Abstract
Abstract. Recent advances in contemporary Virtual Reality (VR) technologies are going to have a significant impact on veryday life. Through VR it is possible to virtually explore a computer-generated environment as a different reality, and to immerse oneself into the past or in a virtual museum without leaving the current real-life situation. For such the ultimate VR experience, the user should only see the virtual world. Currently, the user must wear a VR headset which fits around the head and over the eyes to visually separate themselves from the physical world. Via the headset images are fed to the eyes through two small lenses. Cultural heritage monuments are ideally suited both for thorough multi-dimensional geometric documentation and for realistic interactive visualisation in immersive VR applications. Additionally, the game industry offers tools for interactive visualisation of objects to motivate users to virtually visit objects and places. In this paper the generation of a virtual 3D model of the Selimiye mosque in the city of Edirne, Turkey and its processing for data integration into the game engine Unity is presented. The project has been carried out as a co-operation between BİMTAŞ, a company of the Greater Municipality of Istanbul, Turkey and the Photogrammetry & Laser Scanning Lab of the HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany to demonstrate an immersive and interactive visualisation using the new VR system HTC Vive. The workflow from data acquisition to VR visualisation, including the necessary programming for navigation, is described. Furthermore, the possible use (including simultaneous multiple users environments) of such a VR visualisation for a CH monument is discussed in this contribution.
Highlights
Virtual Reality (VR) will change our future life
The following workflow has been carried out to generate a virtual 3D model of the Edirne mosque: (1) data acquisition using terrestrial laser scanning with the Riegl VZ-400 scanner, (2) 3D modelling using point clouds for generating 3D meshes with Autodesk ReCap or Geomagic studio and for solid modelling with 3ds Max, (3) texture mapping of polygon models, (4) generation of videos of the textured 3D model, (5) data reduction for VR application, (6) data conversion for the import into the game engine Unity, (7) implementation into the HTC Vive including the programming for the motion control, and (8) immersive and interactive visualisation of the mosque in the VR system HTC Vive
The multi-user functionality was tested between Hamburg and Istanbul on February 14th 2017, when four users simultaneously visited the virtual model of the mosque to discuss and to check the geometric quality of the modelled 3D data during the VR visualisation
Summary
Virtual Reality (VR) will change our future life. VR is not very new, it is currently at the beginning of a technological transition. BİMTAŞ, a company of the Greater Municipality of Istanbul, Turkey, generated a virtual 3D model of the mosque of Selimiye for the Edirne City Government to promote the monument for tourism purposes This 3D model has been processed in co-operation with the Photogrammetry & Laser Scanning Lab of the HafenCity University Hamburg, Germany, for VR application to become the first historical monument in Turkey that is visualised as an immersive and interactive experience using the new VR system HTC Vive. The mosque was commissioned by Sultan Selim II, and was built by the architect Mimar Sinan between 1569 and 1574 as a masterpiece and as one of the highest achievements of Islamic architecture This grand mosque stands at the centre of a külliye (complex of a hospital, school, library and/or baths around a mosque) that comprises a medrese (Islamic academy teaches both Islamic and scientific lessons), a dar-ül hadis (Al-Hadith school), a timekeeper's room and an arasta (row of shops). The mosque, together with its külliye, was included on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 2011
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