Designing an immersive visit for public space assessment

Issa, Elie; Belaroussi, Rachid · 2024 · Crossref

DOI: 10.55214/25768484.v8i2.1082

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Summary

This study addresses the challenge of assessing the quality of future public spaces in urban development, specifically within the LaVallée eco-district in Paris. The authors argue that immersive virtual reality (VR) visits offer a superior technological solution for forecasting the human experience of streetscapes compared to traditional methods. The research aims to demonstrate a practical workflow for constructing a high-fidelity 3D city model using Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) data, and to evaluate the realism of this virtual environment through user perception. The methodology involved a three-phase construction of a 3D model for a 50-acre district. First, BIM data from eight architectural firms was consolidated and repositioned into a common geodetic reference frame using a custom Matlab parser and Revit software. Second, the surrounding urban context and topography were generated using Autodesk Infraworks, which utilized OpenStreetMap and Bing Maps data; this contextual model was manually corrected for elevation and geometric inaccuracies before being exported. Third, the integrated model was refined in TwinMotion software by adding high-detail urban furniture, vegetation, and dynamic elements such as pedestrians, cyclists, and tramways. The final model comprised approximately 50.7 million polygons and 84,900 objects. To assess the model’s quality, an experiment was conducted with 15 layperson participants who explored three specific scenes—a public tram station, a shopping street, and a residential garden—using HTC Vive Pro 2 headsets. Participants evaluated the virtual scenes against real-world video footage using a questionnaire focused on realism, scale, lighting, and physical comfort. The results indicated a high degree of perceived realism regarding spatial scale, with 93.3% of participants rating the building sizes as realistic (scores of 4 or 5 out of 5). However, the realism of lighting and shadows received more varied responses; while 60% of users found them realistic, 26.7% remained neutral, and 13.4% rated them as unrealistic. The authors attribute the lower scores for lighting to technical constraints in the VR setup intended to reduce lag. The study successfully demonstrated that merging BIM precision with GIS context and manual detailing can produce a virtual environment that closely mirrors physical reality in terms of structural scale and urban detail. The significance of this work lies in its contribution to the integration of VR, BIM, and GIS for urban planning. By providing a detailed procedural guide for creating large-scale, human-centric 3D models, the paper supports the use of immersive technologies in public space auditing and stakeholder engagement. The findings suggest that while current VR rendering techniques may struggle with perfect lighting fidelity, they are effective for conveying accurate spatial proportions and urban layouts, thereby facilitating better assessment of future urban environments before construction is complete.

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