Development of educational games using 3D models of historical locations, objects and artefacts

Abstract

the latest trends in the development of the information and communication technologies and their worldwide penetration have provided a whole range of solutions for presentation of the learning materials to the students at all levels of the educational systems. In the last years, the educational institutions are trying to keep up with the pace of the leading ICT companies and are constantly introducing all newly developed devices, systems and technologies in their teaching processes. Despite these measures for constant improvement, many students are still more interested in the entrainment possibilities and not in the educational enhancements, which are provided by the modern technologies. This has presented the need to combine the entertainment and the education, so that both processes can be blended into one. There are many examples of such solutions – from the integration of educational content in different TV and radio entertainment programs or series to the development of toys, board and card games, which have primary or secondary educational value.In the last years, the 3D technologies have made huge progress and are now considered as the most perspective among the emerging solutions that would have impact on the educational process – both for the teachers and the learners. For this reason, in this paper we present a methodology for development of educational games in 3D environments, which are based on real locations, objects and artefacts. The presented methodology follows every step of the development process – from the digitalization of the locations and the objects, through the processing of the obtained data and finally the actual development of the 3D games using the modern gaming engines. The paper provides also some advices on how to obtain high-quality 3D models of real objects and locations, based on their size and type and using different digitalization methods. An actual example about the use of the 3D technologies for the development of an educational virtual reality game for popularisation of the ancient Roman cultural and historical heritage, which was developed following an international project, is also presented in the last part of the paper.