Serious Gaming with VENUS-PD: A Virtual Submarine for Accessing Europe's Sunken Archaeological Treasures

Abstract

Computer graphics have been used successfully for a number of years to help improve our understanding of both offshore marine activities and land based archaeological sites. 'Marine visualization' has traditionally been dominated by the oil and gas industries, focusing on activities such as pipeline and debris clear-up operations, with limited work on underwater archaeological visualization. This paper introduces the reader to a freely available public dissemination tool, VENUS-PD (Virtual Exploration of Underwater Sites Public Demonstrator). VENUSPD has been developed specifically to allow members of the general public to experience virtual submersible dives down to accurate, 3D archaeological sites. VENUS-PD forms part of the public dissemination activities related to VENUS, a multidisciplinary project funded by the European Commission that focuses on procedures for surveying and visualizing maritime archaeological sites.