Expressing an Immersive Experience of the Labyrinthe de Versailles

Transcription

1 Expressing an Immersive Experience of the Labyrinthe de Versailles Copper Frances Giloth University of Massachusetts, Amherst Abstract Developing a historically accurate, 3D, virtual reality reconstruction of the Labyrinthe de Versailles requires technical, aesthetic, and artistic decisions. While many of these are dictated by the desire for historical accuracy, others will determine the overall impact of the work and its effectiveness in providing the user the most complete experience consistent with his/her available technology. Some of these key decision points, options, and their pros and cons are discussed. CR Categories: Index Terms: I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three- Dimensional Graphics and Realism---Virtual Reality; J.5 [Computer Applications]: Arts and Humanities Keywords: art, digital heritage, virtual reality, fables, mobile applications, Unity3D, Oculus Rift, 17 th century France, garden design, sculpture Introduction In June of 2010 I was wandering in the gardens at the Palace of Versailles when I found myself in one of the less crowded areas. I was at an entrance to the Bosquet de la Reine / The Queen s Grove. After walking through and looking at the minimal statuary placed in the sparsely planted central square area, I thought this place might be the least interesting grove I had seen at Versailles. I was mistaken. As I was leaving, I read the sign at the entrance and discovered that in this location from about 1665 to 1775 a labyrinth designed by André Le Nôtre and Charles Perrault had existed populated with 39 fountains each of which illustrated an Aesop fable. I looked back through the gates and tried to visualize those winding paths with fountains at every turn. That day, now five years ago, was the beginning of my desire to fully experience the Labyrinthe de Versailles. Physical and psychological places have often been starting points in my art-making process. When I was a child, I read Aesop fables with my father. We had a worn out version of the book The Aesop for Children, originally published in 1919, with illustrations by Milo Winter [Winter 1919]. Just looking at the cover of the book takes me back to those times with my father. After being educated as a sculptor and then experimenting with new technologies, I used the structure of the fable to make computer / video animated stories. Later on I incorporated the fables into my courses to teach narrative and character development. At the same time I was using computer * giloth@umass.edu programming to make images of the landscape by combining visual ideas from the physical landscape with equations that produced complementary forms. Discovering the Labyrinthe at Versailles and wanting to recreate it was a surprising occasion but it has now grown into a satisfying and challenging yet logical way to join together the narrative and landscape themes of my past projects. The App I have, therefore, undertaken, with my collaborator Jonathan Tanant, a historically accurate virtual reality 3D reconstruction of the Labyrinthe de Versailles [Maisonnier and Maral 2013]. We have developed, as both a proof of concept and a practical useable beta version, an app entitled Labyrinth of Fables. This application, written in the Unity3D software with versions for both Apple ios (ipad, iphone, Mac computers) and Android (tablets, smartphones, and PCs), was made available (free) in the itunes Store, Google Play, and online in July of We have recently released a version that supports the Oculus Rift (OR) immersive headset. Our intent in each case is to provide the visitor the most complete experience of the Labyrinthe consistent with his/her available technology. The language in the app is easily switchable between English and French. Development While many aspects of the piece are dictated by the desire to attain historical accuracy [Conan 1992; Bailly ; Demortain 1715], there remain a number of technical/aesthetic/artistic decisions to be made that determine the overall impact of the piece When I began thinking about what it must have been like to be in the Labyrinthe I tried to imagine just walking around, looking at the fountains, and dwelling on the beautifully sculpted animals that represented and told the story of the quatrain poem version of the fable [Perrault 1677; Visscher 1682] posted on a nearby sign. I could imagine a group of people in the 17 th century standing around each fountain and discussing the fable and its meaning. Thus, the first mode we developed is the game mode. This was based on the idea that one would enter the Labyrinthe, visit (click on) a fountain, be shown the fable, (the text throughout is in white to give a light airy feeling as do the curves in the Garamond/Jannon fonts that reflect the filigree forms seen in the gates of the Labyrinthe and the fences and the gates that surround the Chateau), and then from a few choices, select the moral. If one got it right the fountain would activate. As the visitor activated more and more fountains other growth would occur in the garden, the metaphor being that the more one learned/understood, the richer and more developed the garden would become.

2 In an initial round of user review and feedback, we discovered that some of the visitors were focused on the beauty and magnificence of the garden and the fountains and were less interested in playing the game necessary to fully develop the Labyrinthe. This led us to develop an alternative mode, the stroll mode, wherein a visitor could simply stroll through the Labyrinthe with all of the fountains and other features fully on from the outset and, if he/she wished, read the fable at each fountain and see the correct moral. My first intent was to develop an app that was to be used as augmented reality at the actual site in Versailles of the former Labyrinthe. I wanted the user to be able to walk around that space and experience the size (6.5 acres) while using a GPS-enabled, gyroscopic device such as an iphone or ipad or corresponding Android device, to see the fountains where they had actually been located. This has proven successful in that it allows the user to experience the true scale of the place, to easily turn around to see the full panorama, etc. However, the current trees and bushes are not laid out according to the design of the Labyrinthe so that hedges and trees are in locations that make it so one cannot always precisely follow the original paths. Given this and the generally uneven ground, the user must shift his/her focus from the smartphone/tablet to the local environment thereby interrupting the immersive experience. Finally, the experience can be diminished by serious sunlight reflections from most current smartphone/table screens and by the fact that the GPS locations can be imprecise and somewhat weather-dependent. Of course, not everyone has the opportunity to visit Versailles, but it was a simple matter (a GPS origin shift) to allow one to use the app in any large, open (6.5 acre) field. This still allows the user to feel with his/her body the size of the space and see the scope of the panorama of the Labyrinthe. And it has the advantage of giving the user more choices in the space (e.g., no trees and hedges to have to walk through) and the time of day (to, e.g., reduce the screen glare problems). In order to reach the largest audience of potential users, it was a relatively straightforward matter to adapt the augmented reality version to a virtual reality option wherein a stationary user can, instead, explore the twisting walkways while seated with his/her Mac, PC, tablet, or smartphone. Visitors on desktop/laptop/online hardware use the arrow keys and track pad or a game controller to move through the garden and interact with the fables; once familiar with the interface, users generally are able to move very quickly through the Labyrinthe if they wish to do so. In general, however, observation shows that stationary users tend to linger longer, looking at more details. Nonetheless, of the three user experiences discussed here, the stationary experience is the least immersive since the interaction remains limited to a flat screen. To make the stationary user s experience more immersive, we then adapted the app for use with the OR headset. Using the Oculus Rift headset, the visitor is cut off from his/her present reality and, with headphones on, it is possible for him/her to leave the reality of his/her physical environment to become much more immersed in the virtual environment. However, the Oculus Rift also provides some serious challenges. Because we do not want to use text pop ups, we provide the fables and morals via audio recitations; this works well for stroll mode but, in game mode (which we have not yet fully implemented) it requires the user to listen very closely to and often revisit the audio before being able to choose the correct moral. Unfortunately, like most forms of immersive VR, there is a tendency for some individuals to experience some dizziness caused by the way the tracking is done. But it is great to be able to lift one s head and look up at the sky! The app, in all modes and experiences, includes sound in three forms: the flow and splash of a fountain diminishes as the visitor moves away providing a greater sense of the physical size of the place; birdsong is present throughout but at differing volume and with differing species of bird across the Labyrinthe again providing a greater sense of the space; light 17 th century music also follows the visitor throughout the Labyrinthe (we currently use Airy by Lully). All three contribute to the sense of immersion, particularly when the user wears an audio headset. Conclusion Much remains to complete the desired historically accurate, fully 3D, virtual reality reconstruction of the Labyrinthe de Versailles. Still to be done is the 3D modeling of the approximately 400 objects that are part of the fountains including about 350 animals and birds across approximately 60 species of animals and 50 species of birds; in the current prototype version these are based on 17 th century engravings and paintings [Bailly ] presented in a 2D, somewhat trompe l oeil, approach. Development of revised user interfaces, based on user feedback, is underway. Technology will advance and new options become available. Undoubtedly, there are more many decision points still to come. Contact Information If you have questions or suggestions regarding this document, please contact Copper Frances Giloth at giloth@umass.edu. Acknowledgements Thanks to Jonathan Tanant for his Unity programming and John F. Dubach for his invaluable advice and testing. References Bailly, J. Between 1675 and Le Labyrinthe de Versailles d'après S. Leclerc. Paris:Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris. Conan, M Conundrum of Le Notre s Labyrinthe. Garden History Approaches, Methods, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Demortain, G Plan du Labyrinthe, Map. Maisonnier, E. and Maral, A Le Labyrinthe de Versailles, Du Mythe au Jeu. Paris: Magellan & Cie Perrault, C Le Labyrinthe De Versailles,. Paris: Éditions du Moniteur, (Reprint 1981). Visscher, N Labyrinte De Versailles: The Labyrinth of Versailles. Der Irr-Garte Zu Versailles. 'tdool-h of Tot Versailles. T'Amsteldam: Met Privilegie. (text in Dutch, French, German and English). Winter, M. & Aesop The Aesop for Children. Chicago: Rand, McNally & Co.

3 Expressing an Immersive Experience of the Labyrinthe de Versailles Copper Frances Giloth, University of Massachusetts, Amherst Labyrinth-of-Fables website with links for downloads of the app. Recently produced, this video is used by us in presentations of the work to date. It consists of two sections: the first shows the augmented reality option of walking the grounds of the site of the Labyrinthe (the current Bosquet de la Reine) utilizing the gyroscopic and GPS features of an iphone (or other appropriately equipped device) to view what would have been present in the Labyrinthe; the second introduces the Oculus Rift immersive headset version of the app. This video presents a rapid pass through the Labyrinthe in the game version based on an early, unreleased version of the app with no audio, some errors in the textual material, and a user experience that was subsequently modified based on user feedback. Selected screen shots from the app: (left) Screen shot of the entrance to the Labyrinthe from the app Labyrinth of Fables. (right) Fountain 37, Le Loup et la Tete, ( The Wolf and the Head ) as presented in the app, Labyrinth of Fables (left) Fountain 32 La Souris, le Chat et le Coq, ( The Mouse, Cat and Young Cock ) as presented in the app Labyrinth of Fables. Included are the fable for this fountain and the visitor s map of the Labyrinthe. (right) Stereoscopic screen shot (left eye; right eye) from the Oculus Rift headset, showing the entrance to the Labyrinthe.

4 Additional images related to the piece: (left) (right) The Gardens of Versailles by Girard, The Labyrinthe has been shaded in green. The sign at the entrance to the Bosquet de la Reine indicating it as the previous site of the Labyrinthe. Winter, M., & Aesop, The Aesop for Children, Rand, McNally & Co., Chicago, 1919

5 In the Bosquet de la Reine viewing on an ipad what would have seen in the Labyrinthe at that same location. (left) (right) Demortain s layout of the Labyrinthe overlaid with the layout of the current Bosquet de la Reine showing the sites of the archeological studies of Heitzmann et al. Full screen view of the map showing the location (large red dot) of the visitor and the direction (orange cone) he/she is facing. Fountain numbers in green indicate those for which the correct moral was chosen. Small red dots provide bread crumbs showing the path taken.