Abstract
Several historic sites in the Maltese Islands are not easy to explore; their construction typology or fragile state of conservation can impede accessibility to all. The Saint Paul’s Catacombs in Rabat is one such historic site. With this in mind, can Virtual Reality (VR) be used to add value to the user experience (UX) of someone exploring these heritage sites? And if so, how can this value be added? This chapter attempts to answer these questions through a qualitative study of a VR system created for the St Paul’s Catacombs in Malta. An assessment of similar applications created for other cultural heritage sites around the world is conducted. This chapter also describes how this VR experience was created through the use of Game Engines, Laser Scanning and other technologies.
Mark Bugeja is now a research support officer at the University of Malta, but did this work earlier as a lecturer of Saint Martins Institute of Higher Education.
Dylan Seychell is now a lecturer at the University of Malta, but did this work earlier as a lecturer of Saint Martins Institute of Higher Education.
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- 1.
At least those within the view space.
- 2.
Primarily Maya and 3D Studio Max.
- 3.
See Table 1.
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Grech, J., Bugeja, M., Seychell, D. (2020). A Case Study into the User Experience of an Application of Virtual Reality at the Saint Paul’s Catacombs, Malta. In: Seychell, D., Dingli, A. (eds) Rediscovering Heritage Through Technology. Studies in Computational Intelligence, vol 859. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36107-5_8
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