Sistine Chapel

http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/index.html

by z0a • 12 years ago

608 235 12 years ago

sheltgor2• 12 years ago

Having never had the opportunity to actually see this in person, yet seeing god knows how many prints, its fascinating to see the whole room in perspective and just how monumental of an artistic achievement this was. Lots of components I'd never seen that had me starting for minutes. Only thing I wish was that there was a way to zoom.

ArcticCelt• 12 years ago

Only thing I wish was that there was a way to zoom

Use the scroll wheel on your mouse.

sheltgor2• 12 years ago

That... actually works.

I was using the touchpad on my laptop and it wasn't responding so I assumed it could zoom. Just tried it with my mouse and it works perfect.

staz• 12 years ago

You can actually zoom with the button on the bottom left (or with ctrl/shift). Just too bad there is not other PoV

eli• 12 years ago

'A' and 'Z' buttons work too

jowiar• 12 years ago

The whole building is like that - the walls and ceilings of the Vatican museum are one of the finest art collections on the planet, let alone the things that are hanging on the walls.

It's worth an experience - the potential of something like the Oculus to mass-produce the experience of being there is fantastic.

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

Very nice. In fact, almost nicer than being there (though you should do that anyway if you get the chance). Because now you can experience the details for as long as you want without a hundred other people around you who are just as annoyed at you as you are at them.

I get it that a tourist complaining about tourist attractions being too crowded is total hypocrisy on my part. But at the same time what I wouldn't give to be able to stand in that chapel for as long as I wanted just to look, all by myself. And now I can. We live in amazing times.

Be sure to look 'up' and use the zoom feature.

The only improvement I can think of is a 'link' icon that you can use to cut-and-paste a certain viewpoint + zoom so that you can show others specific details, and two more viewpoints at the end and the beginning (so you don't lose the corners due to distortion).

tvon• 12 years ago

Reminds me of this enjoyable quote:

Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded. - Yogi Bera

Locke1689• 12 years ago

Having tried the Oculus Rift, the potential to experience this would be incredible. Although there's nothing quite like just sitting on a worn stone bench alone in a cathedral, just the chill air around you.

It often makes me wish for a non-religious religion -- just a refuge of tranquility.

soperj• 12 years ago

I've gotten that feeling at the San Fran Aquarium. There are some benches where big fish can swim over head. Unbelievably peaceful and cool when there aren't a ton of kids running around(ie: get there early)

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

Mankind has made the most incredible art inspired by religion. Along the same lines, Bach's Chorales and in fact quite a bit of his other work.

Try this, if you feel like some really nice classical music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC3Upv8DuRQ

walden423• 12 years ago

It often makes me wish for a non-religious religion -- just a refuge of tranquility.

Have you looked into Buddhism yet? Because that's exactly one of the ways I'd describe it--a non-religion whose focus is on tranquility.

If you haven't looked into yet, this is a great easy-to-read book to start with: http://www.amazon.com/Peace-Every-Step-Mindfulness-Everyday/...

Lucadg• 12 years ago

a non-religious religion is what I dream about too! After many years despising religion (I am Italian, I know what Rome actually means) I traveled the world and learned that religion actually serves some high purposes. I really miss being religious, so if you build a non-religious one, count me in! sounds almost like a good start-up idea :)

seanmcdirmid2• 12 years ago

It often makes me wish for a non-religious religion -- just a refuge of tranquility.

Like Buddhism? Try chilling in a Tibetan high altitude monastery someday.

gabordemooij• 12 years ago

It often makes me wish for a non-religious religion -- just a refuge of tranquility.

How about belief in logic? Like the Vulcans ;)

drjesusphd2• 12 years ago

I agree, I've thought about this often. I find old universities provide something close. If it weren't for all the damn students...

return0• 12 years ago

You'd have to be actually working in the Vatican and have exclusive access to the chapel to do that.

Swizec• 12 years ago

There's a line from a great Robin Williams movie where he talks about life to a gifted kid "I bet you can tell me every little detail about the Sistine Chapel, but you can't tell me what it smells like."

It smells like sweaty humans being herded through like cattle as quickly as possible.

iterationx• 12 years ago

Also your neck is not meant to really look up for very long periods of time.

b_emery• 12 years ago

It's from good will hunting: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119217/quotes

lmm2• 12 years ago

That argument really infuriated me. How does it not just boil down to "You're younger than me, therefore your opinion is invalid"?

pavel_lishin• 12 years ago

It's 100% better than being there. They keep it dark (presumably to preserve the paint), they lead you through a long gallery of mostly-similar art of mostly-similar vintages, and then you're surrounded by a hundred other tourists, all trying to squint upwards and catch a glimpse of the famous artwork.

If you love history and art, then sure, it's 100% worth it. Otherwise, I'd skip it. (caveat: if you do, you will have to deal with everyone you ever meet chastising you for skipping it.)

bane2• 12 years ago

And without the guards yelling "NO PHOTO!!!" every 10-20 seconds at people who dare to try to get a photo of the chapel that's not nearly as nice as this.

1 - http://mentalfloss.com/article/54641/reason-why-no-photograp...

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

That's two reasons, not just copyright, and the millions of flashbulbs discharging there over the course of a short timespan would for sure have an effect on the lifespan of the work.

So that's a good thing for a bad reason and I totally sympathize with the position of the stewards of this amazing work.

I have a super nice story about this but I'm actually somewhat hesitant to tell it in detail in public, but I once discharged about a few 10's MW/m^2 of light concentrated on a very small part of a very famous painting.

How I got away with that will have to remain an untold story, but let's just say that my consultancy endeavours take me to interesting places and allow me to do interesting things.

k-mcgrady• 12 years ago

I heard rumours they were considering closing the Sistine chapel to the public because people were using flashes when taking photos and it had the potential to damage the artwork.

I don't see why you would bother taking photos anyway. Go in and enjoy it. In a place so crowded your unlikely to get a good photo and there are plenty of photos already online for you to look at.

nsrivast• 12 years ago

Pro tip: get in line sufficiently before closing time that you are guaranteed entry. Proceed through the first few rooms, then loiter. Move much slower than the horde of crowds flowing through the halls. Spend an hour looking through the early exhibits (I could spend a day in the room of tapestry maps alone), until the entrance is closed and the crowd thins. Make your way to the chapel and enjoy until they kick you out - I was in there for 15 minutes with just a few other people! (Albeit in October, not "peak" season).

laichzeit0• 12 years ago

It's also annoying as hell being around a group of people interested in nothing more than documenting the fact that they're at said place, instead of actually just enjoying the moment.

There's hundreds of photos of the crap you're taking photos off. Just enjoy the moment and make it less touristy for everyone around you as well.

nly• 12 years ago

I don't know... I recall the interior being very quiet, with a really good atmosphere. I remember being amazed by the geometry of the ceiling, which you can't really see from this site. It's very much 'over-hyped' in some sense though, If you're not really a fan of great art I can see it being a 'meh' moment.

P.S. Tourists are worse at Pisa.

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

I've been there twice, once long ago and once more recently, the last time was terrible.

iaskwhy• 12 years ago

I'd like to add the rest of the museum seemed really good and very relaxing since most people just wanted to see this famous fresco. It's quite big (thus tiring) though.

atmosx2• 12 years ago

I think the real thing gives you a better sense of the mastery artists (Michaelangelo) have put into this. It's majestic, really.

pingec• 12 years ago

The photo is way nicer than for real. Especially since for tourists the room is much darker normally in order to preserve the art better.

Istof• 12 years ago

very nice, but the textures look somewhat cartoonish/unreal... is that how it really looks?

drjesusphd2• 12 years ago

Yes!

neltnerb5• 12 years ago

Only thing that I would change, would be to add Easter eggs.

frik2• 12 years ago

look down on the floor, there is one!

Walkman2• 12 years ago

And without the guard constantly clapping and saying "SSSSSSSHHHHH", very annoying indeed.

nitrogen• 12 years ago

Meta comment about the panorama interface:

The click+drag view control feels inverted to me. I'm curious whether I'm in the minority, though. For FPS games on PC I use normal mouse, but for console FPS games I use inverted joystick.

baddox• 12 years ago

The reason it feels inverted is because it's not "click and drag" in the normal sense (like Google Maps) where clicking and holding sets an anchor point, and moving the cursor moves the anchor point.

This is more like a virtual joystick. Clicking and holding establishes the neutral point of the joystick, and the cursor position relative to the neutral point is the velocity vector of camera movement. It behaves the same as the right hand joystick in a console FPS like Halo with a traditional (non-inverted) control scheme.

nandhp• 12 years ago

Yes, it feels inverted to me too.

You know who's responsible for that? Google Maps (specifically Street View). There used to be a bunch of different 360° Java applets and QuickTime VR embeds that did it this way; now they all feel backwards.

acadien• 12 years ago

Just FYI the keyboard controls are much easier to use (arrow keys + shift/control to zoom).

lucb1e• 12 years ago

Feels normal to me, though I'd expect the movement to stop when I stop moving my mouse (instead it continues till I release the mouse button), but I got used to it quickly enough...

lostlogin3• 12 years ago

It works beautifully on a touch screen. The only downside being that you can only zoom a very short distance. It is otherwise perfect on mobile.

blueblob• 12 years ago

Let me preface this with my thoughts being that this was super cool, but I felt the same way. It is amazing that this was done in the 1400s, computer graphics and everything... I also found it annoying that double click didn't zoom.

kissickas• 12 years ago

I assume most people do what I did, and try to look up at the ceiling immediately... showing you the copyright notice on the floor. Maybe that was intentional?

I wasn't fond about the forced orientation. If I tried to look at the paintings "above" The Creation of Man, I had to rotate, meaning four or so panels could only be viewed upside-down.

james33• 12 years ago

Just wait until they add VR support!

aashaykumar92• 12 years ago

Very cool. This got me thinking: there are many tourist sites where people aren't allowed to go anymore because of safety/security issues. It would be awesome if the site coordinators (or whoever makes executive decisions on such things) would make pages like this one available on their websites for their respective tourist attractions. And in more POVs.

shriphani• 12 years ago

Excerpt from "When the Author Was Painting the Vault of the Sistine Chapel" by Michelangelo:

  My painting is dead.
  Defend it for me, Giovanni, protect my honor. 
  I am not in the right place—I am not a painter

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/poem/2010/01/labor_pains....

atmosx2• 12 years ago

incredible...

nthitz• 12 years ago

If you look straight down "Copyright Musei Vaticani". Is that really on the floor at the Sistine Chapel or just for this web version?

ceejayoz• 12 years ago

They probably replaced the camera tripod with that.

j2kun• 12 years ago

Having never visited, I did not realize until how high the density of nudity per square meter was.

tormeh2• 12 years ago

There are uncovered breasts! Penises! Can't find any vulvas unfortunately. It's funny to think that they would have to censor this on American television because of the religious right.

Another way to think of it: Miley Cyrus is actually more covered than many of the characters in the Sistine Chapel.

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

There was in those days significant opposition to the way the work was executed, which led the artist to pull some pranks on some of his most active detractors.

swang• 12 years ago

I believe if its "art" they don't need to censor it.

See: http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/will-michelangelos-david...

At the very least, they don't do any close ups.

salgernon• 12 years ago

Bush's attorney general would have it his way:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/valentine.asp

WoodenChair• 12 years ago

"It's funny to think that they would have to censor this on American television because of the religious right."

Re: What would fit on American television today.

Pretty specious argument. Just because something was appropriate in the 1400s, doesn't mean we have to find it appropriate today. We also don't find hanging people in public squares appropriate anymore, or a million other things...

There are arguments to be made in favor of allowing more nudity on television. "They used to do it back in the day" is not one of the good ones.

wrongc0ntinent• 12 years ago

All "offensive" details in The Last Judgement were covered soon after Michelangelo's death (1564). The fresco was restored 1980-1994, without the added loincloths, but a couple of the figures were actually heavily modified and impossible to restore. [0]

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Judgment_(Michelangelo...

80• 12 years ago

For more renaissance goodness check out this site on the Ghent Altarpiece - zooms so far in that you can see between the paint cracks:

http://closertovaneyck.kikirpa.be/#home/sub=altarpiece

Geee• 12 years ago

Wow, that's center piece is incredible. I don't think it's humanly possible to paint something like that.

okbake• 12 years ago

Thats awesome. Any idea whats going on with the X-ray versions of Adam and Eve? There seems to be things going on that arn't visible in the other views. Maybe its where they painted over another painting?

trhway• 12 years ago

it may be nitpicking, yet - the projection seems strange at the borders of the viewport. And there are a lot of 3d TVs/monitors out there - could have done a 3d version :)

sergiotapia• 12 years ago

The moneyshot: http://imgur.com/aiBLxXD

Absolutely breathtaking!

Heliosmaster• 12 years ago

For the soundtrack: http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/sistina_vr/music/Sist...

(from the source: Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - 5. BenedictusTP1(Simon Preston: Westminster Abbey ChoirTCM"Giovanni Pierluigi Da PalestrinaTAL6Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli - Allegri: Miserere)

JonnieCache2• 12 years ago

I saw a thing on TV once where some religious historian lady was pointing out how the robe enclosing god as he reaches out to adam resembles the human brain in cross section. She speculated that Michelangelo may have been leaving a clue as to what he really thought of his employers, based on his attendance at banned human dissections around that time.

(It was a serious programme about art history BTW, not some conspiracy nonsense. Wish I could remember the name.)

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2010/05/27/mi...

JonnieCache2• 12 years ago

The plot thickens...

reledi• 12 years ago

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Creation_of_Adam#Anatomical...

bostonpete2• 12 years ago

This is an extreme violation of the Chapel's no photography rule. I hope they catch whoever did this.

radley• 12 years ago

It's the Vatican's own web site...

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

I'm assuming you wrote that comment before your morning coffee...

adambenayoun3• 12 years ago

I always wondered why there's a no photography rule. Is it because of copyright or because it's a sacred site? (Although the mere fact that we're watching a 360 photo on the site means that it's probably copyright).

bostonpete2• 12 years ago

Oh come on. I know HN hates humor but this was obviously said in jest. Not only is it on the Vatican website, but the entire room was obviously cleared out to get this shot.

morkfromork• 12 years ago

Probably some glasshole.

audiodude• 12 years ago

Just remember: whatever piece of code you're working on right now; whatever tiny feature on a tiny website you're trying to implement; that is your Sistine Chapel.

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

I can't figure out if this is meant to inspire or to depress.

duncanawoods• 12 years ago

How true - a death march project of absurd scope driven by the ego of a tyrannical leader forcing you to use a technology you have barely any experience of, or interest in, taking you away from your real passion and expertise under threat of destitution.

You slave away day in day out through illness, injury and 1000 anxieties but, as someone once said... artists ship :)

adambenayoun3• 12 years ago

Funny - I just got back from Rome 2 days ago and was in the Vatican - imagine the surprise when I saw this on top of of Hacker News.

The experience of being in the sistine chapel is nice but a bit spoiled by the fact that there are hundreds of tourists in the chapel as well and Italian guards are pushing you to move and be in the center (Often yelling at tourist who aren't moving fast enough and throwing out of the chapel anyone trying to take a picture).

switch007• 12 years ago

I was there last week but we did the evening tour (8pm). Not very crowded at all - I had time to sit on the benches and stand as long as I liked in the centre.

The evening tours are seasonal I believe.

JunkDNA• 12 years ago

This is one of those cases where (having not used one) I sincerely hope the Oculus Rift can bring something more to the experience compared to what we have now.

What you can't get from your computer screen is the scale of it all. You can intellectually get it by looking around at reference points in the image, but you can't feel it the way you can when you are there.

This would be especially true if one had a similar view of St. Peter's. There's almost no way to convey the sheer enormity of it without actually physically being there. That's one of the things I remember the most from my visit: that feeling of being so tiny inside this massive, ornate indoor space that is so big, there's a haze when you look from end to end.

AJ007• 12 years ago

The software running this Sistine Chapel panorama supports the Rift: http://krpano.com/stereo3d/#top

You just need to take a two image panorama photo to begin with.

I've seen a few 3D 360 videos in my Oculus Rift. There is little doubt that in the future instead of shooting 2D photos we will be capture 3D 360 degree video with geometry data. Imagine strapping on the headset and seeing yourself as a toddler taking your first steps. Pretty wild stuff.

qq66• 12 years ago

Really awesome stuff. I wonder why they chose this level of maximum resolution -- from the Gigapixel images it's clear that they could support zooming into the individual paint cracks, although with the publicity that this is getting, that might have incurred extreme bandwidth costs.

klunger• 12 years ago

When I was a kid, my parents took me to Disney World. It was a long time ago, childhood amnesia and so on, so forgive the fuzzy details here... But basically, they had a very early version of virtual reality (a headset a la Oculus Rift). They chose the same imagery, so I was immersed in the Sistine Chapel. I remember being deeply impressed at the time (although I was a kid, so who knows how great it actually was). Regardless, I have never been to Italy and have wanted to go ever since that experience.

zz12• 12 years ago

Am I the only one finding it ironic that they used (Adobe) Flash to show the chapel to the whole world, when tourists can't use (camera) flash to show it to their close friends?

Well, just jacquesm, I simpathize with the stewards: "please, no flash" :(

SG-• 12 years ago

i just find it ironic they used flash since there's webgl solutions now for this that would work on mobile devices a lot better.

zz12• 12 years ago

At the same time you have to consider that this isn't new, as already pointed out.

brianzelip• 12 years ago

What role do you think the `Sistine-Chapel.xml` file, included in the html source's `embedpano` script, plays?

pbhjpbhj4• 12 years ago

Looks to control display according to device type and music playing.

araes• 12 years ago

Anyone have the technical info on how this was done and put together? Looking at other pages, it appears this was created by Villanova University in Pennsylvania (http://www1.villanova.edu/main.html) for the Vatican, and they appear to have several folks actively publishing in photogrammetry journals. It looks like it was done with some very high quality photogrammetry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photogrammetry), and I'd be interested to see what program they used, and if its available, as my agency could probably find some uses for it.

cflee• 12 years ago

For those who haven't found the other pages: there are a total of 8 basilicas and chapels that have been rendered in this fashion.

http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/index_en.html (English page)

sytelus• 12 years ago

You know what would be cool? If I can click on those painting and read story underlying each of them. I can read that all day long.

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

Second best, scroll down to 'Content':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling

and

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4d/Sis...

weinzierl• 12 years ago

I know that Paul Debevec worked in the Sistine Chapel. Is this his work?

Xcelerate• 12 years ago

Cool! Although it kind of stutters a little bit as I move around (very very minimally but just enough to break the flow). MBPR 2012, Chrome.

ulfw• 12 years ago

Super cool!

rrradical• 12 years ago

This game has good graphics, but I'm not really into the art style. They should get a new texture artist.

l33tbro2• 12 years ago

Wow - though music a bit too much.

coldcode2• 12 years ago

Palestrina. You couldn't get more appropriate music for the times this was painted. I think a couple decades after.

l33tbro2• 12 years ago

Not saying the music choice is inappropriate - I think it fits the piece perfectly. But - IMO - art spectatorship should be sober and limited only to elments the artist intended. So any use of extra music to enhance my experience feels redundant. But hey, that's why we have the mute button :D

afonsopraca• 12 years ago

old stuff

rail2rail• 12 years ago

I was luck enough to score an after hours (nightime) guided tour of the Basilica (including this chapel) several years ago. We nearly had the entire place to ourselves and saw rooms that were kept off the general tour. We saw stone that is now extinct and art that melted my face. We lingered so long the guards chased us out. There are no words for how beautiful this place is.

atriix• 12 years ago

Too bad, what ever it is I'm not gonna be able to se it. ERROR: "Adobe Flash Player 9/10 or higher needed"

grimmdude• 12 years ago

Looks like flash is still good for something.

csense• 12 years ago

Needs WASD to move, and a more "standard" mouselook.

lockes5hadow• 12 years ago

For real. WASD would be a huge improvement.

bobbles• 12 years ago

When I was in the Sistine Chapel a couple of years ago, someone opened that big black door at the back of the hall (between the two wooden walls).

This was not the tourist exit, and inside there were huge beautiful golden hallways with exquisite paintings all around.

Does anyone know if this part of the chapel is visible or recorded anywhere?

christiangenco• 12 years ago

From my high school AP Art History class, I believe that door is where the priest would enter. I vaguely remember something about a controversy when it was revealed that Michelangelo put the depiction of hell in the lower right (directly above the door) with the tormented characters pointing at it.

For the life of me I can't find verification of this online, though, so hopefully Mr. J (my APAH teacher) wasn't just making it up.

Edit: Ahh wait, I think you were talking about a different door. Mine is a smaller black door in the lower right of The Last Judgement.

pshin45• 12 years ago

Hah, got me thinking maybe PG's pre-Viaweb startup idea to put art galleries on the Web was just too far ahead of its time[1].

[1] http://paulgraham.com/bronze.html

pjbrunet2• 12 years ago

VRML was a big deal back in 1994. At least it was supposed to be ;-)

riffraff• 12 years ago

I'm 90% sure the vatican did this basilicas 3D browser in VRML more than a decade ago but I can't seem to find any proof on archive.org :)

chrismcb3• 12 years ago

From an American copyright point of view... Is this copyrightable? It is a reproduction of a work of art that is no longer under copyright. The image itself offers no creativity, other than as a reproduction.

CognitiveLens• 12 years ago

other 360° views: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/index_en.html

pithon• 12 years ago

I've been looking for Waldo for hours now. No luck.

Oculus• 12 years ago

Has the actual Chapel aged so well or have the images been reworked to give show more color?

jedberg2• 12 years ago

They recently had a multi-year restoration.

Before that it was almost completely black from soot and smoke.

pjbrunet2• 12 years ago

Relatively recently ;-)

According to Google "The frescoes of the Sistine Chapel and in particular the ceiling and accompanying lunettes by Michelangelo have been subject to a number of restorations, the most recent taking place between 1980 and 1994."

mhartl• 12 years ago

It has been extensively restored: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_of_the_Sistine_Chap...

marcfawzi3• 12 years ago

There's nothing technically novel about this. It's also kind of offensive given the mass genocide committed in the name of religion. Hacker News turning to Christian News.

hdyeh683• 12 years ago

The biggest genocides were committed by these atheist regimes -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Stalin

Here's one excerpt, "Raised in the Georgian Orthodox faith, Stalin became an atheist. He followed the position that religion was an opiate that needed to be removed in order to construct the ideal communist society. His government promoted atheism through special atheistic education in schools, anti-religious propaganda, the anti-religious work of public institutions (Society of the Godless), discriminatory laws, and a terror campaign against religious believers. By the late 1930s, it had become dangerous to be publicly associated with religion.[97]"

marcfawzi3• 12 years ago

That hardly obfuscates the fact that people WERE mass murdered in the name of religion.

huskyr• 12 years ago

This must be one of the best examples of a straw man argument i've read :)

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

I can separate the work of the man that created this from religion, and I don't see your link between this work of art and genocide. And that's from someone who strongly identifies as an atheist. It's impossible to see something like this that someone worked on for approximately 5 years and not both respect it, be awed by its technical mastery and to appreciate the fact that it came to us through hundreds of years in the state in which it is today.

HN is at absolutely no risk of becoming Christian News because of this particular link. If anything it shows that even the Vatican can go with the times, which means there is hope of further enlightenment in the future.

logn• 12 years ago

This is amazing. The paintings make a lot more sense seeing them in context.

Also, who knew, the Vatican knows how to hire good software engineers. I guess they did hire Michelangelo too though.

gilgoomesh• 12 years ago

For a room where you spent the whole time looking up... that gimbal lock is really annoying.

Quaternions, please?

lifeisstillgood• 12 years ago

on a thread dominated by insightful comments on religion history and art I hate to do this but ... I can't get pinch to zoom to get in close on the iPhone - is the image only "as seen from ground level" or can you really get up close if using a PC?

mariuolo• 12 years ago

Sixteen chapel? What about the other fifteen?;)

sirdogealot• 12 years ago

Now if they could only add in bing-like hyperlinks to every depictable image in there so I could actually know what I'm looking at!

Very, very beautiful site though and wonderfully fresh idea coming from such an arcane institution. I like it a lot.

frik2• 12 years ago

Saint Peters VR-Tour:

http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/M...

more Saint Peter VR-Tours: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/san_pietro/vr_tour/i...

more Vatican VR-Tours: http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/index_en.html

  Special thanks to Villanova University in Pennsylvania (USA)
  for its contribution to the realization of the Virtual 
  Reality Tour of the Sistine Chapel

-- http://www.vatican.va/various/cappelle/index_sistina_en.htm

The Sistine Chapel HTML file contains some commented text:

  Photography: Chad Fahs & Paul Wilson, Villanova Department of Communication
  Stitching & Image Correction: Chad Fahs & Paul Wilson
  iOS conversion of the entire site is done courtesy of
  the Villanova Center of Excellence in Enterprise Technology
  and the Villanova Computer Science Department
  contact: Frank.Klassner@villanova.edu

jacquesm27• 12 years ago

Please add "(2010)" to the headline (see copyright on the chapel floor)

I think (1508) would be more appropriate.

soheil• 12 years ago

that's gay!

marcfawzi3• 12 years ago

I went from Seventy Two to Sisty Four (sic) karma points all because of this stupid chapel. Get over your religious nostalgia and get back to real tech news... Thanks.

pinkskip• 12 years ago

I love the internet and this is why!

Walkman2• 12 years ago

The performance of this is crazy good. I clicked from mobile and the scrolling was very fast and smooth, which is strange because the desktop version is flash I think :O

SimeVidas• 12 years ago

I'd have preferred WebGL over Flash.

Thiz• 12 years ago

Can't admire.

I am flash impaired.

Shivetya• 12 years ago

I would hope that museums across the world along with locations like this would have this technology applied. I would not mind small fees to use on private collections.

opinali• 12 years ago

I like how God has these really buff arms... He must bench-press at least 225lb.

Sistine Chapel

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