The Source City is the virtual city in its most stable form, a repository of contributions accepted by spectra maintainers and governed by an open source license. The Source City is accessible from Spectra LLC’s PC VR build. The current version of the source city was designed as a foundation and supportive latticework for emergent community design processes. If you have access to a PCVR headset, check out our upcoming Source City Tour events.
Possible Futures
As a virtual sandbox, The Source City gives users a lot of leeway for participation and experimentation with big ideas and disruptive interventions that may not be feasible in real life. Rather than reflect only one path of decisions, The Source City is designed as a branching repository representing a cone of possible futures. Like any open source project, participants have the ability to wipe or rollback changes and experiment with alternate scenarios.
Large Scale Simulations
Many of these scenarios can be modeled outside of the source city build by using the Spectra toolkit, but the Source City, as the highest fidelity build which includes the entire city, remains the most ideal place for undertaking multiplayer civic and urban simulations. For example, one might use the source city to test for resiliency to various large-scale environmental disasters, or explore future transit infrastructure.
Evolving With Technology
As real-time 3D and game engine technology evolves, The Source City will take advantage of technological advancements to reflect the highest level of detail and support the most concurrent users possible. Although a PC-VR Capable PC and headset is currently required to experience The Source City, Spectra plans to explore live demonstrations and workshops to make the experience accessible to anyone.
