Presenting significant building or engineering 3D-models is a crucial part of the planning, construction and maintenance phases in terms of collaboration and understanding. Especially in complex or large-scale models, immersion is one of the major key factors for being able to intuitively perceive all aspects of the scene. A fully immersive system needs to give the user a large field-of-view with reduced latency for lifelike impression. Technologies such as VRwalls and shutter glasses can deliver high refresh rates, yet fail to give a large field-of-view. Head-mounted-devices for virtual reality fill this gap. Head tracking mechanisms translate movements of the user’s head into virtual camera movements and enable a natural way of examining models. Unlike a stereoscopic representation with projectors, point-of-view tracking can be achieved separately for each individual user. Hardware costs for such systems were very high in the past, but have dropped due to virtual reality systems now gaining traction in the mainstream gaming community. In this paper we present a way to build a low-cost, highly immersive virtual reality environment for engineering and construction applications. Furthermore, we present a method to simplify and partly automate the process of reusing digital building models, which are already used in construction, to create virtual scenes, instead of having to do parallel content creation for visualization. Using the Oculus Rift head-mounted display and the Leap Motion hand-tracking device, we show the possibilities of naturally interacting within a virtual space in different use cases. The software, based on the popular game engine Unreal Engine 4, will be used as a basis for further research and development. Building Information Modeling data can be imported to UE4 with our presented plugin. Using an automated database for mapping materials to the geometry simplifies the process of importing Building Information Modeling entities. The refresh rate of the system stays within acceptable margins needed for virtual reality applications using head-mounted devices. Head-mounted devices present a great potential for the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry, as a person can experience realistic first-person situations without having to care about injuries. Automated processes for the simplification of content creation, leveraging existing models, and the usage of visual programming languages enable even nonprogrammers to create scenarios to their needs.

中文翻译：

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用于工程和建设的低成本虚拟现实环境

就协作和理解而言，呈现重要的建筑或工程3D模型是计划，构建和维护阶段的关键部分。尤其是在复杂或大型模型中，沉浸感是能够直观地感知场景各个方面的主要关键因素之一。完全沉浸式系统需要为用户提供宽阔的视野，并减少等待时间，以获得逼真的印象。VRwalls和快门眼镜等技术可以提供较高的刷新率，但无法提供较大的视野。用于虚拟现实的头戴式设备填补了这一空白。头部跟踪机制将用户头部的运动转换为虚拟相机的运动，并实现了一种自然的模型检查方式。与投影机的立体表示不同，可以针对每个用户分别实现视点跟踪。过去，此类系统的硬件成本很高，但由于虚拟现实系统现在在主流游戏社区中越来越受欢迎，因此成本有所下降。在本文中，我们提出了一种为工程和建筑应用构建低成本，高度沉浸式虚拟现实环境的方法。此外，我们提出了一种方法来简化和部分自动化重用已经在建筑中使用的数字建筑模型以创建虚拟场景的过程，而不必为可视化进行并行内容创建。使用Oculus Rift头戴式显示器和Leap Motion手动跟踪设备，我们展示了在不同用例中在虚拟空间内自然交互的可能性。该软件，基于流行的游戏引擎Unreal Engine 4的引擎，将用作进一步研究和开发的基础。可以使用我们提供的插件将建筑信息模型数据导入UE4。使用自动数据库将材料映射到几何图形可简化导入建筑信息模型实体的过程。系统的刷新率保持在使用头戴式设备的虚拟现实应用程序所需的可接受范围内。头戴式设备为建筑，工程和建筑行业带来了巨大的潜力，因为人们无需担心受伤即可体验现实的第一人称环境。利用现有模型，简化内容创建的自动化流程，