Segontium was a Roman fort that played an important part in the often difficult conquest of North Wales. According to CADW it was founded by Agricola in 77 AD after local tribe the Ordovices were brutally repressed. Built to house 1000 auxiliary soldiers from Belgium and Germany (see Wikipedia), the ruins near Caernarfon are amazingly well preserved and most definitely worth a visit. And when I last visited I couldn’t resist taking lots of photos for creating a 3D photogrammetry scan of the amazing Roman cellar remains you can find in the area of the principia (the headquarters of the Roman fort).
Quick summary of this 3D creation
Overview: A low-polygon 3D model of a Roman cellar.
Location: Segontium Roman fort, Caernarfon, North Wales [map].
Date/era: Roman.
Software used: Kiri Engine, Meshmixer, Blender.
Intended use: Digital only (textured low-polygon).
Download: Sketchfab page (non-commercial license).
The scan was created using the amazing Kiri Engine photogrammetry system, by uploading 200 12 megapixel smartphone images (I had another 20 but the Kiri Engine pro plan maxes out at 200). I chose medium quality settings for the texture (to get a 2048×2048 pixel image) and for the mesh, as this project was intended only for digital use. You can view the finished scan on Sketchfab below (click the play button to load the scan and move it around).
A number of PC programs were used to make the finished scan. To start off I used Meshmixer to orient and trim the mesh, simply because I find the plane-cutting tool very quick and easy. The texture image was then enhanced in Paint Shop Pro and the mesh decimated, to around 10% of the original vertices, in Blender. You can see the quality of the resulting texture image and mesh below.
And that’s it for this post so I hope you enjoyed this 3D scan of an awesome old Welsh Roman cellar 🙂
