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Time.deltaTime: the vicissitudes of presence in visualizing Roman houses with game engine technology

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Abstract

First drafted in 2006 and currently in version 2.1, the London Charter calls for the adoption of international standards for intellectual integrity, transparency, sustainability, and access in 3D modeling for cultural heritage. While the London Charter has been in the process of revision and distribution to the heritage community, game engines have become less expensive and more approachable. Several engines offer the ability to publish easily across operating systems, mobile devices, and the web, causing a rapid expansion in their use for archeological visualization. However, the very power of game engines to create and publish immersive content poses fundamental challenges to the emphasis on data-driven visualization and transparency expressed in the London Charter. These challenges should not be suppressed, since they can prove heuristically fruitful if they are explicitly recognized and explored. This potential is illustrated by a descriptive analysis of the recreation of the House of the Prince of Naples in Pompeii by an undergraduate humanities class, which concludes that the immersive effects of engine-based visualizations are as much to be found in their creation as in their “playing.” This suggests the value of democratizing the creation of game engine content for heritage visualization beyond research visualization laboratories, as a part of undergraduate curricula in the humanities.

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Acknowledgments

Special thanks are due to the students of HUMN 3923H Digital Pompeii, fall semester 2010: Jacob Dufour, Vance Green, Christina Hefton, Tiffany Montgomery, Laura Peery, and Nicholas Tinquist. The project would not be possible without the intelligence, industry, and dedication of Jasmine Merced, who is responsible for our database design, and Keenan Cole, who is responsible for user interface and scripting within the models.

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  1. Director of Humanities, University of Arkansas, 525 Old Main, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    David Fredrick

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  1. David Fredrick
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Correspondence to David Fredrick.

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Fredrick, D. Time.deltaTime: the vicissitudes of presence in visualizing Roman houses with game engine technology. AI & Soc 29, 461–472 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-013-0488-5

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