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Lasers, Landscapes and Muddy Boots: Visualizing Laser Scanning Data Using Game Engines

Keith Challis
Keith Challis

Methods of survey have developed dramatically in the recent past with the advent of new digital survey techniques, global positioning airborne and terrestrial laser scanning. The volume of data collected to record monuments and landscapes may now be vast, and levels of accuracy and precision unprecedented. This growth in data quality and volume has to some extent been accompanied by a reluctant theoretical debate, largely about method and meaning in the practice of survey. Less well explored is the area of visualisation of survey results, which has tended to remain rooted in traditional approaches, albeit facilitated by new digital media. The ability of modern digital survey to engage with others areas of archaeological debate, for example discussions of sense of place, meaning and interpretation in landscape, as embodied by for example the phenomenological approach to landscape has largely been ignored as it is poorly addressed using conventional static visualisation techniques. This paper explores the potential of computer game software to produce accurate, immersive and interactive visualisations of digital survey data of archaeological monuments.

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Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Potential Applications for Immersive Visualisation of Airborne Lidar Keith Challis Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity University of Birmingham U B
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots "The real work (in the study of landscape) is accomplished by the men and women with muddy boots..." W.G. Hoskins. Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The volume of data collected to record monuments and landscapes may now be vast, and levels of accuracy and precision unprecedented Conventional visualisation of TLS/ALS and survey data, has tended to remain rooted in traditional approaches, albeit facilitated by new digital media Modern digital survey can engage with others areas of archaeological debate such as discussions of sense of place, meaning and interpretation in landscape, as embodied by for example the phenomenological approach to landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots ideas of landscape? defining a new medium backwards into VR waving or drowning? Keith Challis University of Birmingham
ideas of landscape?
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Approaches to Landscape Air-photography and the post WW2 paradigm shift Crawford Riley W.G.Hoskins An emphasis on fieldwork The countrymans eye for landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Post-Modernism meets landscape Phenomenology, its acolytes and critics Visual primacy in archaeology (coincident with availability of tools?) Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Another Perspective: Thirdspace Thirdspace - spaces that areboth real and imagined Edward Soja everything comes together subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete, the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure and agency, mind and body, consciousness and the unconscious, the disciplined and the transdisciplinary, everyday life and unending history. Keith Challis University of Birmingham
defining a new medium
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Why Games? Potential to address deficiencies of conventional visualisation (static, omniscient viewer) Beyond cognitive engagement with data into first person experience of data Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The Nature of the Beast Visual fidelity Interactivity Ludic engagement Landscape Tools Vegetation modelling Dynamic lighting Weather AI controlled denizens Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Problems Prevailing combat paradigm in FP games (prejudice) Modelling issues Compromise between precision and visual appeal Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Potential Authentic landscape reconstruction Multiple user remote access Interactivity Accessibility Keith Challis University of Birmingham
backwards into VR
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots From survey to VR Point cloud terrain data (ALS, TLS, Survey) Interpolated surfaces GIS terrain derivatives Game-based rendering Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Software Choice: CryENGINE by CryTek
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Building Terrain and Landscape in Sandbox
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Terrain Scaled greyscale heightmaps Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Texture Textures based on terrain analysis (slope, insolaton) and aerial photography Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Vegetation Vegetation mapping based on surveyed data Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Example TLS Survey British Camp, Herefordshire
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Example GPS Survey Laxton Castle Notts
waving or drowning?
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Immersed and immersive, so what? Do game worlds enhance interpretation? Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Where you look from affects what you see FP view may not clarify, but it might explain Landscape as experienced Engage with different areas of debate Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Revisiting GIS Analysis Exploration of impact of vegetation and atmospheric conditions on visibility Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Ludic Exploration Play-based exploration of landscape Visual and auditory cues Building a personal narrative of landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Insight or Obfuscation? Can we deviate too far from analytical examination of survey data? Skewed perspective Digital repetition Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The disneyfication of the past? A cheap and generic experience? Whose past is it anyway? Landscape now not then Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots A bigger agenda? Public engagement Museology Uniting art and science Thirdspace (Souja) Facilitating physical modelling and experiential understanding Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots An end and a beginning? "The real work (in the study of landscape) is accomplished by the men and women with muddy boots..." W.G. Hoskins. To understand a landscape truly it must be felt, but to convey some of this feeling to others it has to be talked about, recounted, or written and depicted." Chris Tilley Keith Challis University of Birmingham
Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Thank you Keith Challis Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT [email_address] Secondsiteresearch.blogspot.com Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham

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Lasers, Landscapes and Muddy Boots: Visualizing Laser Scanning Data Using Game Engines

  • 1. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Potential Applications for Immersive Visualisation of Airborne Lidar Keith Challis Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity University of Birmingham U B
  • 2. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots "The real work (in the study of landscape) is accomplished by the men and women with muddy boots..." W.G. Hoskins. Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 3. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The volume of data collected to record monuments and landscapes may now be vast, and levels of accuracy and precision unprecedented Conventional visualisation of TLS/ALS and survey data, has tended to remain rooted in traditional approaches, albeit facilitated by new digital media Modern digital survey can engage with others areas of archaeological debate such as discussions of sense of place, meaning and interpretation in landscape, as embodied by for example the phenomenological approach to landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 4. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots ideas of landscape? defining a new medium backwards into VR waving or drowning? Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 6. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Approaches to Landscape Air-photography and the post WW2 paradigm shift Crawford Riley W.G.Hoskins An emphasis on fieldwork The countrymans eye for landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 7. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Post-Modernism meets landscape Phenomenology, its acolytes and critics Visual primacy in archaeology (coincident with availability of tools?) Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 8. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Another Perspective: Thirdspace Thirdspace - spaces that areboth real and imagined Edward Soja everything comes together subjectivity and objectivity, the abstract and the concrete, the real and the imagined, the knowable and the unimaginable, the repetitive and the differential, structure and agency, mind and body, consciousness and the unconscious, the disciplined and the transdisciplinary, everyday life and unending history. Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 9. defining a new medium
  • 10. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Why Games? Potential to address deficiencies of conventional visualisation (static, omniscient viewer) Beyond cognitive engagement with data into first person experience of data Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 11. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The Nature of the Beast Visual fidelity Interactivity Ludic engagement Landscape Tools Vegetation modelling Dynamic lighting Weather AI controlled denizens Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 12. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Problems Prevailing combat paradigm in FP games (prejudice) Modelling issues Compromise between precision and visual appeal Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 13. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Potential Authentic landscape reconstruction Multiple user remote access Interactivity Accessibility Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 15. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots From survey to VR Point cloud terrain data (ALS, TLS, Survey) Interpolated surfaces GIS terrain derivatives Game-based rendering Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 16. Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Software Choice: CryENGINE by CryTek
  • 17. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Building Terrain and Landscape in Sandbox
  • 18. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Terrain Scaled greyscale heightmaps Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 19. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Texture Textures based on terrain analysis (slope, insolaton) and aerial photography Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 20. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots GIS Derived Landscapes: Vegetation Vegetation mapping based on surveyed data Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 21. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Example TLS Survey British Camp, Herefordshire
  • 22. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham Example GPS Survey Laxton Castle Notts
  • 24. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Immersed and immersive, so what? Do game worlds enhance interpretation? Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 25. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Where you look from affects what you see FP view may not clarify, but it might explain Landscape as experienced Engage with different areas of debate Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 26. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Revisiting GIS Analysis Exploration of impact of vegetation and atmospheric conditions on visibility Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 27. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Ludic Exploration Play-based exploration of landscape Visual and auditory cues Building a personal narrative of landscape Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 28. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Insight or Obfuscation? Can we deviate too far from analytical examination of survey data? Skewed perspective Digital repetition Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 29. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots The disneyfication of the past? A cheap and generic experience? Whose past is it anyway? Landscape now not then Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 30. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots A bigger agenda? Public engagement Museology Uniting art and science Thirdspace (Souja) Facilitating physical modelling and experiential understanding Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 31. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots An end and a beginning? "The real work (in the study of landscape) is accomplished by the men and women with muddy boots..." W.G. Hoskins. To understand a landscape truly it must be felt, but to convey some of this feeling to others it has to be talked about, recounted, or written and depicted." Chris Tilley Keith Challis University of Birmingham
  • 32. Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Thank you Keith Challis Institute of Archaeology & Antiquity University of Birmingham Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT [email_address] Secondsiteresearch.blogspot.com Keith Challis University of Birmingham Lasers, Landscape and Muddy Boots Keith Challis University of Birmingham