Sistemi di fruizione virtuale e serious game per la valorizzazione e la divulgazione del Patrimonio. Masada: la fortezza del deserto.

This work is focused the theme of the access to Cultural Heritage through the most recent digital technologies developed in last decades. The entertainment industry, and more specifically that concerning videogames, is now considered the most promising in order to bridge the gap, generated by the contemporary, between those who ‘create’ or preserve the Heritage and those who enjoy it. For this reason, a particular study is dedicated to the theme of serious games, a potential tool for the re-appropriation of museum spaces and all those places that no longer arouse the spontaneous interest of people. Starting from the definition of the notions of material and immaterial Heritage and investigating their evolution in the international debate, the theme of the use of the Heritage is addressed. Today there is a clear need to preserve the heritage from the test of time in order to ensure the preservation of the 'memory'. The museum structures, together with all the disciplines that regulate its functioning, have available 'new tools' to reach these purposes. Today, 3D models, as well as providing design support, are important for permanently recording the shape of existing architectural works and artifacts, in order to achieve the future generations. The 3D model therefore becomes an important 'tool' of the discipline of representation, useful for the construction of virtual scenarios for the use of the Heritage. Part of this work concerns the complex case study of the archaeological site of Masada in Israel, under UNESCO protection, and the construction of the digital archive obtained through the use of integrated digital survey methodologies and 3D modeling. The research presented aimed at the definition of a methodological process that, starting from a digital database, reach in information obtained by archival research, photographic and digital survey campaigns, allows to 'translate' this data and these 'materials' in contents accessible and usable by the general public. For this reason, within this research, a serious game called 'Masada Museum' was designed and partially developed as a potential tool in order to increase the potentiality of the current museum structure.