I was delighted to read about the digital reconstruction of a chain mail based on an exhibit next door.
Landesmuseum Württemberg, Stuttgart / H. Zwietasch (CC BY-SA)
The piece in question (exhibit F 14,01-2) was found in a grave near 72501 Gammertingen, Germany and consists of ~45.000 iron pieces. It’s well preserved and can be viewed in our local state museum or online at https://www.landesmuseum-stuttgart.de/sammlung/sammlung-online/dk-details/?dk_object_id=1280 – both basically next door for me.
The interesting part is that it’s a mix of riveted and stamped rings, also known as “Roman Mesh”. I own a similar piece myself and I’m fascinated by this type of mail.
This pattern was digital reconstructed using Blender and it’s polygonal modelling functions and uploaded to SketchFab under CC license by it’s authors:
Aleksei Moskvin (Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design) https://independent.academia.edu/AlekseiMoskvin
Mariia Moskvina (Saint Petersburg State University of Industrial Technologies and Design) https://independent.academia.edu/MariiaMoskvina
Martijn A. Wijnhoven (VU University Amsterdam) https://vu-nl.academia.edu/MartijnAWijnhoven
It can be viewed in 3D with a modern browser at https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/gammertingen-mail-fabric-3d-reconstruction-dd52c61041f04f27a613488893082e29
So dear game devs, there is no longer an excuse for shoddy chain mail patterns in games – here it’s served on a silver platter 😛