Workflows and Challenges Involved in Creation of Realistic Immersive Virtual Museum, Heritage, and Tourism Experiences: A Comprehensive Reference for 3D Asset Capturing

This study provides a technical review of the current state of immersive virtual museum, heritage, and tourism focusing on workflows and challenges involved in realistic asset creation. The workflow includes two parts i.e. virtualization of historic objects and creation of environment. However, in some instances the environment itself is a cultural heritage site e.g. an old castle that can be considered as historic object. Otherwise, the environment is just a conceptual virtual place (created using traditional 3D modeling methods) to mimic museum experience, embedding smaller historic objects, which are virtualized. Although tools and technologies such as photogrammetry, 3D scanning, or aerial 3D mapping have made the process of virtualization of historic/cultural objects considerably easier for basic users, challenges and limitations still remain as these automatic processes are not always accompanied by flawless outcomes. This study addresses some of those challenges and limitations faced during preparation of experimental immersive virtual museum for exhibition purposes. This covers various ranges of topics from lighting, texturing, and topology to limitations related to opacity, dark colors, and small details. This paper also provides a comprehensive overview of the technical details when it comes to preparation of virtual cultural heritage environments specifically for immersive experiences. Areas such as user interaction, navigation, space optimization, quality and viewing distance, access, purpose and objectives, degree of realism, etc. are covered in this review. The major processes illustrated in this study include photogrammetry, aerial 3D mapping, polygon modeling, 3D sculpting, 3D painting, UV Mapping, etc. The major software/tools used in this workflow include Agisoft Photoscan, Autodesk Remake, Pixologic ZBrush, xNormal, Autodesk 3ds Max, Unity, SteamVR, HTC Vive, including other relevant plugins and scripts. However, this study is not a step by step guide or a tutorial, but a reference for the currently available technologies to create immersive virtual museum, cultural heritage, and tourism aiming to distinguish the lines between different levels of processes involved. The objective is to provide a clear understanding of the challenges involved. Based on the literature review done prior to this study, a comprehensive academic reference (covering the mentioned areas) for digital heritage researchers is lacking (to date). The authors believe that due to the increasing availability and affordability of the current immersive virtual reality technologies for basic users this is a proper time for gathering major processes/challenges involved in creation of such environments and present them in form of a comprehensive reference. Although the main focus of this study is on digital heritage, the processes undertaken and explained can be generalized to be used by researchers in other fields where applicable.