The Chora VR Experience
Currently, we are working on scanning the Byzantine Church of Chora in Istanbul via photogrammetry with my colleague Elias Sarantopoulos who is an award-winning author for his interactive book labeled Istanbul’s Byzantine Marvel Church of Chora. Our final intention is to archive and exhibit the monument in Virtual Reality and use gamification methods to present its history dating back to the early period of Christianity. The project is partly studied during the elective Virtual Reality and Immersive Design Course. The research is mainly focused on the interdisciplinary aspects of creating virtual worlds asking the question of how cultural heritage sites can be represented as gamified immersive museum experiences in Virtual Reality.
The case study is called: “Chora Church: Immersive Experience, Istanbul”.
The aim of the project is to explore the interdisciplinary aspects of creating virtual worlds asking the question of how cultural heritage sites can be represented as gamified immersive museum experiences in Virtual Reality.
This project was partly carried out amid the elective Virtual Reality and Immersive Design Course in the 2019 spring semester at Ozyegin University’s Architecture and Design Faculty. The Activities mainly focused on bureaucratic petitions to gather permissions to capture the building, Photogrammetric Surveys on the site, the creation of the site’s 3D model using reality capture software, optimization and retopolization of the model and the formation of a Virtual Reality world that lets visitors experience the detailed heritage site aiming at both educational content and exhibition.
The award winning interactive book named as The church of Chora – Istanbul’s Byzantine Marvel published by colleague Elias Sarantopoulos was used as a reference to set possible interaction scenarios. The technological basis supporting the spatial experience consists of integrated solutions including Photography – Photogrammetry Survey, Reality Capture – 3D Model via Photogrammetry, Z-Brush – Polygon Optimization and Retopologizing
Unity Game Engine – VR Implementation, Teleportation, using HTC Vive VR Headsets.
The Spatial photogrammetry approach has added value to the VR Game developers community in the sense of how Level Designs can be approached in novel ways. It also added value to the Museum curators community in the Corona pandemic in regards of new monetization methods. The size of the application is still too large to be exhibited on online browser platforms such as Mozilla hubs. Optimization issues need to be addressed
“Chora Church: Immersive Experience” showed that the supportive qualities of VR can also be used as a teaching tool for immersive design education. Thanks to VR’s notions of presence the learning experience can be extended to a level of “learning a subject by living/experiencing it”. It also provided means of transdisciplinary collaboration of various design fields on documentation, digitalization, and narration of history.
Additional research is planned outside class hours at the Virtual Reality Laboratory as group lab sessions. The outcomes are planned to be presented in various VR Related events in the coming year.
For more information on Chora You can check Elias’s book here: http://www.churchofchora.com
Edit (December 2019) : Unfortunately, we couldn’t continue with this project in a relation to the government’s decision of turning the museum into a Mosque.