Photorealism and Non-Photorealism in Virtual Heritage Representation

The area of virtual heritage has long been concentrated on generating digital reconstructions of historical or archaeological artefacts and sites with enough fidelity to be truly accurate representations of their real-world counterparts. In some cases, the advancement of tools and techniques for achieving greater visual realism has distracted from the development of other directions that enhance a virtual experience, such as interactivity, sound or touch. Recent trends in the area of non-photorealistic rendering shift focus to the development of more “believable” environments, while maintaining the accuracy and validity of the visualised data, which is significant for archaeological research. In this paper we argue that it is important to enhance the perception of realism, achieved both through photorealistic and non-photorealistic visualisation approaches, with interactivity. This is illustrated by two example projects which develop prototype virtual environments created for specialists as well as novice users.