Virtual Reality Presence in Partially Non-Euclidean Environments

Abstract Currently, virtual reality is limited by a physical workspace if the user walks indefinitely inside its virtual world. Therefore, it is necessary to find solutions to this limitation. A possible solution could be to reuse this workspace by overlapping different parts of the virtual space. This can be achieved through the use of imperceptible portals that connect different points in the virtual environment. Thanks to these portals it is possible to create a momentary break in the conventional Euclidean geometry displaying parts of the virtual world that are farther away than usual. Although this kind of effect has been seen in conventional games, its application to virtual environments has some technical implications. One of the most important technical characteristics to be evaluated is the presence, which could be affected by this type of visual effect. For this reason, a validation of the effect has been carried out by quantitatively analyzing the perceptual presence and conducting qualitative interviews with users. The results did not show an overall impact on presence, and users were excited to experience this type of visual effect inside the virtual world. Finally, this article shows everything learned in this development and is discussed from a perceptual design point of view, opening the possibility of new studies associated with this visual effect applied to the virtual world.