segach workshop, vast 2008
TRANSCRIPT
1SeGaCH 2008 – VAST Symposium
An algorithm to show monuments in virtual words for cultural heritage
ELIOS Lab
Riccardo BertaELIOS Lab, DIBE, University of Genoa
2SeGaCH 2008 – VAST Symposium
Presentation Outline
Research context: Travel in Europe project
Trade-off: photorealism vs model simplicity
Solutions: aarchitectonic-style Likelihood principle
Monument problem: very complex shapes
Standard billboard technique
Dynamic billboard applied to monuments
Example
Conclusions
3SeGaCH 2008 – VAST Symposium
Travel in Europe (TiE) project
Travel in Europe (TiE): European project co-funded by Culture 2000 programme
Implement an innovative mean to promote and divulgate the European heritage
The main target audience: high-school students aged 14 to 18
An easy-to-access online environmentUsers will live challenging and compelling game experiences by interacting with virtual representations of European heritage
The project exploits the concept of travelEngaging by itselfSupports geographic contextualization
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TiE Vision
A player of TiE moves in a 2D space representing the map of EuropeThe player visits some cities and regions that are reconstructed in 3DHe faces 2D trials (microGames: mGs) embedded in the 3D reconstructions to obtain scores
mGs will concern the local artistic heritage and will be contextualizedE.g. an art game concerning the Van Cleve’s “Adoration of
the Magi” picture will be played in the 3D reconstruction of the San Donato church in Genoa’s historical center, where the picture is conserved
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2D Europe Map
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3D world
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Trade-off
Trade-offPhotorealismHighly impressiveCulturally correct and meaningful experience
– The player as a sort of art/history detective
Models’ weight and complexityAllow interactive real-time online exploration
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POIs and RBAs
Point of Interests (PoI)High-detail, rigorous reconstructions of a buildingCathedral, theather, Renaissance palace
Random Building Areas (RBA)Dynamically built using a statistical template-based algorithmExploit a statistical description of the architectonic
parametersUse a limited set of textures that are instances of
architectonic features representative of that area (e.g windows, portals, etc.)
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POIs
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RBAs
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Likelihood principle
Architectonic-style likelihood principleAllows users to live experiences similar to a real visit of a city limiting the effort in 3D modeling:Like in a real visit: a visitor perceives the
feeling of being in a precise place but usually does not perceive/remember the particulars of each distinct building
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Monuments
A major problems: monumentsVery complex modeling task
Very important to realize a virtual model of a city
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Billboard (or “sprite”) videogame technique
A 2D image integrated into a 3D scene
This 2D image always faces the viewer In other words: the billboard plane is always perpendicular to the view direction from the camera.
Billboarding is used to create an illusion Although it is 2D, it often represents a 3D object.Example: tree, foliage,etc..
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Billboard videogame technique
Used for:“foliage replicator”
Trees
...
Example: Torque Game Engine Demo
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Dynamic Billboard for Monuments
A modified billboard algorithm:
the billboard for monument is composed of several textures that are displayed at different viewing angles
This allows to see the monument from multiple angles, instead of it always looking the same, no matter from what angle you viewed it
16SeGaCH 2008 – VAST Symposium
Dynamic Billboard for Monuments
Content collection:You can imagine the monument as if it were surrounded by a sphere, and the digital camera placed in N positions in the sphere equator
The camera lenses are directed towards the center of the sphere
It is necessary to provide for each monument N pictures taken with the camera’s line of sight perpendicular to the monuments and spaced equally on the equator line
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Dynamic Billboard for Monuments
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Dynamic Billboard for Monuments
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Dynamic Billboard for Monuments
Example from TiE prototype
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Conclusions and Future Works
Project started in Nov 2006
User needs analysis performedStudents, teachers, art experts from 8 countries
Design deliverableGame engine, cultural environment mechanisms, MMORG architecture, trial games
Content Collection (semi-automatic)Rules for 3rd parties to provide maps and pictures from the cities to be implemented
Contents for the trial-games
Implementation has started, and we have a demo that include some cities