VSim: Real-time Visualization of 3D Digital Humanities Content for Education and Collaboration

Abstract

This paper presents VSim, a framework for the visualization of 3D architectural and archeological models. VSim's design focuses on educational use and scholarly collaboration, an approach that is not commonly found in existing commercial software. Two different camera control modes address a variety of scenarios, and a novel smoothing method allows fluid camera movement. VSim includes the ability to create and display narratives within the virtual environment and to add spatially localized multimedia resources. A new way to associate these resources with points and orientations in space is also introduced.