Ojala T (2016), “3D visualization of a public transportation system”, Proc. 15th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM), Rovaniemi, Finland, 377-379. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3012709.3017605
  • Pouke M, Goncalves J, Ferreira D & Kostakos V (2016), “Practical simulation of virtual crowds using points of interest”, Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 57, 118-129. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compenvurbsys.2016.02.004
  • Alavesa P, Samodelkin A, Jääskelä E, Tanskanen R, Li B, Ojala T & Kukka H (2016), “Campus knights: situated pervasive display as a window into pseudo-immersive game world”, Proc. 5th ACM International Symposium on Pervasive Displays (PerDis), Oulu, Finland, 132–139. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2914920.2915011
  • Ylipulli J, Kangasvuo J, Alatalo T & Ojala T (2016), “Chasing Digital Shadows: Exploring Future Hybrid Cities through Anthropological Design Fiction”, Proc. 9th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (NordiCHI), Gothenburg, Sweden. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2971485.2993923
  • Samodelkin A, Alavesa P & Voroshilov A (2016), “A platform for pervasive games for research”, Proc. 15th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM), Rovaniemi, Finland, 335–337. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3012709.3016066
  • Alavesa P & Ojala T (2015), “Street art gangs: location based hybrid reality game”,  Proc. 14th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia (MUM), Linz, Austria, 64–74. PDF DOI=http://doi.org/10.1145/2836041.2836047
  • Alavesa P, Ojala T & Zanni D (2014), “Props: 3D-game-like mediator for improvisational storytelling”, Entertainment Computing, 5(4), 381–390. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.entcom.2014.10.003
  • Alavesa P & Zanni D (2013), “Combining storytelling tradition and pervasive gaming”, Proc. 5th International Conference on Games and Virtual Worlds for Serious Applications (VS-GAMES), Bournemouth, UK, 1-4. PDF DOI=http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/VS-GAMES.2013.6624224

CONTACT

Prof. Timo Ojala
Center for Ubiquitous Computing
University of Oulu

DISCLAIMER

All content related to VirtualOulu are provided as is without any guarantees for correctness and quality.