MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A passion project 10 years in the works aims to bring the Bluff City into the metaverse.
"The video game format, I think, is a great way to get people excited about Memphis," Cory Owens, who is creating a one-to-one scale digital recreation of the City of Memphis, said.
Owens calls the project Memphis METAS Downtown Digital Twin. He studies reference images of iconic buildings and structures like the Hernando De Soto bridge or the Bass Pro Pyramid then painstakingly rebuilds them in the "Unreal" video game engine.
"This passion project of mine derived from my love for Memphis, my love for technology, my love for downtown, my love for video games and trying to find a way to bring all of those together," he said.
Owens said he started the project because he wanted to see what it would look like if the Zippin' Pippin roller coaster, which used to call Libertyland and the fairgrounds home, was on Mud Island. After he built a 3D model of it, he continued building the rest of Downtown Memphis around it.
The project currently allows the user to walk or drive around virtual parts of the city, but it's still a work in progress.
Owens intends to open it to the public within the next few years and has lofty goals for the project's future.
"What's easy to get people's attention is the fun aspect of it being a video game, but I think what this is really for is to help innovate Memphis," he said.
Owens runs a marketing agency called GROW Memphis and plans to use the virtual city to advertise local businesses. He also hopes to use it for educational purposes by recreating scenes from the city's past.
Once complete, Owens believes the virtual city could be a helpful tool for gaming, filmmaking, tourism and even urban planning by giving developers a detailed look at how their plans could fit into the city.
"My vision for this project is to showcase the past, the present and the future of Memphis," Owens said.
To keep up with the project, you can check out Owens' YouTube, Instagram or Reddit pages.
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