Interactive 3D Visualisation of Architectural Models and Point Clouds Using Low-Cost-Systems

For interactive 3D visualisation of textured landscape and architecture models, which were created at the HafenCity University Hamburg as 3D CAD models or triangle meshes, the modern game engine Unity is used. Textured models and point clouds are presented in a viewer application so that the user can navigate as in a virtual world of a computer game. The point of view is interactively chosen by the user to access the model in a virtual walk through. Low-cost-system components such as 3D monitors are used for the stereoscopic display of the objects. By using a smart phone app, the device becomes a head mounted display to create an even more immersive exploration of the data. The inertial sensors of the phone are used for the tracking of the head. In order to control movements of the virtual point of view different controls are used. The controls are taken from classical game consoles or from “off the shelf” PC accessories. In the developed software the following navigation controllers can be used: Sony Dualshock3, Nintendo WiiMote & Nunchuk, Microsoft Kinect, Leap Motion, XSens MTi. At the moment the software processes meshed models in FBX format, while the point cloud data is imported using the ASCII coded PLY format (XYZRGB) and processed on the basis of DirectX 11.