On March 23, 2026, Professor Hidenori Watanabe of the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies launched the “Syria 3D Archive,” a joint project with the NGO “Piece of Syria.” The
archive allows users to view 3D images of everyday life in Damascus and Aleppo, as well as the devastated cityscapes. Professor Watanabe says he will continue to update the archive.
Technically, the project utilizes 3D Gaussian Splatting (3DGS) data generated by the KIRI Engine. The .splat files are converted to .spz to reduce data size, and the automatically generated camera paths are played back in the local environment. Codex was used for coding. The “Syria 3D Archive” is available at syria.archiving.jp.
We have released the “Syria 3D Archive”. You can see everyday scenes in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria, as well as the state of the destroyed cities.
This is a joint project with Piece of Syria @piece_of_syria. We will continue to update it. pic.twitter.com/JWgZEyz5NB
— Hidenori Watanabe wtnv (@hwtnv) March 22, 2026
This article is an English translation of an original Japanese article, translated by the Mogura VR editorial team.
Reference
https://x.com/hwtnv/status/2035851949581750379
