Evaluating Daylight Lighting Appearances in Virtual Reality Environments

Abstract

This paper focuses on evaluating the displays of lighting in built environments within virtual reality systems. Two approaches for simulating daylighting in VR are presented: (1) a 360º panorama view of the space at a particular point and then generating renderings from multiple different locations in the scene vs (2) a free roam approach in which a texture is created for each polygon face in the scene. A user study is conducted to quantify user presence, perceptual impressions, and physical symptoms of users in the different daylighting display approaches being contrasted. The results from the user study indicate there is no significant difference in physical symptoms or in the usefulness of one approach over the other in terms of evaluating daylighting. One aspect of the study did find a stronger sense of spatial awareness in the free-roam environment. The presented results can lead to additional research in using virtual reality to simulate real environments when investigating the impacts of daylighting in spaces.