Travel is difficult these days, so virtual experiences have become increasingly essential. James Burrows takes a look

James Burrows, technical director at Immersive Studios, investigates the accelerating need for accurate 3D assets

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on travel – not just internationally, but domestically. Small journeys that would never have been an issue are now treated with caution, while social distancing has changed how we interact both with others and the environment. Understandably, this has driven a sharp rise in virtual alternatives to physical activities, from viewing a house to hosting an event to filming a show. But for these types of experiences to work, we need compelling visuals that are as lifelike as possible – and that’s where creating highly accurate 3D assets is key.

VIRTUAL COPIES OF REAL PLACES

The BBC recently ran a report on the uptake in virtual property viewings since coronavirus hit, with VR viewings tripling in the first month of lockdown alone. With the virus severely curtailing travel, and local lockdowns and quarantines implemented at a moment’s notice, our ability to visit places and mix freely with others has changed indefinitely. To survive, businesses are turning to virtual solutions. Anything from location scouting to a training simulation requires realistic environments – and creating a 3D experience is fast becoming the best solution.

With that in mind, it’s unsurprising that we’ve been seeing a surge in the use of techniques such as photogrammetry and laser scanning as a way to quickly and accurately create 3D representations of places, objects and sometimes even people. And while these techniques have been around for years, recent advances in technology mean that they’re more easily accessible than they’ve ever been before.

THE POWER OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY

Photogrammetry is one way to ensure accurate 3D assets. Essentially it is the method of creating structure from photos – you take hundreds of different photos of an object or place and then use specialist software (we prefer Reality Capture) to compare the matching features between the photos and form a ‘point cloud’, which can then be used to create the model. We find this particularly useful for large-scale, high-quality environments – for example, we used photogrammetry to model the historic medieval streets around Elm Hill in Norwich for a heritage project. This in turn demonstrates how this type of technology can be used for virtual location scouting. In today’s world, we can recreate a location using photos from a smartphone and allow people to view it online or via a VR headset, therefore avoiding the initial need to travel.

LOOKING AT LIDAR

Another area of interest is LIDAR, which is a form of laser scanning. LIDAR (which stands for light detection and ranging) measures distances by illuminating the target with laser light and measuring the reflection with a sensor. The differences in the time it takes for the laser to return can be used to make 3D representations of the space or object – a bit like radar but with lasers rather than radio. Up until relatively recently, high-quality and portable laser scanning was a specialist method with equipment you had to rent for thousands of pounds. Now, the ipad Pro comes with an in-built LIDAR scanner so you can essentially carry out on-the-spot scans with a regular consumer device. With this technology becoming more easily accessible, anyone can use it to help create 3D assets. So for an estate agent interested in creating virtual viewings, they could simply scan the house with an ipad Pro and create a digital 3D version which can be viewed via a VR headset.

MORE REASONS TO GO VIRTUAL

3D asset creation has been rapidly advancing. In just the last five years we’ve moved from virtual tours that rely on flat monoscopic 360º images, to being able to generate detailed 3D scans of a location using the smartphone we have at home. And in light of how coronavirus has changed our approach to travel and social distancing, the development of this technology is crucial. Valuable use cases for generating accurate 3D representations range from the property market to the film industry to game design, architecture and historical preservation – and that’s just a few. And while the last few months have been unprecedented and unsettling, it’s encouraging to know that virtual technology is well on its way to helping us establish a new kind of normality.