Modeling and Visualization of Rock Carving Cultural Heritage Sites in Dazu

Over the past few years, due to the advances in laser scanning techniques, 3D modeling software, computer power and virtual reality, many cultural heritage applications require 3D modeling and realistic visualization of the heritage models for various purposes. In such a project to virtualize the Dazu Rock Carvings, we proposed a commercially available solution. In this paper, we present this solution, along with the challenges we faced, the lessons we learned. We in particular focus on the pipeline designed to process data obtained from laser scanning and texture imaging, as well as the solutions developed to tackle problems encountered in web-based and offline applications of 3D models. Examples of our works are given and a video animation has been created to show the results.