Abstract
Modern game engines like Unity allow users to create realistic 3D environments containing terrains as well as natural and artificial objects easily and swiftly. In addition, recent advances of game engine capabilities enable effortless implementation of virtual reality (VR) compatibility. 3D environments created with VR compatibility can be experienced from an egocentric and stereoscopic perspective that surpasses the immersion of the ‘classical’ screen-based perception of 3D environments. Not only game developers benefit from the possibilities provided by game engines. The ability to use geospatial data to shape virtual 3D environments opens a multitude of possibilities for geographic applications, such as construction planning, spatial hazard simulations or representation of historical places. The multi-perspective, multimodal reconstruction of three-dimensional space based on game engine technology today supports the possibility of linking different approaches of geographic work more closely. Free geospatial data that can be used for spatial reconstructions is provided by numerous national and regional official institutions. However, the file format of these data sources is not standardized and game engines only support a limited number of file formats. Therefore, format transformation is usually required to apply geospatial data to virtual 3D environments. This paper presents several workflows to apply digital elevation data and 3D city model data from OpenStreetMap and the Open.NRW initiative to Unity-based 3D environments. Advantages and disadvantages of different sources of geospatial data are discussed. In addition, implementation of VR compatibility is described. Finally, benefits of immersive VR implementation and characteristics of current VR hardware are discussed in the context of specific geographic application scenarios.
Highlights
Cartography and Geographic Information Science have frequently gained benefit from technological advancements
Two methodological approaches will be demonstrated showing how digital elevation data as well as city models can be implemented into game engine-based virtual reality (VR) environments
Workflows are compared between official geospatial data and volunteered geographic information (VGI)
Summary
Cartography and Geographic Information Science have frequently gained benefit from technological advancements. It is much easier for a user to obtain a feeling of being present in the spatial representation Creating such a feeling of spatial presence can support many geographic application scenarios, such as urban planning or studies on spatial perception, because the experience created by the virtual environment is more similar to the experience created by a real environment. The level of immersion of a VR-capable application does depend on general VR characteristics, such as a stereoscopic perspective and the tracking on real-world movements It depends on the quality of the used geospatial data and technical characteristics of the used HMD (Slater et al 1996). This comparison is intended to support the selection of the ideal HMD for a given geospatial application scenario based on its requirements
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