After the tragic fire at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris yesterday, an unlikely source might be waiting in the wings to help out with the rebuilding process from the world of video gaming.
That might seem strange but bear with us. Apparently, the video game Assassin's Creed: Unity - made by games developer Ubisoft - might just have the key. 3D mapping technology.
If the early reports are to be believed, the building - which has been rescued from complete destruction following the efforts of the French emergency services - will be restored and rectified to as close to the original.
That's no mean feat, given the fact that the 800 year old Gothic cathedral is often talked about as one of the world's greatest and most important architectural gems.
Any attempted restoration would involve a whole heap of loving work, not to mention a load of money. The money is reportedly being donated by the French billionaire and husband of Salma Hayek, François-Henri Pinault.
A statement obtained by the French newspaper Le Figaro quoted Pinault as having said: "My father and myself have decided to release a sum of €100 million from our Artemis funds (the family holding company) to participate in the effort that will be necessary for the complete reconstruction of Notre-Dame."
Sure, that's going to help a massive amount, but how are they going to restore the building as faithfully as possible? That's where Ubisoft come in.
When they were making Assassin's Creed: Unity one of the major playable locations was Notre Dame Cathedral.
You see, a few years back one of the artists who worked on the game, Caroline Miousse, spoke with The Verge. In their article, they wrote: "In the case of the Notre Dame, easily the biggest structure in the game, it meant recreating a version of the cathedral that didn't actually exist at the time.
"Level artist Miousse spent literally years fussing over the details of the building. She pored over photos to get the architecture just right, and worked with texture artists to make sure that each brick was as it should be."
On top of that, they extensively mapped the cathedral using state of the art technology. This 3D mapping data could prove invaluable to the restoration of one of Paris' favourite landmarks.
LADbible has reached out to Ubisoft for comment on the matter.
Furthermore, the games company aren't the only ones to have used laser mapping on the grand old church.
In 2015, art historian Andrew Tallon mapped the church as well. A feature with Tallon in National Geographic said: "Laser scans, with their exquisite precision, don't miss a thing. Mounted on a tripod, the laser beam sweeps around the choir of a cathedral, for example, and measures the distance between the scanner and every point it hits.
"Each measurement is represented by a coloured dot, which cumulatively create a three-dimensional image of the cathedral. "If you've done your job properly," says Tallon, the scan is "accurate to within five millimeters [.5 centimeter]."
As yet, we don't know exactly what caused the fire or how extensive the damage is. Let's just hope they can help out and restore Notre Dame back to glory following this sad incident.
Featured Image Credit: PATopics: GAMING, World News, News, France