Tech Talk on EarthWorks : Unearthing the Details On Hardware and Software

When “EarthWorks” began to take shape in the late 1990s, project director John Hancock, University of Cincinnati professor of architecture and team member in the Center for the Electronic Reconstruction of Historical and Archaeological Sites (CERHAS) at the university, experimented with full, user-driven virtual reality. In these early phases, users had complete freedom of movement and discovery through the virtual sites and accompanying information.

That was the trend in the ‘virtual heritage’ field then. But, these sites were too large and subtle to work in this format. Users spent a lot of time on the site but were not able to move around the reconstructions quickly enough to get really rewarding experiences or information,” explained Hancock.

That problem prompted the team’s creation of “Interactive Video Navigation,” a hybrid that blends features from three media formats: the exploratory navigation of virtual reality, the mixed content types of multi-media, and the controlled content of documentary narrative. The hybrid provides a level of exploratory choice that’s simple to navigate while providing individual choice of destination. In fact, one can hardly follow the same route twice, since the flow-networks are designed to be very deep and complex.

The IVN system led to a prototype with 98 scenes that was tested in local classrooms with elementary-age students. Quipped Hancock, “We figured that if the kids could navigate the program, they could then show the adults how to do it.”

The end result is an interplay of the virtual with the “real,” 2-D and 3-D, the moving and the still, words and images. The computer models themselves are made in 3D Studio Max software, with some occasional support from AutoCAD. The bulk of the polygon counts come from “hand-drawn” terrain surfaces that optimize detail only where needed, all built in “Max.”

“Max” also allowed for the creation of textures (adapted from photo archives) and atmospheric effects, before the animation cameras are set in motion. Most cameras approximate the flights of birds or the view of the earthworks as they existed in the imaginations of their builders. The animations are blended in Adobe Premiere with audio and video files and photo resources to create each of the short narrated scenes.

Macromedia Director is used to arrange these video scenes, one on each discrete topic segment, into complex interactive networks. Most choice screens present a 3-D spatial environment, so the user has the illusion of selecting pathways through space and through the earthworks site or landscape to discover new content arranged in multiple intertwined layers. The exhibit contains about 60 such interactive video scenes; the DVD about 160 (over three hours) plus its hypertext background resources.

In the early years, the team experimented frequently with more esoteric technical solutions, such as VR game-engineering, GIS, purchased terrain data and talking avatar. The members however found that each of these methods undermined at least one of the project’s core objectives, which have always been:

• The demand for high image quality
• The need for archaeological accuracy and respect for treatment of the sites and their makers
• Reliable expertise levels widely available among museum staff
• Widespread ease-of-use among audiences

As a result of these priorities and decisions, the “EarthWorks” team’s contributions to the virtual heritage field lie more in the areas of audience engagement methods along with theories of interpretation than in the technology of such.

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