Virtual Dunhuang art cave: A cave within a CAVE

Virtual Reality can present historical places in a three-dimensional and in teractive way, giving visitors a photorealistic impression of objects. Not only existing scenarios can be shown, but VR can also be used to rebuild sc enarios that were damaged or destroyed a long time ago, giving new life to the cultural heritage. We used Virtual Reality to present the Mogao Grottos in Dunhuang. This cave site is one of the most important cultural and religious places by the anc ient Silk Road. The presentation is to give visitors the impression of visi ting the cave site and provide information about the caves, paintings and s tatues in an interesting way. To achieve this, we developed a new, intuitiv e interaction paradigm, which enables the user to explore the caves. To giv e observers a photorealistic impression of the caves and to create a feelin g of immersion, innovative rendering techniques were integrated. The resulting presentation combines Virtual Reality and archaeology to give tourists a realistic experience of this cave site and to support scientist s in their research work.