The Rise of Gaming-Based Virtual Field Trips
The Rise of Gaming-Based Virtual Field Trips
The Rise of Gaming-Based Virtual Field Trips
By Jenessa Duncombe
January 27, 2023
Summary
You're not in a dream, but a game-based virtual field trip to the Whaleback anticline-an iconic exposure of folded rock in central Pennsylvania.
The Whaleback anticline virtual experience created by researchers at the University of Washington is just one of several initiatives that interweave gaming and geosciences.
Virtual field experiences offer many benefits: Scientists can visit sites repeatedly, saving money and time; researchers and students with disabilities gain access to remote sites; and apprehensive students can learn the basics of fieldwork before entering the field.
Still, virtual field trips are relatively novel, and translating geologic data into a virtual game space has its technical challenges.
To help, the designer of the Whaleback virtual experience, Mattathias Needle, has published a tool kit for others to design custom immersive virtual field trips just like Whaleback.
Other virtual outcrops are available within 3D viewers, such as Sketchfab's eRock from the University of Aberdeen, or within proprietary software such as the NORCE Norwegian Research Centre's LIME. These virtual environments allow users to number locations, ask questions, view pop-up photos, and more, but they aren't gaming based.
The Whaleback anticline virtual experience is now available in virtual reality, too.
Reference
Duncombe, J. (2023, January 27). The rise of gaming-based virtual field trips. Eos. Retrieved February 9, 2023, from https://eos.org/articles/the-rise-of-gaming-based-virtual-field-trips