2. An Immersive Natural History Experience

The Problem

Our understanding of extinct creatures, plants and environments is always changing. Palaeoart in museums and entertainment media often become outdated shortly after they are released. In one case, an exhibition of Spinosaurus, including a lifesize 3D sculpture, museum display and Paleoart paintings in National Geographic were commissioned, only to be declared incorrect two years later by scientists who had updated their knowlege on these creatures. We can’t press ctrl+Z on magazine covers and real life sculptures, so this outdated version of Spinosaurus will live on.

Here we see an old newspaper clipping of a gliding stegosaurus. Interesting, but probably inaccurate.

The Solution: An Immersive VR Natural History Project

Here are the reasons I think that a game engine project would be an excellent method to display Palaeontological specimens;

1. Immersion.

2. Iteration.

3. Ease of distinguishing between gathered vs. inferred information.

If the gliding stegosaur had been commissioned as a 2D or 3D artwork for a museum it would have been difficult or impossible to ammend it to represent a more current understanding of this creature. In a project created in a game engine, it would be possible to update and ammend any mistakes. It would also be possible to display our older understandings of creatures beside the current understanding and explain why the changes were made. A shader could be created which could be turned on in-game to distinguish between the parts of the animal that are known vs. the parts that are an educated (or artistic!) guess.

VR would be a really effective way to display certain phenomena, such as giant flying pterosaurs, which were as tall as giraffes yet could somehow take wing.

Azhdarchid Beside a Person.

Here is a 3D sculpture of an Azhdarchid made by Blue Rhino Studio beside a person. Imagine a VR experience where this beautiful sculpture could move around, take flight and hunt in front of you.

Pipeline
In this blog I will document the pipeline to accurately recreate a palaeontologica specimen for real time rendering. I will document the process of gathering information to make the model as accurate as possible. The pipeline will involve these steps

1. Choosing a specimen

2. Gathering information

3. Modelling

4. Rigging

5. Animation

6. Grooming

7. Implimentation in-engine.