Visit Notre-Dame virtually with Ubisoft's new experience

One year ago, the world was shocked as Notre-Dame de Paris was engulfed in flames. A symbol of Paris and 800 years-old, the cathedral was almost completely destroyed that day. Sadness and disbelief were quickly replaced with support and generosity, as individuals and companies around the globe started donating and helping the situation.

Architects expect restorative work could take from twenty to forty years, as any new structure would need to balance restoring the look of the original building, using wood and stone sourced from the same regions used in the original construction, with the structural reinforcement required for preventing a similar disaster in the future.

It was only natural for Ubisoft, French gaming industry giant, to jump in and help. They donated €500,000, gave away Assassin's Creed Unity for free, and recreated the cathedral in VR. Recreating Notre-Dame in VR was especially essential, since, as you saw above, it could be decades before the cathedral will be reopened for visits.

• Read more: Assassin's Creed II will be free to keep on uPlay this Tuesday

But not everyone has VR, and now Ubisoft has made possible for everyone to take a virtual tour inside Notre-Dame, without the need to have VR. Of course, you can always visit Notre-Dame by simply playing Assassin's Creed Unity, but if you aren't in the mood for that, this can also help!

Video is an extract from Ubisoft's VR experience, and you can see several scenes in 360°. In the description of the video, it is mentioned that this is "teaser", so we might get full non-VR support in the future, not just these couple of scenes.