VR prototype – immersion in the virtual city

A research focus in the CUT project is to find alternative visualization options for specialist data. The project team wants to lower the accessibility threshold of specialized data for citizens and planners. A practical application example of this is the complex planning of major construction projects in public spaces, which involves extensive coordination processes. As this planning is now increasingly done using the Building Information Modeling (BIM) method, 3D models are already available in the early design phase and can be used for communication and coordination.

The CUT project team is working on visualizing these construction projects not alone and free-standing in space, but in the context of the surrounding city. The CUT VR prototype was developed in 2021 for this immersive experience and is available as a framework on OpenCoDE (CUT VR Prototype Repository). Being able to successfully implement this development just one year after the start of the project was made possible by a special constellation. As the Hamburg Port Authority AöR (HPA) and partners such as the State Office for Geoinformation and Surveying had already ventured into virtual reality in Hamburg in 2015, it was possible to build on both experience and existing modules.

In close cooperation with the city of Leipzig and the city of Munich, use cases for researching VR visualization were defined and implemented directly in the prototype. The prototype allows a variety of interactions, including the above-mentioned visualization of construction projects and various planning variants throughout Hamburg, the integration of live sensor data in the form of Hamburg’s public charging infrastructure, direct access to specialist data on individual buildings and simulated ship and rail traffic. At the touch of a button, users can immediately immerse themselves in the other cities and experience the planning scenarios for the future routing of Boschetsrieder Strasse in Munich. In virtual Leipzig, users have the opportunity to walk through today’s and the historic old town in a smooth transition.

The primary goal of developing the VR prototype, to create a uniform understanding of the possibilities of VR visualization across cities, has been fully achieved. Along the way, the project also gained extensive experience in cross-city data exchange, the use of standardized interfaces, the requirements to be met by 3D models and the handling of very large amounts of data. The framework of the VR prototype forms the basis for several 3D and VR developments in CUT. Direct follow-up developments include, for example, a trade fair application with a simplified operating concept that citizens were able to experience at the Leipzig Data Week or a realistic day-night change including shadow simulation. Starting in 2023 and also for the following years 2024 and 2025, the focus will be on switching to the new version of the 3D Unreal Engine.