The Plymouth Recreation Project
November 28, 2017 – Present
Unreal Engine
Blender
HTC Vive
C++
The Plymouth Recreation Project is a project aimed at capturing the lost city of Plymouth, Montserrat, and preserving it in virtual space for the present and future generations of Montserratians and visitors. The project encompasses constructing the city from road and geographical plans as well as images taken of locations within the city. This project affords users a chance to walk through the streets of Plymouth in virtual reality.
The city of Plymouth was destroyed by a series of volcanic eruptions taking place from 1994 – 1997. Before this, the city was the vibrant capital of Montserrat and is a place of many fond memories of those who experienced the city. The goal of this project is to capture these memories and create a virtual experience, where people can explore the city as it once was. We see this project as a very important one, and envision it being used in education on Montserrat’s history as well as a tool to allow younger generations of Montserratians and other visitors to experience the lost city.
In March, 2018, we opened our project to the public for the first time during Montserrat’s St. Patrick’s festival period. The project was extremely well received with many persons remembering their way around Plymouth. Others who had not experienced Plymouth before welcomed this medium as a way to learn about the history of the city.
We also gained invaluable stories and recollections of the city and its surroundings, many of which we used to improve and make our project more accurate.
We also had an opportunity to take this project to Carifesta XIV, in Trinidad. Here our team demonstrated how to use the VR equipment and showcased the island of Montserrat. We were also hosted on the popular show TTT TV, out of Trinidad.
