Publikace

Can an unrealistic level of detail be enough to feel immersivity in Virtual Reality

Ing. arch. Lukáš Kurilla, Ph.D., Ing. arch. Vasilisa Supranovich

The latest trends in computer graphics show that developers, in pursuit of the perfect image, are increasingly creating graphics that are difficult for the user to perceive. The struggle for impressive graphics has begun to raise questions among users more and more often, as graphic characteristics are infinitely approaching the level of hyper-realism, which in turn causes the phenomenon of underrealism and broken immersion in the virtual space. In connection with this, the question arises - Is there sufficient abstraction of the virtual reality object and space that has the same effect on user immersion as graphically more complex variants? This paper is mainly divided to three parts, in first part, before proceeding to the analysis of existing research and examples from various fields of computer graphics, a few necessary terms are explained at the beginning of the article. First of all, the differences between the feeling of immersion and the present by the user in virtual reality are determined, since the level of detail of the scene has a direct impact on the user’s perception of the virtual space. The second necessary concept is the uncanny valley phenomenon. This phenomenon determines that the realism of the avatar graphics can produce a negative impression on the user. In this work, avatars are considered as components of virtual scenes; therefore, their detailing is important at the level of visualization of the surrounding spaces in virtual reality. After introducing the necessary definitions, this article will discuss and analyze examples of different types of graphics of virtual scenes, such as architectural visualization, computer game graphics and animated movies. Each of these fields and industries in its own way affect the development and perception of computer graphics by the user, so it is important to pay attention to each one of them. The last part of this paper will focus mainly on the methodology of a future experiment, which is intended to be used to complete the main objective – find the level of detail and abstraction of virtual reality objects sufficient to achieve the necessary user involvement and sense of presence in a given space. It is important to note that research of a sufficient level of detail of virtual reality objects will solve several problems at the same time: it will help the creators of games and virtual environments to use hardware more efficiently and create less demanding products that will have the same impact on users as graphically more complex variants and will be more accessible to a wider group of users.

Za obsah této stránky zodpovídá: prof. Ing. arch. Petr Vorlík, Ph.D.