Update : First of all, the link : https://mega.co.nz/#F!XVAGEAqZ!f2S9qKOhzkmTCmRFZ0kK5A
Then, some words of explanation. As you may have understand if you read the explanation below, the showcase is part of an undergoing experimental study.
What you can expect from the showcase : walking around a rural gallo-roman sanctuary of eastern France in Unreal Engine 4. It's still buggy, like every alpha state production. Some grass fly around, some photogrammetric models a pretty rough,...
As for the performance, it runs smoothly at 75 fps+ with my rig using F3 HMD SP option (I2500k@4,4ghz / 680 oc / 16 gb ram and SSD). The game start with HMD SP 80, and you can go up using "F1" to "F7" keys ("F1"-"F5" are between 100-180, "F6" is 200 and "F7" is 300). You can switch Timewarp On and Off (respectively key "1" and "2"), and Vsync ("3" and "4"). Middle mouse should also reset the camera if needed.
On a side note, I was wondering what kind of VR cultural project would you like to experience in the future ?
I'm really curious about your expectations guys.
Hello fellow rifters,
It has been a while since I posted in this forum, so I thought it may be a good idea to share my undergoing academic work and ask for the community advices.
Following my work on cultural heritage in VR, I am starting a new project in VR.
The title may look self-explanatory, but not so much. I'm indeed reconstructing a gallo-roman sanctuary : The Hercules sanctuary at Deneuvre (France). You can have a look here for some pictures :
- http://www.guidetouristiquefrance.fr/en/visit/museum-lorraine-springs-of-hercules-museum-deneuvre-43...
I'm not doing it only for the sake of historical reenactment, but it's about studying visual approaches in archaeological interpretation. In short, we are facing subjectivity problems when it comes to study religions of the past. What is more subject to subjectivity than trying to explain beliefs of the past with a modern mind and our culturally oriented perception of the world ? Unfortunately we have not yet found (as far as I know) a way to break down beliefs system to a specific subset of basic physiological cues.
Studying low level visual inputs (neurobiology) seems to be an effective method as a workaround to the subjectivity induced with common visual approaches in archaeological interpretation. Because there is no cultural impact possible on the visual map encoding, our receptivity to low level inputs is innate, "hardcoded".
The general idea is to confront the common interpretation of rituals in a sacred space (how people moves, what they do), with an analysis of low level visual inputs regarding visual attention, and the resulting displacements through space. Granted that a sanctuary is a symbolic place, where monuments have a meaning, what is dragging people's attention ? Will they look to this particular stone monument first ? etc.
I will not develop too much, because the project .pdf is undergoing translation right now and will be available to download soon.
Back to the rift, I thought it was the perfect medium of analysis. The stereoscopic simulation seems a thrilling experience to put through iLab Neuromorphic Vision C++ Toolkit (http://ilab.usc.edu/toolkit/). And the immersion is also an important factor, even if the vr sickness can be a serious downback.
Please, feel free to comment !
Some in-work screenshots from unreal engine, and diagrams :
The main building
Current landscape, using IGN DTM database (50 m) and my own fieldwork for the local ancient microtopography
Fourth century AD map (sorry it's in French, I have not translated it for now)
Little update, alpha 1 is uploading right now and I will put the link as soon as it is done.
Keep in mind this is a scientific experimental project, and well...right now there is nothing to do except moving around.
I will soon edit the main post with more details.
While I'm waiting, here is a screenshoot from outside the rift :
Keep in mind this is a scientific experimental project, and well...right now there is nothing to do except moving around.
I will soon edit the main post with more details.
While I'm waiting, here is a screenshoot from outside the rift :
