The Mogao Grottoes, one of the world’s greatest cultural finds located in China’s Gansu province, is a system of 492 rock-cut temples and has been described by UNESCO as “one of the largest and most richly endowed treasure houses of the ‘Buddhist art’. This treasure is now accessible via the new “Digital Library Cave”, launched thanks to the five-year collaboration between Dunhuang Academy and digital entertainment giant Tencent.
Tencent’s gaming technology, reserved for the development and implementation of video games, has given life to the historic Mogao Caves, offering a digital experience that revitalizes ancient culture in an immersive way. The “Digital Library Cave” captures not only cave artifacts but also works from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, highlighting the increasingly important role of technology in preserving cultural heritage and protecting the world’s timeless works.
The Digital Library Cave, which can be visited after registering on the site, takes advantage of advanced game engine techniques in Tencent’s cloud games, including physical rendering, dynamic global illumination and cutting-edge 4K digital restoration and 3D modeling techniques to offer a hyper-realistic historical journey that captures every detail of the site’s cultural heritage.
However, Tencent’s contribution also extends to the use of engaging gameplay to ensure exploration and vivid narration of the artefacts in order to recreate the atmosphere and immersive experience of those who physically visit the Mogao Caves.
Dr. Su Bomin, director of Dunhuang Academy, said: “The Digital Library Cave is the result of Dunhuang’s century-long study, years of work on Digital Dunhuang, and the technical support of Tencent’s gaming technology. It is a recreation of the virtual world of Dunhuang Library Cave, with pinpoint precision, using a completely new concept and a completely innovative experiential mode.”
Leon Guo, Senior Vice President of Tencent, added: “For years, Tencent has valued cultural diversity and has been committed to the preservation, restoration and digitalization of cave art heritage. We are very excited to bring the Mogao Caves to life and offer an immersive experience that uses innovative approaches and gaming technologies to digitally preserve cultural heritage for future generations.”
Tencent has been collaborating with Dunhuang Academy since 2017 for the sustainable preservation of cultural heritage, digitizing the caves and artworks within the site. Some of these have been integrated into existing games such as Dunhuang game skins for Honor of Kingsas well as a digital avatar Jia Yaowhich serves as a digital ambassador of Dunhuang culture.