Virtual tour sweeps viewers off their feet
By Shauntel Lowe
May 7, 2006 9:00 p.m.
On the cathedral tours given by Professor John Dagenais, there
is no walking ““ only flying.
Participants flew over surrounding rooftops and right up to a
likeness of Jesus sculpted into a wall near the high ceilings on a
virtual tour of the Romanesque Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela
in Spain, guided by Dagenais on Sunday.
Using the technology of UCLA’s Visualization Portal,
Dagenais and researchers designed and created a three-dimensional
model of the cathedral as it would have looked in the year 1211,
before undergoing Gothic and Baroque/neoclassical
modifications.
For Dagenais, chair of the UCLA Department of Spanish and
Portuguese, the model serves as background for courses he teaches
on medieval Spanish literature and as an ongoing research
project.
On a floor-to-ceiling spherical screen in the portal, the tour
swooped quickly from the rafters of the vaulted ceilings to the
floor of the cathedral, like a roller coaster riding down a steep
drop.
About 25 people sat in the dark portal just a few feet from the
screen, as Dagenais prompted portal coordinator Pieter Lechner to
“fly” to different areas of the cathedral.
The three-paneled screen enabled Dagenais to simultaneously show
the model of the cathedral on two of the panels while video or
images from the contemporary construction of the cathedral were
shown on the third panel.
At times the tour raced quickly, taking viewers rapidly around
the cathedral; at other times the tour crept along as viewers went
around corners or entered new rooms.
The technology used in the portal is similar to that used in
major motion pictures, but Lechner and Dagenais said the
tour’s unpredictable nature results in a variation of pace
throughout the experience, a factor Hollywood studios do not have
to take into account when constructing three-dimensional models for
movies.
“Hollywood has the luxury of knowing exactly what
(viewers) will be seeing next,” Lechner said.
Because moviemakers know exactly what parts of virtual buildings
they will show, they only have to create certain parts and rooms of
the building, he said.
But on virtual tours like Dagenais’, in which participants
go from room to room and even outside of the structures, modelers
must construct the entire structure so the “illusion will not
be lost” as they travel, Dagenais said.
Also, the computer generates the model as the tour progresses,
rendering millions of points in real time, which can slow the
computer managing the model, Lechner said.
Even with a few kinks in the process, some viewers were
surprised by the quality of the presentation.
“You wouldn’t think this technology would be good
with art history,” said Susan Gallick, one of the tour
participants, who added that the visualization-portal technology
seemed more fitting for math and science projects, yet still worked
well with art history.
“Art history and technology is fabulous,” she
said.
Judith Linde, president of Friends of English, a scholarly group
with the English department that hosted Sunday’s tour, said
the clarity of the model nearly tricked her into thinking she was
actually in the cathedral.
“At times, I thought I could look over (and see
further),” she said.
But Dagenais said the goal of the model is not only to create a
replica of the actual structure, but “to create an experience
you can’t have when you go to Spain,” allowing viewers
to ascend to the ceiling and fly above the cathedral.
In addition to the computer-generated model, Dagenais will be
traveling to Spain in May 2007 with UCLA Alumni Travel, which will
be taking a trip to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela.
For Kit Spikings, assistant director of UCLA Alumni Travel,
Sunday’s tour was a small taste of the actual trip to Spain
next year.
“Just being here (at the tour), I was flown to Spain and I
was right there and I was with my passengers,” she said.
“It was absolutely amazing.”
