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Olympia - home of the ancient and modern Olympic games a virtual reality three dimensional experience Production Of The Exhibitions 3-D Zeus The Zeus model was presented in a separate 3d virtual reality booth at the Exhibition. It was displayed using shuttered glasses technology (they were suspended from the roof), driven by proprietary software running on Intergraph hardware. The use of shuttered glasses necessitates the presence of a museum attendant, this option was not pursued for the reconstruction of the city which used polarised projection. The model was rendered in real-time, and was displayed at life size on one screen and as a close-up of the head on another. A limited amount of interactivity was provided where users could rotate the model about its vertical axis, and zoom in and out. It was not possible to flip the statue, this was seen to be disrespectful.  Figure 3: The Statue of Zeus/Poseidon virtual model Virtual Olympia The 3d experience offered to visitors was developed in Macromedia Director using a 'stage' that was 1600x600 pixels. The two separate 768x576 (PAL) animations sequences that made up each tour path were composited into one 1536x576 movie, ensuring perfect synchronisation between the left and right channels. These animation sequences were then used in Director, where the interactivity and additional material was added. Visitors to Ancient Olympia would be guided through the site along pre-determined paths, accompanied by a narrative explaining the monuments with anecdotes of life in during the games Two JVC DLA-C15 rear projection capable projectors were used to overlap the left and right channel images onto a 4m wide screen in a 5m square room. A custom built console was designed to facilitate user interaction at the decision points, and mounted on a stand approximately 3m from the screen. The computer used to deliver the movies was a 2x800MHz Pentium III machine, with 500Mbyte of RAM, fast disk access and a Matrox G400 graphics card. This card has a twin screen output of 800x600 resolution, which was used to drive the two projectors. The Supporting Website The primary sponsor of the VR exhibitions required a web site be developed to support the exhibition, and to brand the digital components with their corporate presence. The web site was very successful, earning a nomination for a BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) award, and receiving an AIMA (Australian Interactive Media Association) Best Web Site award. The web site contained, amongst 4Gb of material, LivePicture format panorama of the reconstruction, with linked 'hotpoints' and the narration. In addition, the Statue of Zeus was presented as a 2d LivePicture animation, and as a 3d anaglyph version. The web site also contained a downloadable file for the preparation of 3d anaglyph glasses on a colour bubble jet printer. Conclusion The exhibition was an outstanding success, with most visitors to the VR displays staying for the entire 20 minute presentation. The web site held the visitor's attention, with 12% of the visitors staying on-line for 20 minutes or more. The project represents a melange of scientific research and data acquisition techniques presented to the public as entertainment and education, using state-of-the-art 3d computer graphics. Acknowlegements This project was made possible through the generous provision of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture (http://www.culture.gr). A number of people in the Ministry worked hard on our behalf to make the data collection process possible. Sponsorship to complete the work was generously provided by the Intel Corporation (http://www.intel.com). Thanks also to the Australian Ambassador in Athens, Ross Burns, and consul Deborah George, to Jan Casson-Medhurst at the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, Judith Swaddling at the British Museum for her time in reference to the scale model of Olympia housed at the Museum. The website was conceived by the Powerhouse Museum (http://www.phm.gov.au) with graphic design by Massive Interactive (http://massive.com.au). The photographic work at the archaeological site was undertaken by Peter Murphy, Sydney. It is his genius also that enabled much of the data that is displayed on the web site. The overlays for the metopes were draw under the direction of Kate Da Costa by a meticulous and hardworking David Loong. References:
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