X3D/X3DOM, Blender Game Engine and OSG4WEB: Open source visualisation for cultural heritage environments

Abstract

Cultural Heritage applications have often exploited 3D reconstructions in order to better convey contents, but virtual environments need also new solutions to be accessed in a flexible as possible way. X3DOM, Blender Game Engine and OSG4WEB are three different tools able to perform on-line, mobile and desktop visualisations, each one with pros and cons. Do they meet the requirements raised by Cultural Heritage curators? This paper will be offering an overview of these navigation tools by means of some case studies in order to better highlight problems and opportunities.