Integrating Photogrammetric Network Design and Quality Assessment in Virtual Forensic‐Inspired Environments: Development and Validation in Unity

Accurate and reproducible documentation of crime scenes and traffic accidents remains a major challenge in forensic investigation. Although photogrammetry provides a robust framework for spatial reconstruction, its effectiveness depends strongly on acquisition geometry, network design and acquisition conditions, which are difficult to control in real scenarios. This paper presents a virtual photogrammetric framework for the analysis and evaluation of acquisition protocols within forensic‐inspired environments developed in Unity. The system enables the creation of controlled virtual scenarios that simulate configurable visual, geometric and radiometric acquisition conditions inspired by close‐range forensic documentation scenarios. Within this environment, image acquisition can be performed either manually or through an assisted acquisition module. A virtual camera emulates configurable optical behaviour, including configurable intrinsic and extrinsic parameters, lens distortion models and exposure and illumination control. The framework incorporates a two‐level quality assessment protocol, evaluating both acquisition geometry and reconstruction fidelity. Two case studies—a traffic accident and a crime scene—demonstrate the capability of the system to generate photogrammetrically consistent datasets and to support controlled experimentation related to acquisition geometry, overlap continuity and reconstruction consistency within configurable close‐range environments.