Nanite as a Disruptive Technology for the Interactive Visualisation of Cultural Heritage 3D Models: A Case Study

Abstract

The use of digital models of cultural heritage objects obtained from 3D scanning or photogrammetry requires the development of strategies in order to optimise computational resources and enhance the user experience when they are used in interactive applications or virtual museums. Through a case study, this work compares an original photogrammetric model with its optimised version using traditional remeshing techniques and an improved version using Nanite technology, developed by Epic Games. A self-contained executable is created in Unreal® 5.1 game engine to test the performance of the three models measured in frames per second (FPS). As a result, it was demonstrated that, although there is no substantial difference in the FPS rate, the Nanite technology avoids the need to perform the mesh and texture editing processes that lead to the construction of the optimised model. This saves considerable time and specialised effort, as the photogrammetric model can be converted to a Nanite object automatically. This would be a great advantage in the case of virtualisations of large collections of heritage objects, which is a common case in virtual museums.