Here are two examples that may give you more insight and information.

PBS Ancient Invisible Cities

https://www.pbs.org/ancient-invisible-cities/home/

I recommend watching a full show but for a small example watch the 1:55 min “Inside the Great Pyramid” video.

All the shows about ancient invisible cites have information on how this was made with LiDAR and photogrammetry and then moved into VR. This is a simple case where just the point cloud was put into VR and then VR environment was used to fly around.

The second example is Palmyra

https://uploadvr.com/perpetuity-palmyra-vital-vr-project-preserve-syrian-culture/

This one is a more advanced construction of how photogrammetry was used to create a site with surfaces and includes the actual photographs used as part of the VR. It also includes info at locations that were added as part of VR editing software. The best way to understand what was done at Palmyra is to view it at a University with a VR headset with the Palmyra data set.

If you already know how the data is captured then the only thing you need is to jump in and learn the editing and authoring with in a VR package.

In closing will include a simple point cloud that is interactive. This color point cloud can be rotated and zoomed in. What is key is that the points can be made bigger or smaller. http://www.hitechmex.org/mickey/

Last comment is i strongly recommend not only using "Google Earth VR" but CesiumJS with VR : https://github.com/NICTA/cesium-vr

Hope the suggestions help.

One group to look up/talk to, is cyark.

Hello,

One quick work-around, is to get low poly meshes from your photogrammetric reconstruction using the sofware of your choosing. Then, most of 3D engines will be able to import it directly and from there you can either plug your helmet and explore, or define more advanced scenario.

As a starting point, I would suggest you dig into Unity, which is fairly intuitive to get started, here are some small example from 3D capture to VR using photogrammetry and Unity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71vbCPE2w1o, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtmRmvgh5O0

CyArk as Martin mentioned is not viewed in a very good light by some archaeologists and computer scientists because of the way they copyright and inforce ownership of digital data. It would be interesting to see your perspective as a media historian.

Thank you Martin, Florent and especially Reuben for these very helpful suggestions.