The use of virtual reality in environment experiences and the importance of realism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101733Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Virtual reality (VR) enables highly realistic immersive experiences.

  • Two VR studies examined how level of realism impacted affective responses.

  • VR can elicit similar positive affective responses to a real natural scene.

  • High realism VR environments provided a greater sense of presence and restoration.

  • Realism is important, particularly for environmental restoration research.

Abstract

Introduction

Virtual reality (VR) can be extremely useful in simulating nature when physical presence is not possible. Additionally, it allows for environments to be customised (e.g., weather, or topography) and facilitates the design of controlled experimental settings. However, VR can involve the use of expensive equipment and complex software to create highly realistic immersive experiences. But is it necessary for experiences to rival the latest Hollywood blockbuster? This paper explores whether such investment can be valuable in research on nature experiences.

Studies

Two studies were conducted to examine how realism of environmental presentations impact affective responses and participant perceptions. Study One (n = 16) explored perceptions of the same lake presented to participants in the real world, in VR and as a video. Study Two (n = 120) compared participant's affective responses to one of four possible virtual environments differing in level of realism (high or low) and type (natural or built).

Results

Study One showed that experiences of VR presentations fell between real and video presentations. Study Two found that more realistic VR environments evoked more positive affective and serenity responses, as well as a greater sense of presence. In both studies, participants stressed the importance of naturalistic interaction, sensory immersion, and graphical realism in the experiences, which may help explain these effects.

Conclusion

The level of realism that can be attained with VR does impact affective responses and perceptions. Investment in VR for future research can be highly beneficial.

Section snippets

The use of virtual reality in environment experiences and the importance of realism

Environmental experiences in field settings are likely to evoke stronger affective responses than surrogate experiences (e.g., photographs or video). However, it can be difficult to find suitable environments for controlled experimental research.

Virtual reality (VR) can be extremely useful for this type of research as it can be used to simulate environments when physical presence is not possible and allows environments to be customised (e.g., weather, or topography). LaValle defines VR as

Study One: comparing realism across different presentation methods

A hybrid field-laboratory experiment was conducted to examine affective responses and ratings of enjoyment after viewing a lake in the real world, in VR, and as a video. We expect that reported positive affect and serenity, as well as enjoyment, will be higher and reported negative affect will be lower after having experienced the environment in the real world, versus in VR, versus as a video. To further explore how the different presentation methods may have affected perceptions and

Manipulation check

A baseline affective measurement showed that generally participants felt moderate levels of positive affect (M = 31.63, SD = 5.21), as well as very slight or no negative affect (M = 11.56, SD = 2.28), and serenity (M = 12.94, SD = 2.41).

Post experience affective responses

To explore the experiences’ impact on affect, a repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was run comparing affective responses recorded directly after each of the three experiences.

While the data for positive affect were normally distributed, the

Study Two: testing the importance of realism within VR

A laboratory experiment was conducted to examine whether the level of realism of a virtual environment impacts recovery from a state of negative affect (stress). In Study Two, stress was induced via a writing task before participants experienced either a high or low realism version of a natural or built environment. We expect that improvement in affect will be greater in the high realism compared to the low realism environments and greater in the natural compared to the built environments. To

Cyber-sickness

Most participants did not experience any cyber-sickness symptoms (73%), with a total of 32 instances of sickness symptoms being reported, 27 of which were very slight or of little effect and five of moderate effect. For those instances, participants reported experiencing headaches, sweating, eye fatigue, nausea, dizziness, and disorientation. All symptoms were no longer present at the end of the experiment.

Presence

An independent samples t-test was run to see if there was any difference in presence

Discussion

Virtual reality (VR) is growing in use and has great potential for advancing scientific enquiry by enabling environmental control, manipulation, and accessibility. This paper explored whether the quality of the environment is important. Specifically, by testing different presentation methods (Study One: comparing real vs. 3D VR vs. 2D video) and different levels of detail (Study Two: comparing high vs. low graphical realism in the context of nature and built environments), this paper

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Author contributions statement

Newman, M.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation, Writing – Original Draft, Visualization, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Gatersleben, B.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision. Wyles, K. J.: Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision.Ratcliffe, E.: Writing – Review & Editing.

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