Collaborative virtual reality in construction comparative study of two remote multi-user systems

Abstract

Ineffective collaboration and communication between the stakeholders of a construction project are one of the most difficult problems to solve in the AEC industry. The rapid development of new technologies has reformed the construction industry in recent years. Indeed, adopting BIM technology and its dimensions improves the collaboration process. The integration of emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) based on a BIM model is a potential solution to optimize communication. However, most of the studies on virtual reality and its applications in the construction industry have so far focused on the single-user experience which does not support collaboration and interaction between construction project teams. Multi-user remote virtual reality can offer a solution to the problems mentioned above. Several tools have been developed in other fields such as the video game industry, but their applicability in the construction industry has not been evaluated in the literature. Our research aims to compare two remote multi-user virtual reality support systems to characterize their potential use in the construction industry with BIM models. We then performed a demonstration in the form of two fictitious scenarios to evaluate the proposed tools. This allowed us to identify the potential benefits of the two remote multiuser VR systems to support collaboration and to identify limitations and future improvements. While both systems offer interesting remote multi-user functionality, the Vizard multi-user application can only work over a local area network, which is a major limitation to remote user collaboration. In addition to the features common to both systems, Photon Unity Networking (PUN) offers the ability to communicate with voice in real time.