Orbital Battleship, published in 2016 in this Journal, is a hands-on competitive exercise which has been shown to be an efficient tool to reinforce the knowledge of the atomic structure. We decided to give it a more futuristic look and are presenting VR Orbital Battleship, a completely immersive collaborative experience which, in contrast to the pen-and-paper version, guarantees that students are unable to fill in an erroneous electron configuration thanks to the special control elements of the game. Hence, they are motivated to do their best in order to apply Madelung’s rule and Hund’s rule right to be able to start the game. The game design makes full use of what the immersive virtual reality has to offer: the headset completely immerses the player in the process of the game, resulting in less distraction compared to the classic version. Furthermore, the game’s design is user-friendly and intuitive, and thus, it adds to the overall immersive experience. The game is recommended for use as an interactive addition to school and university classes that are dedicated to the atomic structure. VR Orbital Battleship is available for free worldwide in both a portable mobile platform (Oculus Go) and a PC version by downloading the game (see the Supporting Information of this paper).

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One of the major strategic tasks in Russia’s northwest of the past cen turies was the defense of the country’s territories from enemy incursions coming from the West. In order to solve this task, a robust shield in the form of a system of fortresses was created between the 13th and 15th centuries. The system included such fortresses as Koporye, Yam, Korela, Oreshek, and others. In our age, these monuments have become an essential part of Russia’s historic and cultural heritage and an important element of the tourism cluster “The Si lver Ring of Russia.” The Centre of Design and Multimedia at St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics, jointly with the Department of History and the Faculty of Arts at St. Petersburg State University, working under a three-year grant from the Russian Foundation for Humanities Research (#12-01-12041), is implementing a multimedia information system “Ancient Fortresses of Russia’s Northwest” . Historically accurate virtual reconstruction of several fortresses as they existed during certain historic periods, done in such a way as to allow the future creation of virtual tours of these sites, has become the focus of this project’s research. In the present paper, we describe the main phases and results of virtual reconstruction of the best-preserved fortress, Koporye.

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