Game Engine Applications Overview And Comparative Analysis For The Enhancement Of Cultural Heritage

Digital reconstructions of artefacts and architectures increasingly mediate the use of cultural heritage, virtual tours of museums, shared social spaces, and augmented or mixed reality applications that support direct or simulated experience, opening to a new interdisciplinary sector known as Digital Heritage. In the sector of drawing and representation, the potential of digital surveying and advanced 3D data models have been studied accurately. However, enhancing any cultural asset requires additional interpretation levels of documentation and narrative structures necessary to implement engaging, interactive experiences suitable for effective cultural dissemination. Therefore, specific software tools, known as game engines, are required to synthesize heterogeneous expressive languages in a single interactive structure. This paper analyzes and frames the game engines available today while developing a categorization method that outlines a theory of use in the field of Digital Heritage.