Walk through a UNESCO World Heritage site. Make a choice. Watch the world change.
Built for ImmerseGT 2026 | World Labs + Gemini + ElevenLabs + TanitXR
PolyScape Heritage is an immersive 3D experience where you step inside the ruins of Carthage — a 2,800-year-old Phoenician city on the Gulf of Tunis. You walk through a photorealistic Gaussian Splat world generated by World Labs' Marble AI, explore ancient artifacts, and hear a narrator describe the site's history and the climate threats it faces.
Then you make a choice: Protect or Do Nothing.
The entire world around you transforms. If you protect Carthage, you find yourself in a modern museum where every artifact has been preserved. If you do nothing, you stand in flooded ruins — statues toppled, inscriptions eroded by salt, a UNESCO sign rusting in rising seawater.
This is not a dashboard. This is not a website with a 3D widget. You are inside the world.
- Enter Carthage — A cinematic title card fades into a sunlit archaeological site on Byrsa Hill
- Explore — Walk freely (WASD + mouse) through the ruins, discover artifacts
- Ask questions — Chat with an AI narrator powered by Gemini, hear responses via ElevenLabs
- Drag the timeline — Slide from 2026 to 2075 and see the climate projections
- Make your choice — At year 2040, choose to Protect or Do Nothing
- Watch the world change — The screen fades to black and a completely different 3D world loads around you, with ambient soundscape and narrated epilogue
| Layer | Technology | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| 3D Worlds | World Labs Marble API (marble-1.1 / 1.1-plus) | Generates 3 photorealistic Gaussian Splat environments from text prompts |
| Rendering | Three.js + SparkJS | Renders Gaussian Splat (SPZ) worlds with orbit + WASD first-person controls |
| AI Narration | Google Gemini 2.0 Flash | Generates contextual narration grounded in IPCC AR6 climate data |
| Voice | ElevenLabs TTS + Sound Effects | Speaks narration aloud; generates ambient soundscapes per world |
| 3D Artifacts | TanitXR Sketchfab model (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) | Carthage Tanit Stela from the Tophet of Salammbo |
| Frontend | React 18 + Vite 6 | Minimal floating HUD over fullscreen 3D world |
| VR Ready | WebXR via Three.js | renderer.xr.enabled = true — works in PICO Browser and any WebXR headset |
All climate projections are grounded in real science:
- IPCC AR6 WG1 Ch.12 (2021) — SSP5-8.5 Mediterranean temperature and sea-level projections
- UNESCO Climate Vulnerability Index (2022) — Heritage site risk assessments
- Carthage: +3.1C anomaly, +58cm sea level rise, severe erosion risk by 2075
npm install
cp .env.example .env
# Add your API keys to .env
npm run devOpen http://localhost:5173 in your browser.
| Key | Service | Get it at |
|---|---|---|
VITE_GEMINI_API_KEY |
Google Gemini | aistudio.google.com |
VITE_ELEVENLABS_API_KEY |
ElevenLabs TTS + SFX | elevenlabs.io |
VITE_WLT_API_KEY |
World Labs Marble | platform.worldlabs.ai |
WLT_API_KEY=your_key node scripts/generate-worlds.js| Track | How We Qualify |
|---|---|
| Spatial Design | World-first 3D experience — user walks inside a Gaussian Splat world, not a dashboard |
| Best Overall | Full integration: 3D worlds + AI narration + climate data + emotional branching choice |
| MLH: Best Use of Gemini | Gemini generates contextual narration and branching epilogues grounded in IPCC data |
| MLH: Best Use of ElevenLabs | FIFO TTS queue for narration + Sound Effects API for ambient soundscapes |
| TanitXR | TanitXR Carthage heritage model + Tunisian cultural preservation focus |
Tanit Stela — Tophet of Salammbo, Carthage by TanitXR, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.
3D worlds generated by World Labs Marble API. Rendering powered by SparkJS and Three.js.
Sam Duong — Georgia Institute of Technology
MIT