Web-based, three dimensional, virtual learning environments: Featuring navigable spaces defined by complex curved surfaces

This paper reports on a pragmatic, project-based exploration of the challenge of delivering web-based, navigable, 3D learning environments, which are constrained by demands for accurate detail and complex geometry. Specifically the project required the creation of a digital model of a 16th century ship. The project grew out of a collaboration started in 1998 between the Portsmouth School of Architecture, nine local junior schools, an educational authority and an archaeological trust. The project provided lessons in the creation of web-efficient models, techniques for combining familiar multimedia and 3-D modelling, with desktop virtual reality. It demonstrates the technical potential for sharing geometrically complex environments over the web.