If you don't live in Paris or can't attend the celebrations for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris on the weekend of September 7-8, there's no need to worry. You can now explore the cathedral from the comfort of your home through virtual reality.
Following the monument's fire in 2019, Ubisoft decided to create an experience based on its research to model Notre-Dame in Assassin's Creed Unity. "At that time, we started exploring resources from the Assassin's Creed games to see what we could show to people," recalls Mélanie de Riberolles from Ubisoft. The team aimed to create an experience for everyone, not just players, extracting a 3D version of the cathedral as it was during the French Revolution and focusing on a contemplative experience.
This virtual reality experience, available for free to users with a Meta Quest Pro, Meta Quest 2, or Quest 3/3S, allows you to admire Notre-Dame as it appeared in the late 18th century, complete with lighting effects and music. It was initially tested by future artisans and bishops, who experienced a living Notre-Dame before its closure, with one archbishop humorously suggesting a "virtual mass" inside.
