A Digital Reconstruction of a Historical Building and Virtual Reintegration of Mural Paintings to Create an Interactive and Immersive Experience in Virtual Reality

Abstract

Nowadays, virtual reality technologies and immersive virtual reality (VR) apps allow people to view, explore, engage with and learn about historic monuments and buildings, historic sites, and even historic scenes. To preserve our cultural heritage for future generations. it is essential that damaged and dilapidated historic artefacts are accurately documented, and that steps are taken to improve user experiences in the areas of virtual visits, science and education. This paper describes an approach to reconstruct and restore historic buildings and mural paintings. The work process uses digital models that are then inserted into an interactive and immersive VR environment. Windows-Mixed Reality is used to visualize the said VR environment. The work method was applied at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in Tenerife (Canary Islands, Spain), thereby creating a virtual three dimensional (3D) rendering of the architectural structures of the St Augustine Church in La Laguna and its murals. A combination of topography and terrestrial photogrammetry was used to reconstruct its architectural features, and the digital imaging tool DStretch® to recover its murals. The resulting 3D model was then inserted into an immersive and interactive VR environment created using the cross-platform game engine Unity. One of the greatest challenges of this project revolved around recovering the dilapidated and virtually nonexistent mural paintings using DStretch®. However, the final result is an immersive and interactive VR environment containing architectural and artistic information created within the video game engine Unity, which thereby allows the user to explore, observe and interact with a cultural heritage site in real time.

Effect of Collaboration Mode and Position Arrangement on Immersive Analytics Tasks in Virtual Reality: A Pilot Study

“…Unlike traditional platforms, VR allows fully immersive experiences and intuitive ways to connect participants over geographic distances [23,24]. For example, Bente et al [25] explored the influence of avatars on social presence, interpersonal trust, perceived communication quality, nonverbal behavior, and visual attention in a VR environment.…”

Virtual Reality Models Based on Photogrammetric Surveys—A Case Study of the Iconostasis of the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral Church of Saint Nicholas in Sremski Karlovci (Serbia)

“…When it comes to creating a VR experience, several different game engines can be employed. The two most popular, however, are Unity [20,22,23,28,33] and Unreal Engine [19,21,24,26,34]. Authors that selected the Unreal Engine [21,24,26,34], pointed out its intuitive use mode, based on the Blueprint Visual Scripting system, as the major characteristic.…”

“…This has had a great impact in the field of digital cultural heritage and edutainment [16][17][18]. Many case studies have been carried out on the mutual application of photogrammetry and VR, with the focus on the digitalization of cultural heritage and its virtual exploration in an immersive way [19][20][21]. Some of the projects aim to provide virtual access and better understanding of cultural values through VR environment, dealing with digitally recreated inaccessible historical places [21], as well as ancient artefacts that no longer exist [22].…”

“…The method is designed according to the current state of the art in the field of VR and photogrammetry application for cultural heritage, adopting the most widely used software tools. The workflows connecting photogrammetry and VR represent an important topic in the field of cultural heritage [19,20,[26][27][28]. Soto-Martin et al [20] presented a digital reconstruction of a historical building as an interactive and immersive experience in virtual reality.…”

Editorial for Special Issue “Virtual Reality and Its Application in Cultural Heritage”

“…The seventh article titled "A Digital Reconstruction of a Historical Building and Virtual Reintegration of Mural Paintings to Create an Interactive and Immersive Experience in Virtual Reality" describes an approach to reconstruct and restore historic buildings and mural paintings [7]. The work process uses digital models that are then inserted into an interactive and immersive VR environment.…”