Probably the greatest influence on the feeling of being in a place like the Lake District is the characteristic contours and colours of the landscape. For this reason we have taken great care in building the model to ensure that the Fells are accurately represented using real world data. One of the key features of the Explore Level is how the view of the landscape and the perspective of the fells constantly and subtly changes as you move around the model and this is key in achieving the “Virtual Sense of Place” that we are seeking.
The benefit of working with a three dimensional model based on accurate on height and imagery data is that once the model is built the view is essentially a by-product and accurate and accessible from any point. Thus when walking in the Explore or Experience Levels the view will constantly change in a realistic manner.
Changing perspective walking down from Raise towards Greenside Mine
Most of the significant Lakeland summits have distinguishing features and these are represented in the model to give a strong feeling of arrival. This also helps to orientate the user when Exploring the view from the summit.
Raise summit
The summit view is very important and we have taken care to offer the best possible experience, with a representation of the main features and labelling of all the key Fells and Lakes visible. This provides an accurate and augmented experience of the summit and views.
Views from Raise Summit
The feature labels also offer an aid to navigation in the Explore level. Currently they are permanently displayed but we may offer an option to turn them off in the future to support expert users that may want to test their ability to identify the peaks.
We are very pleased with the ability of the model to offer a comprehensive and constantly changing view of the fells and believe this demonstrates how this modelling approach offers unique capabilities for representing tourism providing the Virtual Sense of Place.
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