A realistic VR experience of walking inside of the grotto

Seokguram Grotto VR Contents

experience

replica

video

Year

2018

Client

Korea Heritage Service

Shown at

Daejeon Museum of Art

The Greatest Achievement in Korea’s Digital Heritage

As part of the Cultural Heritage Administration’s 2018 Digital Heritage Content Project, the VR reconstruction of Seokguram Grotto was released in December 2018. Since then, it has been acclaimed as the most realistic and spatially immersive Seokguram content ever created. When experiencing the VR, users wear a wireless HMD and walk directly into a full-scale 1:1 recreation of Seokguram. Without the need for controllers, they can freely explore every part of the grotto, enjoying an experience as if they were physically inside the site itself.

Asset A

project stills

project stills

Asset A

Real-time rendered world

To achieve such lifelike realism, the project required vast amounts of high-resolution 3D scan data of Seokguram. Each architectural element was re-meshed to build a high-polygon 3D model database. Every component and surface of the grotto was photographed at over 50 million pixels per unit area, ensuring textures were mapped without distortion or patterning. These textures were then applied with precision, as though attaching decals onto each digital element.

Real-time rendered world

To achieve such lifelike realism, the project required vast amounts of high-resolution 3D scan data of Seokguram. Each architectural element was re-meshed to build a high-polygon 3D model database. Every component and surface of the grotto was photographed at over 50 million pixels per unit area, ensuring textures were mapped without distortion or patterning. These textures were then applied with precision, as though attaching decals onto each digital element.

Asset A

Asset A

Constructing a Three-Dimensional Digital Set

Beyond capturing details, the challenge was to optimize the massive dataset into ultra-lightweight models—reduced to a fraction of their original weight—while preserving quality. This was essential to ensure real-time rendering performance in VR and AR environments. Such specialized 3D digital set construction technology for heritage sites was critical to making the content function seamlessly.

Constructing a Three-Dimensional Digital Set

Beyond capturing details, the challenge was to optimize the massive dataset into ultra-lightweight models—reduced to a fraction of their original weight—while preserving quality. This was essential to ensure real-time rendering performance in VR and AR environments. Such specialized 3D digital set construction technology for heritage sites was critical to making the content function seamlessly.

Asset A

Asset A

An Immersive Experience Through a Specially Designed Lantern

A specially designed lantern prop deepens the visitor’s immersion. When held and moved in the real world, sensors project its motion and light directly into the virtual environment. As the lantern shifts, the Buddha and surrounding reliefs in Seokguram respond in real time, their expressions subtly changing with the play of light. This user-driven illumination creates natural lighting and shadows that heighten realism and presence, drawing visitors into the experience and maximizing the sense of being inside the sacred space.

An Immersive Experience Through a Specially Designed Lantern

A specially designed lantern prop deepens the visitor’s immersion. When held and moved in the real world, sensors project its motion and light directly into the virtual environment. As the lantern shifts, the Buddha and surrounding reliefs in Seokguram respond in real time, their expressions subtly changing with the play of light. This user-driven illumination creates natural lighting and shadows that heighten realism and presence, drawing visitors into the experience and maximizing the sense of being inside the sacred space.

An Immersive Experience Through a Specially Designed Lantern

A specially designed lantern prop deepens the visitor’s immersion. When held and moved in the real world, sensors project its motion and light directly into the virtual environment. As the lantern shifts, the Buddha and surrounding reliefs in Seokguram respond in real time, their expressions subtly changing with the play of light. This user-driven illumination creates natural lighting and shadows that heighten realism and presence, drawing visitors into the experience and maximizing the sense of being inside the sacred space.

Conclusion

For us, who had worked on Seokguram content multiple times before, this project was an unprecedented challenge and an opportunity to leap to a higher level. The result was a cultural heritage experience of unparalleled quality. TRIC’s commitment to developing high-quality digital heritage content will continue into the future.

share this project

Behind the scenes

Previous

2019

Immersive Media Art: Walking Through the Records of Changdeokgung

Immersive Media Art: Walking Through the Records of Changdeokgung

Immersive Media Art: Walking Through the Records of Changdeokgung

Next

2017

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress Mixed Reality Contents

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress Mixed Reality Contents

Suwon Hwaseong Fortress Mixed Reality Contents