The Visual Information Available in Virtual Reality

Figures & data

Table 1. Comparison of four modes of depiction.

Static images	Moving images	Video games	Virtual reality
Depicted environment appears ‘behind’ the image surface	Depicted environment appears ‘behind’ the screen	Depicted environment appears ‘behind’ the screen	Depicted environment surrounds the observer; observer is ‘inside’ the depicted environment
Observer cannot change their apparent point of observation relative to the depicted environment	Apparent point of observation can change; this movement is controlled by the filmmaker, e.g. by moving the camera	Game user can typically affect the apparent point of observation via computer input device	Viewer can affect the point of observation by moving around
No possibility to interact with objects in the depicted environment	No possibility to interact with objects in the depicted environment	Interactivity to arbitrary depth, limited by design of game	Interactivity to arbitrary depth, limited by design of the VR environment
Multiple observers can simultaneously see the same image	Multiple observers can simultaneously view the same sequence of images	Multiple observers can simultaneously view the same images, though only some can interact	Multiple observers typically occupy non-identical locations in a shared virtual space

Figure 1. Commercial virtual reality systems. (a) A screen capture from the Oculus Rift system. An image is presented separately to each eyeball. The viewer sees a single, apparently three-dimensional environment, but only (b) when the images are viewed through the appropriate lenses (image shows the inside of a Meta Quest 3 headset). Image source: Wikimedia commons, CC-BY-SA.