Systematic Review of Comparative Studies of the Impact of Realism in Immersive Virtual Experiences

Abstract

The adoption of immersive virtual experiences (IVEs) opened new research lines where the impact of realism is being studied, allowing developers to focus resources on realism factors proven to improve the user experience the most. We analysed papers that compared different levels of realism and evaluated their impact on user experience. Exploratorily, we also synthesised the realism terms used by authors. From 1300 initial documents, 79 met the eligibility criteria. Overall, most of the studies reported that higher realism has a positive impact on user experience. These data allow a better understanding of realism in IVEs, guiding future R&D.

How Much Presence is Enough? Qualitative Scales for Interpreting the Igroup Presence Questionnaire Score

“…According to Perroud et al [28], realism can be divided realism into five components: realistic-looking (quality of shaders, lights and overall artistic look), realistic construction of the virtual world (the use of scientific models such as laws of physics), physiologic realism (objective realism of a given virtual environment where the stimuli users receive are the same as in the real world), psychological realism (the user subjective perception of realism) and presence. These different dimensions allow us to categorise realism into two categories: subjective (user perception) and objective (how close to the virtual experience's real-world counterpart) [5]. Therefore, regarding subjective user perception, one can sense that the virtual environment is realistic even if the environment does not replicate the real-world stimuli accurately.…”

Enhancing Multisensory Experiences Through Temperature-Controlled Wind Effects

“…The concept of presence has become indispensable in the design and evaluation of media experiences, its importance leading to various conceptualizations, as outlined in the recent systematic review published by Gonccalves et al [22]. Slater [23] focuses on immersive virtual environments and proposes two concepts that enable users to respond realistically to the virtual scenario: place illusion (PI) -having the sensation of being in a real place -and plausibility illusion (Psi) -having the illusion that a scenario is real.…”

“…The similarity between the sensory input in the virtual environment and what the user would receive in a real analogous situation constitutes the perceptual realism and represents another important concept in experiencing cross-media experiences [25]. However, achieving a high level of realism depends on the virtual experience's objective and the degree to which a user can interact [22].…”

Immersive VR for Real Estate: Evaluation of Different Levels of Interaction and Visual Fidelity

“…Fidelity is another parameter that can be used to evaluate VR experiences and measures objectively how well the simulation represents the real world [13], [22]. Environments that offer higher levels of fidelity are more likely to provoke a higher sense of "being there" in the scene [6].…”