GAMING ENGINES AND GEOSPATIAL IMAGING: VISUALIZING HIGH-RESOLUTION POINT CLOUD DATA FROM BIG BAT CAVE IN UNITY

With the increasing availability of terrestrial laser scanning, the use of 3D modelling in cave surveying has become a new standard. Terrestrial laser scanning allows for improved quantification of cave morphology and unlimited analysis of remote or difficult-to-access areas after collection of data by creating dense, high-resolution point clouds. Point clouds created by terrestrial laser scanning are often detailed enough to distinguish features as small as fossils, cross-bedding, and scallops.

The Big Bat LiDAR Project, coordinated by the Kentucky Karst Conservancy, has produced over 400 high-resolution point clouds of Big Bat Cave, Custer, KY over the past two years. This amount of coverage presents an incredible opportunity for sharing interactive cave imagery with both the public and interested researchers. However, processing and displaying these large datasets often involves a steep learning curve, complex software, and expensive hardware.

Our approach to this challenging opportunity is to employ software and hardware that have traditionally been used in the gaming industry. We utilize the tools included in Unity, a free gaming engine, to create immersive visualizations which are not limited to the immobile “bubble-view” style of visualizing point clouds. Our preliminary results are promising; we have successfully imported multiple full-resolution scans into Unity and have viewed them in virtual reality on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive with adequately-low latency. In addition, we have used our point cloud data to create simple 360-degree panorama experiences for the Google Cardboard. Taking advantage of techniques typically applied in the gaming industry could lead to new and innovative methods for geological visualization.