Thessaloniki Jewish Heritage - A 3D Interactive Experience

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Project: Immersive 3D Map of Historical Thessaloniki
https://map.jct.gr/

This project is an interactive 3D reconstruction of old Thessaloniki, allowing users to fly through neighborhoods that no longer exist and explore their history in an immersive way.

Built with Three.js, the experience combines archival research with real-time graphics to bring the interwar city back to life.

Key Features

• Free-flight exploration through a fully reconstructed 3D city

• Scroll-driven storytelling with historical documents and contextual information

• Custom sound design to enhance immersion

• Stylized post-processing pipeline that gives the scene a hand-drawn aesthetic

Interactive Installation (Highlight)

The project was also developed as part of a large-scale interactive installation:

• Visitors scan physical archival documents

• The system triggers a fully immersive 3-wall projection experience

• Powered by 3 synchronized cameras/render pipelines, surrounding the viewer in the reconstructed city

The Core Concept

At the heart of the project is a 3D digital city, where entire neighborhoods of Thessaloniki’s past re-emerge through archival material.

Through scanned documents and historical records, users dive into the past and rediscover neighborhoods of Thessaloniki that were literally erased from the map.

Context

The project “Ιώσηπος” was implemented by the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, co-funded by the European Union (ESPA 2021–2027) under the Digital Transformation program.

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Would love your feedback from the Three.js community

[phil_crowther]

Nicely done.
I found the texturing on the screen to be distracting.
Is it supposed to tell a story? Or are we just supposed to wander the neighborhoods?
Perhaps a little history would be helpful. And what time frame - in Greece, interwar could mean the Peloponnesian War?

[Houman]

Such a huge project! How long did it take to create?

[Umbawa_Sarosong]

That’s a really impressive project. Reconstructing lost parts of a city and letting people explore them interactively is a powerful way to preserve cultural memory. The installation setup with scanned archival documents triggering a 3-wall projection experience is especially interesting.

I work on similar ideas but focused on social interactive cities. I can build entire heritage cities or modern cities, basically any city and at any scale, where people can explore together in real time. Instead of only viewing the environment, users can interact, move through spaces, and experience the city socially.

Here’s a small demo of a 3D world environment I’ve been working on:

https://theneoverse.web.app/#threeviewer&&sandyards-market

https://theneoverse.web.app/#threeviewer&&crateria

I’d be really interested in combining approaches like yours with social exploration, where historical cities can be experienced collaboratively by visitors online or in installations.

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Thank you! The project has been in development (research + production) for quite a long time, roughly 1.5–2 years, especially due to the archival work and reconstruction process. A big part of the effort was interpreting incomplete historical data and translating it into a coherent 3D environment.

From a development perspective, a significant portion of the work went into post-processing, rendering, and optimization at this scale of a 3D city. I also built a custom navigation system that allows users to “fly” through the environment in a very controlled way, using scroll to move between neighborhoods. On top of that, there’s integration of spatial sound design, document-triggered interactions, and overlaying archival material directly within the 3D world to better connect the historical content with the environment.

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Thanks, really appreciate the feedback!

I get what you mean about the texturing, it’s meant to feel handwritten and worn, like an old archival document, but it might be a bit too strong right now.

As for storytelling, each neighborhood presents its own historical info based on archival material, so it’s more a collection of small stories rather than one linear narrative. I avoided a strict start-to-end flow to keep exploration open, but I agree a short intro or guided entry point could help set the context better.

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Thanks a lot, really appreciate it!

Your work sounds really cool, especially the social, real-time aspect. I think collaboration could be a really interesting direction for my project as well, adding a shared layer to the experience.

I’ve also been thinking about introducing a first-person mode, so users could walk through neighborhoods more naturally, explore spaces, maybe even enter buildings and interact with the information more closely.

Definitely an exciting area to explore further!

[phil_crowther]

Yes, I get the texturing and worn appearance and I think that is great!

What I am talking about is the texture that is projected on the screen and doesn’t move, even when your view rotates. Perhaps you are trying to give the impression that we are looking through the mists of time, which is a worthwhile artistic endeavor. But, for some reason, the fact that it is fixed and blocking my view bothers me. If you want to keep the effect, perhaps make it rotate?

You could do that by setting the camera inside a fixed sphere and projecting a transparent texture on the inside of the sphere. Or you could have a larger texture that scrolls left/right and up/down where you move the camera (like those old side-scroller games).

I can see how this would be a great tool for reconstructing Jewish or other communities (e.g. my Irish) in various towns and villages that were affected by war, famine or government edict. A very worthwhile project.

[Umbawa_Sarosong]

That sounds like a great direction. A first person mode really changes how people experience a historical city because it shifts the experience from observing to actually being inside the environment.

In the environments I build you can switch from third person to first person using the mouse wheel. Users can also drive vehicles, press Enter to enter them and Esc to exit. Some of the buildings are occupiable as well, so people can walk inside, explore interiors, and interact with the space rather than only flying above the city.

I’ve also been experimenting with adding an economic layer to environments using eCash. The idea is that people inside a digital city can exchange value directly without relying on internet connectivity. The system works completely offline through QR codes where value transfers directly from one device to another.

Here is one of the implementations
https://github.com/VeinSyct/DigidoCash

With this approach, value can be stored locally on a device and transferred peer to peer by scanning a QR code. No internet is required at all during the transaction. The value itself moves between devices so it behaves more like physical cash but in digital form.

I also built another experimental project around casino style token systems
https://github.com/VeinSyct/PlaySpinIt

Systems like this have historically been used in casino environments where digital chips or tokens circulate within a closed ecosystem.

Aside from 3D environments, I also develop extremely fast and resilient websites designed to operate even under unstable network conditions. Many of the systems are optimized to run smoothly even with very low bandwidth or intermittent connectivity.

You can see some of the services here
https://theneoverse.web.app/#services

A big focus of my work is performance and security. The source code for deployed systems is encrypted and packaged in a way that makes reverse engineering extremely difficult. The goal is to build platforms that are fast, resilient, and secure while still delivering immersive experiences.

Combining immersive environments, social interaction, and completely offline digital cash opens interesting possibilities where people can explore a city, enter buildings, interact socially, and exchange value instantly just by scanning QR codes even without internet access.

[Houman]

Very impressive. Was it a solo project?
On window resize a big list of tasks happends there))

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Ooo yes, thank you so much, I really appreciate it! I had similar thoughts at first, but it kind of grew on me. I’ll definitely try your suggestion and see how it feels.

[DimitriosGkegkas]

Thanks a lot! It was developed at Enneas, we had a 3D model designer, a UI designer, and a content creator handling camera placement and storytelling, and I was the creative developer.

True about the resize, a lot of components depend on window size, so resize triggers reconfiguration. Definitely room for optimization

[shaman4d]

Great job! It looks really aesthetic and atmospheric. It is pity that cannot see a video with 3d projection on walls.