Category: Research

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Research Sheet: Historical Events for Immersive Project

Time Period: 1666

The fire began in the early hours of September 2 and burned uncontrollably for four days, finally being contained on September 6.

Location:

Pudding Lane, City of London

The fire started in a bakery owned by Thomas Farriner and quickly spread across the densely populated area of central London, devastating homes, businesses, and landmarks.


Historical Significance:

The Great Fire of London was a transformative event in the city’s history. It destroyed over 13,000 homes, 87 parish churches, and iconic structures like St. Paul’s Cathedral. It marked the end of medieval London and paved the way for modern urban planning and fire safety measures, including the widespread use of brick and stone in rebuilding efforts. Sir Christopher Wren’s redesign of St. Paul’s Cathedral became a symbol of the city’s resilience and rebirth.

Visual Potential:

This event offers dramatic visual storytelling possibilities:

  1. The spread of flames taking down timber-framed buildings.
  2. Detailed recreations of 17th-century London’s architecture and street life before or after the fire.
  3. etc.

Interactive Opportunities

  1. Allow users to explore Pudding Lane as the fire begins and spreads.
  2. Interact with historical figures like Samuel Pepys or King Charles II, learning about their roles during the disaster.
  3. Discover how firebreaks were created and experience the challenges of containing the fire.
  4. Offer a chance to rebuild parts of the city, pass a brick to the worker, etc.



Challenges or Constraints:

  1. Creating realistic and immersive fire animations that can run smoothly in VR.
  2. Accurately convey this historical events with engaging storytelling.
  3. Representing the scale and intensity of the events within the given timeframe.

    Event Summary (What Happened)
  4. The Great Fire of London was a catastrophic event that began in a bakery on Pudding Lane. It spread rapidly across the city, fueled by strong winds and the densely packed timber-framed buildings. Over the course of four days, the fire destroyed thousands of homes, businesses, and iconic landmarks, including the original St. Paul’s Cathedral. The disaster reshaped the city, leading to significant changes in urban planning and fire safety regulations, as well as the construction of new buildings in stone and brick.
  5. This event offers immense visual potential for an immersive experience, featuring dramatic flames, smoke-filled skies, and the chaotic evacuation of residents. Users could interact with historical figures like Samuel Pepys, explore the unfolding disaster in real-time, and learn about the containment efforts. However, the project would need to address challenges such as creating realistic fire animations, maintaining historical accuracy, and handling the sensitive aspects of the destruction. Primary sources like Samuel Pepys’ diaries, historical maps, and Museum of London archives provide invaluable resources for accurate storytelling.
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Research about 360 and 180 VR Video

360º180º
ProsIs easier to shoot and less distortion in the view perspective.High degree of freedom, which is suitable for strong interactive and exploratory types of games.No boundary, Greater sense of Presence.no need to remove the photographer by roto in post production.Good to experiment with better visual quality.The focus of the audience’s attention is clearer. May be more narrative friendly to catch audience’s attention.
ConsThe photographer must be present in the video, and more time is needed to remove them from the shot.Too much information may affects the audience’s focus and can be confusing.The visual quality is relatively poor.Diziness, More likely to cause motion sickness.Lens distortion appears more pronounced when it’s near the edges of the video boarder.The edge may affect the immersive experience and Presence.
  1. Reduced Resolution: VR360 splits resolution across a larger field of view (FOV), effectively halving the resolution compared to VR180. This exacerbates the already low resolution of VR content, making it less tolerable for viewers..
  2. No Place to Hide Equipment: Unlike VR180, VR360 makes it difficult to conceal crew, equipment, or staging elements. This often leads to unnatural setups or compromised visuals.
  3. Uninteresting Rear Views: Much of the 360° FOV is often wasted, as there’s usually little or no action behind the camera. This leads to sections of the video being filler, detracting from overall engagement.
  4. Navigation Fatigue: Users often need to constantly scan around to find the interesting parts of the content in VR360. This can quickly become frustrating and detract from the viewing experience, especially given the limited FOV of most VR headsets (~90°).
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Research For Event Ideas

What did the Great Fire destroy?

The flames ran riot through the city, going east to the Tower of London and west as far as the Temple. The scale of destruction was greater than the Blitz in the 1940s.

The fire claimed 13,200 houses and 87 churches. It tore through Cheapside, London’s main street. It destroyed the Guildhall – the home of London’s government. And it wrecked the old St Paul’s Cathedral.

In this plan of the city from our collection, the area destroyed by fire is shown in white. When archaeologists dig in London, they often find a layer of scorched debris from the fire – a lot of it has ended up in our collection.