Abstract
Technological advancements in the area of Virtual Reality (VR) in the past years have the potential to fundamentally impact our everyday lives. VR makes it possible to explore a digital world with a Head-Mounted Display (HMD) in an immersive, embodied way. In combination with current tools for 3D documentation, modelling and software for creating interactive virtual worlds, VR has the means to play an important role in the conservation and visualisation of cultural heritage (CH) for museums, educational institutions and other cultural areas. Corresponding game engines offer tools for interactive 3D visualisation of CH objects, which makes a new form of knowledge transfer possible with the direct participation of users in the virtual world. However, to ensure smooth and optimal real-time visualisation of the data in the HMD, VR applications should run at 90 frames per second. This frame rate is dependent on several criteria including the amount of data or number of dynamic objects. In this contribution, the performance of a VR application has been investigated using different digital 3D models of the fortress Al Zubarah in Qatar with various resolutions. We demonstrate the influence on real-time performance by the amount of data and the hardware equipment and that developers of VR applications should find a compromise between the amount of data and the available computer hardware, to guarantee a smooth real-time visualisation with approx. 90 fps (frames per second). Therefore, CAD models offer a better performance for real-time VR visualisation than meshed models due to the significant reduced data volume.
Highlights
Virtual reality (VR) enables a new form of presentation and visualisation of cultural monuments
The results of the VR performance tests with three different computer hardware using an application with a CAD model and a meshed model from SFM photogrammetry are illustrated in Fig. 8
The performance of the VR application was investigated on the basis of various criteria, with a benchmark of approximately 90 frames per second for optimal real-time visualisation in the Head-Mounted Display (HMD)
Summary
Virtual reality (VR) enables a new form of presentation and visualisation of cultural monuments. Virtual reality is “a realistic and immersive simulation of a three-dimensional environment created with interactive software and hardware and experienced or controlled by movement of the body” (Dictionary.com 2021) Understood in this way, VR is an artificial environment experienced through sensory stimuli (such as perspective views and sounds) provided by a computer, in which one's actions partially determine what happens in the environment (Merriam-Webster Dictionary 2021).2021. A first empirical verification HMD vs screen display was carried out by Hruby et al (2020) To use this technology for an immersive experience, the following requirements must be met: (a) a virtual 3D environment must be constructed and textured in an IDE (e.g. in a game engine), (b) the developed and executable VR application must be connected to a head-mounted display (HMD) via appropriate software (such as Steam VR), and (c) the user's movements must be controlled and tracked via controller and HMD. A conclusion is drawn from the investigations and an outlook is given
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