Pilgrimage to Pureland: Art, Perception and the Wutai Mural VR Reconstruction

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) supports audiences to engage with cultural heritage proactively. We designed an easy-to-access and guided VR reconstruction of the murals in Mogao Grottoes, Pilgrimage To Pureland, to offer the general public an accessible and engaging way to experience the Dunhuang murals. We explored an immersive VR reconstruction approach that can efficiently convert complex 2D mural art into 3D digital VR content while maintaining its originality. Specifically, we reconstructed the Mt. Wutai pilgrimage mural in Cave 61 into a plot-based interactive VR environment that offers users a more accessible and immersive narrative to visit and appreciate Dunhuang murals’ complex religious, historical, and artistic value. We conducted a user study with twenty participants to further investigate how this reconstruction approach and the interactive narratives would affect users’ immersive experiences and knowledge acquisition, compared with other forms of virtual access as the control group. Findings from our user study revealed that participants from the VR experimental group reported a significantly higher level of immersion and understanding of the knowledge. To conclude, our 2D-to-VR reconstruction methods provided a VR reconstruction approach and insights for creating engaging user experiences and improving users understanding of cultural and historical concepts while preserving the originality of the cultural heritage.

Keywords:

• Dunhuang mural
• cave 61
• virtual reality
• cultural heritage
• pan-Asia historical view

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank Houtu Grant and Duke Kunshan University for funding this research project (22KDKUF046). Additionally, we are thankful to Dunhuang Research Academy for providing open-access digital images of the Dunhuang Grottoes and Murals, which formed the foundation for our VR environment.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Adobe Photoshop is software that is extensively used for raster image editing, graphic design, and digital art.

2 Unity3D is a game engine that can be used to develop video games for PC, consoles, mobile devices, and websites. We use version 2020.3.25f1c1 to develop our system.

3 Pico 4 is a VR headset developed by PICO, whose parental company is Bytedance, Ltd.

4 Meta Quest 2 is also a VR headset developed by Meta Platforms.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been funded by Houtu Grant (22KDKUF046) at Duke Kunshan University.

Notes on contributors

Rongxuan Mu

Rongxuan Mu is a technical designer based in Beijing, China. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from Tianjin University and will start his career at PICO XR, Bytedance. His primary interests lie in XR interaction and the application of Generative AI.

Yuhe Nie

Yuhe Nie is an entertainment technologist from Shenzhen, China. She devotes herself to several topics like games, graphics, HCI, and VR/AR. She got her BEng degree in CSE from SUSTech and is ready to pursue her MS. degree at NYU.

Kent Cao

Kent Cao is the Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology at Duke Kunshan University with a primary research focus on early China. Cao received a Ph.D. in East Asian Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. His work has been supported by the Getty and featured in Artibus Asiae.

Ruoxin You

Ruoxin You is a UK-based HCI researcher and UX designer. Currently pursuing her master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction at UCL, she passionately explores the realms of VR/AR and Human-AI interaction.

Yinzong Wei

Yinzong Wei is researching the intellectual history and scholarly culture of late imperial China. He earned his PhD in Asian Studies at the University of British Columbia in 2019 with a thesis on the culture of marginalia in Late Imperial China.

Xin Tong

Xin Tong is an Assistant Professor of Computation and Design, and a researcher at the Data Science Research Center and Global Health Research Center at Duke Kunshan University. She received her PhD at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Dr. Tong’s research areas are VR, HCI, games, accessibility, ML and AI.