The Great Pyramid as individual blocks

I used some math to figure out roughly what the Great Pyramid would look like (blocks roughly 1m by 1m, 147m tall, 230m per side at the base) to create a shell of the pyramid using thin instances.

I will probably drop this into a VR experience later just so the scale is easier to feel.

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nice, id move the camera out too and drop a Capsule in place that is like 0.5 radius 1.6 tall for a human scale ref.

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So are there 2.7 million blocks in there? I didn’t count them but I think 2 are missing :grin: :wink: roughly estimated of course :rofl:
And I agree with @Pryme8 You should have a human sized camera and may be also set the initial position from the outside of the structure. May be add a human silhouette (or a camel :camel::wink: and may be a couple of palm trees :palm_tree:) so to get a better sense of scaling. You could also texture these blocks. In the end, with just very little more effort it could end becoming a very nice project/demo.

Edit: There, I textured your pyramid (LoL). I was just wondering what it could look like with some material on it. It’s just a fancy minute-maid after-launch doing and from the PG assets (not recommendable :grin:) but it might give you an idea of what it could look like with a texture and an env. I didn’t do the palm trees :laughing: It also shows that you should draw a simple pyramid shape inside with a dark texture to hide the holes between the displaced blocks.

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The instance count is in the console, ~67k blocks.

In terms of historical accuracy, obviously the real pyramid is not hollow. Also, these blocks are 1m square, which is the average size, but the real pyramid has wider/taller blocks near the bottom, and smaller/shorter blocks near the top. It might be worth scaling the blocks to match so that there are fewer total instances. Lastly, I added ~10cm of jitter to the position so that the blocks’ edges would stick out more, but the real pyramid has about 0.5cm between each block.

Here’s a locked camera, a human-sized sphere and a :camel:

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It really needs some optimization, this makes my gpu go brrr

It might be more performant to use thinInstances, or to actually turn the whole thing into a unified mesh.

I followed the thin instances youtube video to make this, I hope I am using thin instances…

Oh I did not look at your code. My bad to scare you!
:rofl:

What kinda of GPU you running? This barley makes a blip on my systems radar.

Woah this looks super cool! I love the Pyramids would love to see them in person one day :star_struck: I This could also be transformed into a very cool educational experience, maybe putting some hotspots where you click and it shows some pyramid facts :smiley:

It runs pretty smoothly on my machine too, but it has a good GPU.

Something might be wrong with your system. I’m always checking scenes on my ‘relic’ :wink: since I think BJS should be accessible for everyone. Dare I say it, it’s a macPro from 2009 (I mean it’s an 8-core but with slow memory and just a 1GB medium range graphic card). And (drums :drum:)…your scene just runs beautifully even on this rig.

Yes, I got the numbers. I was just teasing you :grin: (sorry for that :face_with_hand_over_mouth:)
So this is your own doing, is it? I wonder what Chat GPT would be able to do out of this. I might put it to the challenge if I get some spare time. Could be fun to compare (if it achieves it at all). :thinking:

@mawa speaking of chatGpt :wink:
http://pryme8.com/chatGpt/

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Awesome. I’m bookmarking this. I believe one of the challenges is to find the correct form for the request/conversation. It’s great to have it all in these examples. Luv it :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

I tried to find a more general formula for a pyramid projection to avoid the many if conditions that make reading the code difficult. As a touch of artistry, I have rotated the cubes propertionally in height. There is now a cylinder at the top! :slight_smile:

Pyramid | Babylon.js Playground (babylonjs-playground.com)

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The performance is sure there :yum: But if I can allow myself, in terms of architecture, I prefer the version where the blocks are orientated and piled correctly.