UNSW Centre for Interactive Cinema Research

iFire

AI fire visualisation system

The iFire program connects globally located researchers and 3D immersive systems in the world’s first AI environment able to visualise interaction with unpredictable extreme fire scenarios such as those of the Australian Black Summer 2029/2020 and Los Angeles 2025. The 3D systems are networked across a range of platforms (Fig. 1) using software that enables users to interact with the fire ground by sharing the same 3D setting in real time, no matter their smart screen platform. The platforms range from mobile 3D cinemas, 3D virtual production volumes, 3D LED walls, 3D head-mounted displays to 2D laptops and tablets, providing interaction for multiple distributed users at any one time. It is underpinned by an AI framework that analyses, learns from and responds to individual and group behaviour in real-time. It provides specific applications for the four distinct types of end users: researchers, creatives, responders and residents. Collaborators include UNSW iCinema Research Centre, UNSW Climate Change Research Centre, University of Melbourne Virtual Production Lab, the ABC, AFAC (Australasian Fire & Emergency Service Authorities Council), CSIRO/Data61, Düsseldorf/Cologne Open, Fire and Rescue NSW and Hawkesbury City Council.
Fig 1 iFire Networked Visualisation System.2025

iFire translates mathematical fire simulation of actual incidents into immersive cinematic scenarios using the film industry standard UNREAL real-time creative tool. This core artistic and scientific application is developed for use by creatives, responders and residents.

It is currently explored through three case studies using this approach, comprising: an Australian pine plantation fire (Fig. 2, 3), an Australian grassland fire (Fig. 4, 5) and a US mountain forest fire (Fig. 6, 7).

iFire: Pine Plantation Case Study. 2025

Case Study One: Pine Plantation Fire
Fig. 2 CSIRO. Pine Plantation Fire. SPARK Simulation. 2023
Fig. 3 UNSW. Pine Plantation Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

Case Study Two: Grassland Fire
Fig 4 CSIRO. Grasslands Fire. SPARK Simulation. 2023
Fig. 5 UNSW. Grasslands Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

Case Study Three: Mountain Forest Fire
Fig. 6 UNSW. Bridger Foothills Fire.WRF-SFIRE Simulation. 2023
Fig. 7 UNSW. Bridger Foothills Fire. UNREAL Visualisation. 2025

The case studies are translated into a range of applications for emergency broadcast for smart phones (Fig. 8), responder training for cinematic theatres (Fig. 9) and creative visualisations for immersive exhibitions (Fig. 10).
Fig. 8 Emergency Broadcast. ABC Australia. 2025
Fig. 9 Responder Training. Fire and Rescue NSW. 2025
Fig. 10 Creative Visualisation: ISEA. 2024

These applications are focused on providing diverse audiences and stakeholders the immersive experience and practical understanding of unpredictable extreme fires that are now becoming increasingly intense and frequent. Depicting this new landscape demands the modelling of multiple wildfire kinetic and spatial processes which cannot be understood by human cognition alone. This requires the integration of the speed and scale of AI in establishing patterns and predicting fire behaviours with the subtlety and adaptability of human perception. This involves an intelligent aesthetic that evolves and grows by learning from human behaviour.

The program allows researchers and stakeholders to interact with unanticipated fire scenarios that operate independently of user expectations. By generating unforeseen behaviours, the program enables users to better understand and master the distributed dynamics of fire scenarios in a safe virtual environment. Assembling histories and expertise from diverse backgrounds, it integrates them into an intelligent database with a library of fire behaviours, management procedures and protocols. By offering dynamic life-like encounters where users can rehearse their response, it enhances resident, responder, creative and researcher risk perception, situational awareness and collaborative decision making.

The program assembles a repertoire of expertise ranging across AI, computer graphics, creative arts, database architecture, interaction design, fire management and immersive visualisation. The end result is a visualisation eco-system that can be utilised by research labs, creative enterprises, emergency services and resident organisations in situ. The program is based on the award-winning iCASTS  safety training simulation system commercialised for the Australian and Chinese mining industry that has trained over 30,000 personnel across six mine locations, reduced injuries by 67% with no fatalities.

References
    • Del Favero, D., M.J. Ostwald, Y. Song, K. Moinuddin & M. Prakash (2025). Tomorrow’s Fires. Sydney: ABC. Link.
    • Del Favero, D., M.J. Ostwald, Y. Song, K. Moinuddin & G. Penney (Sep 3, 2024). FRNSW Fire Visualisation System. AFAC Conference, Sydney.
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2024). iFire: Penumbra II. ISEA, Brisbane. 
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2023). iFire: Penumbra I. SIGGRAPH, Sydney
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, C. Green & K. Moinuddin (2023). iFire: Penumbra I. Viscera, Cavallerizza, Turin.
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, M. Ostwald & U. Frohne (eds) (2024). Climate Disaster Preparedness: Reimagining Extreme Events Through Art and Technology. Cham: Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-56114-6.
    • Thurow, S., D. Del Favero, J.J. Sharples, K. Moinuddin & C. Green (2025, forthcoming, in print). “Applying an Immersive Intelligent Aesthetic to Wildfire Visualisation: Exploring Terrestrial Agency,” in S. Parry, A. Senior & P. Johnson (eds), The Routledge Companion to Performance and Science. Abingdon/New York: Routledge.
    • Ostwald, M., D. Del Favero and G. Drummond (2025 – forthcoming, in print). "iFire: A Visualisation Environment for Training First Responders and Emergency Commanders," in N. Gu and B. Thomas (eds), Immersive Virtual Environments in Design and Collaboration (pp. tbc). CRC Press. (accepted 12 Nov 2024)
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, M. Pagnucco & U. Frohne (2024). “Reimagining Extreme Event Scenarios: The Aesthetic Visualisation of Climate Uncertainty to Enhance Preparedness,” in D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne (eds), Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology (pp. 7-24).  Cham: Springer. Link.
    • Brits, B., Y.  Song & C. Tirado Cortes (2024). “Immersive Visualisation Systems as Alignment Strategies for Extreme Event Scenarios,” in D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne (eds), Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology (pp. 65-76).  Cham: Springer. Link.
    • Thurow, S., H. Grehan & M. Pagnucco (2024). “Representing the Climate Crisis: Aesthetic Framings in Contemporary Performing and Visual Arts,” in D. Del Favero, S. Thurow, M.J. Ostwald & U. Frohne (eds), Climate Disaster Preparedness Reimagining Extreme Events through Art and Technology(pp. 107-20).  Cham: Springer. Link.
    • Thurow, S. (2025, forthcoming, in print). “Reframing Terrestrial Agency through Digitally Augmented Aesthetics across Theatre and Installation Art,” Journal of Contemporary Drama in English (JCDE): tbc.
    • Tirado Cortes, C., S. Thurow, A. Ong, J.J. Sharples, T. Bednarz, G. Stevens & D Del Favero (2024). “Analysis of Wildfire Visualization Systems for Research and Training: Are They Up for the Challenge of the Current State of Wildfires?,” IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics 30: 4285-4303. Link.
    • Thurow, S., H. Grehan & J. Davidson (2024). “Performing Arts and the Climate Emergency: Horizon-Scanning the Futures of Practice and Scholarship,” Australasian Drama Studies 83: 12-37.
    • Frohne, U.  (2023). “Night Drifts Above the Earth,” Dennis Del Favero. Viscera (Exhibition Catalogue) (28-31.) Turin: Recontemporary.
    • Thurow, S. (2024). “More-Than-Human. Explorations in Performance, New Media and Terrestrial Aesthetics,” Theatre in the Digital Age – 32nd Annual CDE Conference, Department of English @ University of Innsbruck & Tiroler Bildungsinstitut Grillhof – May 4.
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, U. Frohne, K. Moinuddin, A. Sharma & Y. Song (2023). “Re-Imagining the Climate Emergency Using AI Visualisation,” presented at RE:SOURCE – 10th International Conference on the Histories of Media Art, Science & Technology, Venice Centre for Digital & Public Humanities, Università Ca’Foscari Venice, Italy, 13-16 September. 
    • Del Favero, D., S. Thurow, A. Blackler & A. Asadipour (2023). “Terrestrial Aesthetics. Transforming the Understanding of and Engagement with Extreme Events,” presented at Arts and Humanities in Digital Transition Conference, Institute of Communication, Nova University of Lisbon, Portugal, 6-7 July.
    • Del Favero, D., Y. Song, K. Moinuddin, C. Green, J.J. Sharples, A. Ong & N. Brohier (2023). “Penumbra2.0,” in ACM SIGGRAPH Asia 2023 Art Gallery. Sydney: ACM. DOI: 10.1145/3610537.3622946. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3610537.3622946
    • Thurow, S., D. Del Favero, J.J. Sharples, J. Davidson & G. Stevens (2022). “Visualizing the Unpredictable Behavior of Wildfire Using an Artificially Intelligent Aesthetic,” in P. Alsina, L. Vila, S. Tesconi, J. Soler-Adillon & E. Mor (eds),  Proceedings of the 27th International Symposium on Electronic Art (696-98). Barcelona: ISEA International. DOI: 10.7238/ISEA2022.Proceedings.http://dx.doi.org/10.7238/ISEA2022.Proceedings

The iFire program is financially supported under the Australian Research Council’s Laureate funding scheme.

ARC Project Director: ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Dennis Del Favero

Project ARC Project Collaborators and Partners: see Project collaborators and partners tab

ARC Project Title: Burning landscapes: reimagining unpredictable scenarios

Project Funding: ARC FL200100004

2021-2025
Position Name
Executive Director ARC Laureate Fellow Dennis Del Favero
Co-Director Prof. Michael J. Ostwald
Co-Director ARC Future Fellow Aspro Yang Song
Office of National Intelligence Post Doc Fellow Dr Baylee Brits
ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow Dr Susanne Thurow (Associate Director)
ARC Laureate Post Doc Fellow Renhao Huang (Associate Director)
ARC Laureate Senior Programmer Navin Brohier
ARC Laureate Programmer Nora Perry
ARC Laureate Programmer Dylan Shorten
ARC Laureate 3D Modeller Scott Cotterell
ARC Laureate PhD Mario Flores Gonzalez
ARC Laureate PhD Frank Wu
CSIRO PhD Nagida Helsby-Clark
ARC Laureate MA Lara Clemente

Australian Industry Advisory Committee

  • Arul Baskaran (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
  • Rohan Scott (ACT Emergency Services Agency)
  • Mark Beech (ACT Parks & Conservation Service)
  • Conor McDonald (AFAC – Land Management Group)
  • Sandra Lunardi (AFAC – Land Management Group)
  • Greg Mullins (Climate Council)
  • Richard Hurley (CSIRO / Data61)
  • Mahesh Prakash (CSIRO / Data61)
  • Nick McCarthy (Country Fire Authority – Victoria)
  • Brett Wagstaff (Country Fire Authority – Victoria)
  • Greg Drummond (Fire and Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • Phillip Etienne - (Fire and Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • Gonzalo Herrera (Fire and Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • Laurence McCoy (Fire and Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • Jarrod McGrouther (Fire & Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • John Lavery (Fire and Rescue NSW – Emergency Services Academy)
  • David Fuchs (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water; UNSW)
  • Matthew Riley (NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water)
  • Stevie Knott (NSW Premier’s Department)
  • Matthew Connell (Powerhouse Museum)
  • Cormac Purcell (Trillium Technologies)
  • Liz Courtney (Unboxed Media)
  • Josh Hopwood (VIC Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action)
  • James Brandwood (WA Department of Fire & Emergency Services – Simulation & Exercise Capability Unit)

European Industry Advisory Committee

  • Héctor Alfaro (Andalucía Region Forest Fire Service; AMAYA Public Agency; Andalucía Government)
  • Juan Caamaño (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Mariona Boras (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Nuria Prat Guitart (Pau Costa Foundation)
  • Fabio Silva (Portuguese Special Civil Protection Force)
  • Sébastien Lahaye (SAFE Cluster)

Research Committee

  • Kay Worthington (CSIRO – USA)
  • Ali Asadipour (RCA – UK)
  • Craig Clements (San José State University, USA)
  • Adam Kochanski (San José State University, USA)
  • Ali Tohidi (San José State University, USA)
  • Jane Davidson (The University of Melbourne – Victorian College of the Arts)
  • Charles Green (The University of Melbourne – School of Culture & Communication)
  • Steven Sherwood (UNSW – ARC CoE Climate Extremes)
  • Grant Stevens (UNSW – Arts, Design & Architecture)
  • Jason J. Sharples (UNSW – Canberra)
  • Michael J. Ostwald (UNSW – Arts, Design & Architecture)
  • Maurice Pagnucco (UNSW – Computer Science & Engineering)
  • Yang Song (UNSW – Computer Science & Engineering)
  • Khalid Moinuddin (Victoria University)