Output details

Virtual Romans, Leicester - a digital recreation of Roman Leicester

This portfolio describes the background, development and use of a new Virtual Reality (VR) model of the built fabric of Roman Leicester (Ratae Corieltauvo-rum) in 210 AD which has been based upon direct archaeological evidence, literary evidence and comparisons with the remains of similar Romano-British cities. At the time of publication this was the only complete VR model of an entire Romano-British city in existence. Virtual Roman Leicester (VRL) was created in a popular games engine to allow real-time exploration by real world users and has a multi-platform capability to also examine issues surrounding the use of Virtual Reality for public outreach and the wider understanding of cultural heritage. We focused firstly upon issues surrounding the interpretation of the archaeological evidence and its extrapolation into full buildings (using a new and original technique we call architectural forensics), which allows a methodological rigour to be applied to virtual reconstruction, secondly upon technical issues concerning importation of ancient land surface terrain and thirdly upon aspects of initial user experience following an extensive public exhibition of the model. The significance of the work rests in its highly successful demonstration of games engine technology for serious research in cultural history and archaeology, and is currently being widely copied in the Virtual Cultural Heritage field. The Research was commissioned by the Leicester Arts and Museums service, and has received widespread attention – for example see http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/leicester/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8364000/8364238.stm

Included with this portfolio are: the digital recreation of Roman Leicester and the conference paper where the results were first put into the academic domain.