The development of virtual museums in Iran presenting historic buildings of Azerbaijan Province, Iran, in 8 historic complexes, combination of different models and materials

Digital technology has offered new approaches in gathering, presentation and transferring the information of historic complexes. The approach is expanding through the passing time and the development of hardware and software capabilities. Today, using the information technology for presentation and introduction of historic buildings has exceeded the development of text and image website and benefits more capabilities. One of the methods is 3-dimentional modeling and rendering and digital animating. This project aims to: 1-look for the possible methods in gathering, presentation and documentation of the information of historic buildings by advanced modeling, rendering and animating techniques, and 2-compare the methods in presenting and simulating of these buildings in terms of volume, material, geometry, etc. To do this, 8 complexes of Azerbaijan historic buildings has been chosen as case study. Each has characterized by unique features for computer modeling and presentation which this project tries to deal with each in the same realistic manner. This paper investigates current simulation systems implemented with purpose of documentation of historic or new sites and complexes and it identifies how we can use these systems for better understanding of sites either for conservation or introduction purposes. This paper researches on the one hand the conditions for data collection, the state of data, its documentation and the production of the 3D model and on the other a theoretical framework of simulation and reproduction of the model of the ''historical complex '' based on reality. In this project what we seek is the creation of a model with the qualities of reality. Through the excellent possibilities that digital technology has made available for the production of a photo-real model, we have managed to make the model of the mentioned above historical complexes come alive. The conclusion results from studying different approaches of digital simulation and leveraging them into 8 historic complexes. The color, material, texture, etc are the key elements studied for this purpose.