Prototyping future scenarios for urban planning through the production of Virtual Reality scenes

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This research addresses previous challenges by asking how conventional scenario narratives might be enhanced and communicated by using Virtual Reality Environments through the production of 3D urban scenes. Potential answers are explored by designing and testing a framework for converting Scenarios to Scenes (StS framework), which relies on expanded scenario narratives and 3D urban scene concepts as prototypes for creating immersive VR narrative environments. Designed under principles of generative and narrative semiotics (Barricelli et al., 2016) and well-known grammars for virtual environments (Fencott, 2001), the StS framework proposes 3 steps in the elaboration of VR scenario prototypes: (i) generation of future stories and themes from the original scenario narrative, illustrating main scenario changes; ii) generation of real/virtual places representing future themes in specific locations and moments, as experienced by a figurative observer; and iii) generation of the VR experience by combining routines and surprises offered to an imagined VR user.

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