Published on 08 Sep 2026

Shaping the Future of 3D Heritage – Main Achievements of XRculture after 18 Months

Shaping the Future of 3D Heritage – Main Achievements of XRculture after 18 Months
The XRculture project ran for 18 months, from 1 February 2025 to 31 July 2026. During this period, a consortium of 10 beneficiaries from 7 countries worked on approaches for the digitisation, standardisation, aggregation, and reuse of 3D cultural heritage assets within the Common European Data Space for Cultural Heritage.

The project combined technical development with digitisation campaigns, metadata work, and a series of pilot applications. By the end of the project, all 19 planned deliverables had been submitted and 7 structural milestones had been completed. The project also aggregated a substantial collection of 3D models for long-term access and reuse.

3D Content Generation and Quality Improvement

A central pillar of the XRculture project was the generation and improvement of large amounts of content, resulting in the publication of 1,281 models. While the campaign broke new ground by capturing historically 'problematic' or 'non-collaborative' surfaces using AI-based solutions such as Gaussian Splatting and NeRF to digitise transparent, reflective or textureless objects (such as ancient Roman glassware) without the need for invasive matting sprays, the effort also covered a wide range of standard museum artefacts, historical collections and architectural monuments across Europe. The work was organised into two parallel tracks.



New AI-Based Digitisations — 603 models

The project produced 603 new 3D models, surpassing the initial target of 500. These campaigns were carried out in collaboration with partner institutions and encompassed individual objects as well as larger collections.

Significant contributions came from the Arheološki muzej Istre (AMI) in Croatia, which provided 97 new models, and the Italian Ministry of Culture (MIC), which generated extensive sets across sites such as Aquileia (81 models), Verona (77 models), Adria (58 models) and the Marche region (48 models). Furthermore, a collaboration with the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts (HAZU) resulted in the addition of 49 new models.



Enhancement of Existing Collections — 678 models

The second track focused on reprocessing existing 3D collections. Rather than creating new models, the aim was to enhance the quality and usability of previously digitised assets for web visualisation and XR applications. Depending on the dataset, processing involved reconstructing missing geometry and improving or recovering surface and texture information.

Examples of such datasets include those from Egnazia (169 models), Ercolano (98 models) and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Taranto (MArTA, 21 models).

The enhancement work also covered heritage at risk and architectural-scale datasets. In Ukraine, Pixelated Realities undertook digitisation activities at the Bleschunov Museum, producing 78 new models and 33 enhanced models. Further enhancement work was conducted on datasets from Kuiglnyk (24 models) and Mouv (nine models).

At an architectural scale, 279 building-related point-cloud models were reprocessed as part of the Italian Ministry of Culture's architectural heritage collection. This extended the scope of the project beyond individual artefacts to include the documentation of larger-scale built heritage.

3D Digitisation of Complex Surfaces

One of the technical challenges addressed by XRculture was the digitisation of objects with transparent, reflective, or otherwise difficult-to-capture surfaces. Conventional photogrammetry can produce incomplete or distorted results for such materials. In some heritage digitisation workflows, objects such as historical glassware have therefore required the application of temporary matting sprays. While this can facilitate image capture, it also changes the appearance of the object during digitisation.

XRculture investigated a semi-automated digitisation workflow combining conventional image capture with Gaussian Splatting. The approach represents an object using a large number of small, semi-transparent elements and can capture visual characteristics that are difficult to reproduce with conventional photogrammetry alone. This makes it possible to work with reflective and transparent surfaces without applying a matting coating.

Interoperability and Open Access: The XRculture Middleware Protocol

Another area of work focused on the interoperability of various 3D formats, repositories and viewing environments. Cultural heritage institutions often work with diverse data structures and software environments, which can hinder the connection of digital assets to different publication and visualisation systems.

To address this issue, XRculture developed the XRculture Middleware Protocol v1.0.3. This open-source protocol is designed to be independent of a particular data serialisation format. It provides a common interface through which compatible repositories and 3D viewers can exchange information, eliminating the need for separate custom integrations for each combination of systems.

During the project, four compatible web viewers were deployed. These were a client-side RDF WebAssembly viewer, an RDF Gaussian Splatting viewer, the WebGL-based Repox 3D Viewer and the UNIVPM WebXR immersive viewer. The Repox viewer was also integrated into the Europeana environment.

The middleware was combined with Share3D Dashboard 2.0, as the metadata capturing and aggregation centerpiece of the project. The system can extract asset characteristics and use them to generate Europeana Data Model (EDM) records. These assets can then be transferred to various repositories and services, including Europeana, Zenodo and Amazon S3.

Real-World Applications of 3D and XR

The technical infrastructure was evaluated through four pilot scenarios addressing different aspects of 3D cultural heritage. Together, these activities involved more than 80,000 people across Europe.

Heritage at Risk
This scenario was developed in close collaboration with Pixelated Realities and field-tested an offline-first mobile augmented reality (AR) capture application designed specifically for hazardous, low-connectivity conflict zones. This tool enables non-expert museum staff and local volunteers to quickly document endangered collections even when an internet connection is unavailable. Photos are stored locally and automatically pushed to containerised reconstruction services for processing once the device is back online.

Key results:
  • Successfully trained 30 museum staff members and volunteers during a practical workshop in Odessa.
  • Published and aggregated 34 newly generated 3D models directly into the Registry of the Museum Fund of Ukraine (RMFU) and the common European data space via Europeana.
  • Recognised internationally and featured as an official case study by the Tony Blair Institute. 



Heritage Tourism
Led by ARCTUR, this scenario established an automated, low-cost digital pipeline to support European heritage tourism organizations. The workflow allows destinations to automatically generate 4-view holographic videos from existing 3D models via the 3d-heritage.eu platform. Visitors can then experience these holograms using simple, foldable smartphone pyramid kits, which cost only a few euros to manufacture.

Key results:
  • Testing was successfully completed across five European destinations (Slovenia, Germany, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece and Italy).
  • More than 2,000 direct in-person visitors of all age demographics were engaged.
  • An indirect reach of over 7,500 users was achieved via social media, destination landing pages and web platforms.
  • A highly replicable, low-cost XR business model for sustainable heritage tourism was successfully validated.

Dispersed Heritage
This scenario explored how mixed reality (MR) could bridge historical and geographical divides by virtually reuniting contextually fragmented collections. Deployed at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale delle Marche (MANM) in Ancona, Italy, the project centred on a collection of 23 ancient Roman glass artefacts that were originally excavated in Zadar, Croatia, but were separated following the Second World War. Using Meta Quest 3 headsets, visitors could interact with the reunited artefacts in a shared virtual environment while remaining in the physical museum space.



Key results:
  • Engaged 74 active participants during a dedicated public showcase event in Ancona on 4–5 July 2026. 
  • Captured an additional 80+ mobile users who accessed a simplified, phone-based version of the narrative via on-site QR codes in the subsequent weeks.
  • Successfully proved that MR can reveal hidden historical narratives and recontextualise separated collections without isolating the visitor.

Immersive Education

In order to evaluate the true pedagogical value and cognitive impact of 3D data space assets in schools, the Università Politecnica delle Marche (UNIVPM) designed a controlled comparative study. The Palmyra EduVR application is a Unity-based immersive VR classroom that guides students through a structured tour of the Roman Theatre of Palmyra. The performance of the VR group was measured directly against a control group learning via traditional lecture frameworks.

Key results:
  • Engaged 85 secondary school students across four classes, significantly exceeding the baseline target of 50 students.
  • Achieved an outstanding average satisfaction score of 4.6 out of 5 on the Usability and Acceptability Scale.
  • Recorded a 21.52% improvement in learning outcomes (correct answers) compared to traditional teaching methods, establishing a scalable roadmap for integrating high-quality digital assets into modern school curricula.

Capacity Building and Long-Term Sustainability

Although the formal project period has ended, the technical infrastructure, documentation, and training materials developed during XRculture are intended to remain available for further use and development.

As part of the project, 13 capacity-building workshops and webinars were organised in different European locations, including Warsaw, Siena, Brussels, Kyiv, and Ferrara. These activities reached more than 390 cultural heritage professionals.

The project also produced 12 open-licensed training toolkits covering topics such as metadata workflows, AI-supported digitisation, and middleware deployment. These materials have been transferred to the 3D-4CH Online Competence Centre, where they can be incorporated into future training activities.



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