# Virtual Reality in Cultural Heritage: A Setup for Balzi
## 1 Introduction  
Virtual reality (VR) is an emerging technology that has the potential to revolutionize the way we experience and interact with the world around us. In recent years, VR has gained popularity in a variety of sectors [1], including entertainment, education [2], and training [3]. However, the potential of VR is not limited to these sectors. VR also has the potential to transform the way we experience and interact with cultural heritage, and its use in this field is attracting interest year by year [4]. Cultural heritage (CH) is an important part of our history and identity. It can include archaeological sites, museums, monuments, and artworks; however, many cultural heritage assets are often inaccessible or difficult to visit. VR can help overcome these barriers by providing a way to experience CH in a realistic and engaging way. VR can be used to create immersive experiences that allow users to explore archaeological sites, visit museums, and safely interact with their artworks and artifacts. This can be particularly useful for students and researchers who want to study cultural heritage in a new way. VR can also be used to create educational experiences that allow users to learn more about these topics in a fun and engaging way. VR also has the potential to help preserve cultural heritage [5]. Many cultural heritage assets are fragile and subject to deterioration. This technology can be used to create digital copies of CH assets, which can be stored for and shared with future generations. Moreover, VR can be used to create an experience without any risk of damage, creating something that can outlast the loss and deterioration of the CH resources. It is in this context that the Balzi Rossi Museum project has taken shape. The project started in 2021 to celebrate the centenary of the death of Prince [PERSON] of Monaco, who was one of the first to conduct archaeological excavations in the area of the Balzi Rossi coastal cliffs, located close to the border between Italy and France (see the map in Figure 1) near the town of Ventimiglia (Imperia, Liguria, Italy), where important evidence of upper paleolithic culture was found. The site was chosen because it is the most important example of upper paleolithic parietal art in northwestern Italy. The project has three main objectives: (1) to preserve and monitor the site and its findings, (2) to look for new forms of parietal art in the caves, and (3) to communicate and disseminate the CH of the site through the use of new technologies, in particular VR. The project is the result of a collaboration between the 3D Lab Factory of the University of Genoa, Eurodrone of Boves (Cuneo, Piemonte, Italy), and the Balzi Rossi Museum. This paper outlines the results of the third objective, which consisted mainly of communication and outreach, and thus the creation of a virtual experience in which it is possible to explore the entire archaeological site and examine the parietal art engravings present in the caves, which are normally not visible or easy to access. In addition, it was also important to highlight the new findings discovered during the photogrammetric campaign. Two versions of the VR immersive experience were realized in two distinct phases during the three-year project. In the initial phase, the huge static georeferenced 3D point cloud of the entirety of the Balzi Rossi cliffs and caves generated using aerial-based photogrammetry was transformed into a large high-density polygonal mesh, i.e., a 3D static model, using the RealityCapture 1.2 software. In the implementation of this first release for the commemorative event of February 2022, the obtained large mesh was practically unmanageable within the chosen real time game engine, i.e., Unreal Engine 4 from EPIC Games. The technical complexities associated with optimizing high-density polygonal meshes for immersive virtual reality environments were a well-known (at that time) general limitation of real time 3D rendering.