2017 年 5 巻 1 号 p. 29-44
In recent years, designers have used various types of tools, such as public Participation GIS (PP GIS) and Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML), to improve urban design concept understanding in the consensus process. However, these tools were frequently criticized as being too complex for the majority of potential users. Moreover, due to the limitations of data compression, hardware performance, network bandwidth and costs of current virtual reality platforms, the users need to gather in the same place and at a certain scheduled time in different phases, or download the virtual environment and avatar models from the server through the Internet, then host on the local computer. Cloud-based virtual reality technology is acknowledged as a powerful tool, which provides a communication platform for users. In this research, we contribute an example of a cloud-based virtual reality (Cloud based VR) integrated automatic presentation script (APS) for providing a broader way for users to participate and understand urban design concepts in the consensus process. We took One Foundation’s Disaster Prevention Park in China as a case study, and built a Cloud-based VR platform to propose design concepts, and create an APS for auxiliary guidance of users toward understanding the concepts of urban design and deliberate design alternatives in a design report meeting through the Internet. The application results show that the Cloud-based VR (integrated APS) platform proposed in this paper can not only simplify the discussion of design concepts without the limitation of space and time, but also can improve the efficiency of discussion around design alternatives to reach a consensus without any extra expense.
