The basis for creating a 3D presentation is to take pictures of an object - in our case, usually a castle - with a classic camera. This involves both taking pictures using an unmanned aerial vehicle - a drone, and classically from the ground. The number of photographs from different angles is usually around 1,000. In addition to the existing building, a scale model of the castle is often photographed showing the castle in an earlier historical period - so that a user can switch between the current and earlier construction phase. Photographing a castle usually takes a whole day. Due to the flight of the drone, it requires a closure of the site and so the event needs to be planned well in advance.
In addition to taking photos for the photogrammetry purposes, photos are also taken at the same time to be inserted into the 3D presentation. Both classic photographs and panoramic photographs, which in the 3D model allow you to visit and walk around the indoor areas or look around the wide surroundings thanks to the panoramic photography from the drone.
Once the object has been photographed, all the photos are uploaded to a specialized software, which generates a 3D model based on them. When we started with photogrammetry, the first application we used was Pix4D. However, we quickly found that the 3D models generated in Pix4D were not quite the best and we looked for better alternatives. And we found Agisoft Metashape. The 3D models generated in Metashape were much better than in Pix4D. Both the mesh itself and the textures were much more detailed and cleaner. With Agisoft we have rendered a lot of 3D models and we continue to use it for some projects. But after a while, we tried Metashape's main competitor, Reality Capture. There wasn't as much difference between the two as there used to be between Pix4D and Metashape, but there were still noticeable differences in mesh quality, where Reality Capture was able to reconstruct some models better and with better details. Reality Capture has thus become our main software for reconstructing 3D models, but we continue to use Agisoft Metashape for some projects. As Metashape generates much better textures in some cases.
After generating the 3D model and cleaning it up, it needs to be uploaded to the web so that it can be inserted on the 3DČesko.cz website. This is similar to how you upload a video to YouTube before you embed it on your website. We use Kroscloud for this purpose. Kroscloud allows you to upload a 3D model and enrich it with other interactive elements such as points of interest, photos and panoramic photos, which are very popular on 3DCesko.cz, which allow you to switch from the outdoor 3D model to the interior spaces.
Another unique feature of Kroscloud is the ability to switch the displayed layer of the 3D model - a feature that allows 3DCesko to show the castle's former appearance, as it looked in the 13th century. You can compare the different construction phases and more easily understand how the castle has evolved over time.
Kroscloud then allows you to embed its 3D viewer with the created 3D presentation into your own website - just like YouTube, for example.
And there we are, after the embedding of the Kroscloud's viewer you can view it on 3DCesko.cz
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