# Virtual Reality in Cultural Heritage: A Setup for Balzi
## 3 Materials and Methods
### User Experience  
The Balzi Rossi VR experience presents a user interface crafted to ensure inclusivity and accessibility, thereby resonating with a broad spectrum of individuals possessing varying degrees of virtual reality proficiency. The interface offers two distinct modalities of locomotion: teleportation, which caters to individuals susceptible to motion-induced discomfort, and continuous movement, tailored for users seeking an immersive exploration experience.  
Figure 7: Comparison between the first virtual reconstruction of the Balzi Rossi cliff as it could have appeared during the Würm glaciation (**left**) and the second reconstruction (**right**).  
The foundational principle of the project is accessibility, highlighting the imperative to facilitate uninterrupted access to the cliff caves, which frequently remain inaccessible owing to variables such as adverse weather conditions or ongoing research activities. Furthermore, the initiative is specifically designed to accommodate individuals with restricted mobility.  
The digital experience is crafted to stand independently, providing a rich, solitary exploration while also serving as an enhancement to the physical visit. It provides opportunities that are otherwise unattainable: it facilitates a detailed and straightforward examination of the engravings, situated at a height of 5 m, with an option to illuminate them; it further provides the opportunity to traverse a virtual reconstruction of the Wurm glacial period.  
The user interface adopts a minimalist style intentionally to amplify immersion and realism. The primary interface displays the hands, indicating the position of the controllers, which are consistently visible. An additional interface appears when the game menus are \"summoned\", where it is also possible to select by pointing with the hand that is not holding the menu, creating a laser indicator that assists in selection. The same indicator is used for language selection (Figure 8). The final interface available to the user is the teleport interface, which displays the teleportation destination (Figures 9 and 10).  
Participants engage in a variety of activities, available across the three levels of the experience:  
* Current Exploration of the Balzi Rossi area: This mode enables viewing the area as it appears today, with a particular focus on the Caviglione cave, where the engravings are located. Inside the cave, an elevator enables visitors to reach the level of the engravings to observe them closely and accurately. Also located at this level is the starting point:  
Figure 8: Language selection menu.  
Figure 9: Screenshot that shows the teleport locomotion system in action: teleport destination is where the light blue disk is placed.  
a platform where users can change languages, travel to different levels, and have a panoramic view of the cliff.
* Post-Wurm Glaciation Historical Reconstruction: In this section, users can immerse themselves in an accurate reconstruction of the area at the end of the Wurm glacial era. They have the opportunity to move to the coastline, which extended 2 km from the current position according to archaeological data. A textbox located at this level provides information about the reconstruction.
* Interactive Tutorial: Composed of two parts, the tutorial guides users through a series of intuitive textboxes and minigames designed to teach navigation within the experience.