Reconstructing Vindonissa as a living document – A case-study of digital reconstruction for output to pre-rendered and real-time applications

Abstract

The legion camp "Vindonissa" in Switzerland is considered one of the most important Roman excavation sites north of the Alps. Research there has been conducted for over a century and reconstructive drawings have always been a way to showcase scientific progress. The earliest of these drawings date back to 1909. In 2015, the local archaeological service decided that a new series of illustrations should be produced. Topographical data, archaeological plans, as well as building profiles provided by experts were the basis for these illustrations.Future uses of the same model could include animations or real-time applications for augmented and virtual reality. In order to avoid remodeling for these uses, the whole camp and its surrounding settlements had to be constructed as adaptive and flexible 3D models. The requirements on a model for still rendering are very different from those on real-time renderings in game engines. Also, the reasonable level of detail for images on eye level is very different from the level of detail for bird's-eye panorama. Therefore, the main challenge was to develop an efficient workflow for multiple output media and different points of view.While some of the proposed methods proved to facilitate the process without adding time needed for modeling, there still remain a lot of open questions. A "living document" should allow all stakeholders (excavators, archaeologists, historians, and illustrators) to access and change information in all stages of the process. This still has to be considered a long-term goal and is a problem far from being solved.