Abstract
Proper evaluation of realism in immersive virtual experiences is crucial to ensure optimisation of resources. This way, we can take better decisions while designing realistic immersive experiences, prioritising factors that have a higher impact on the perceived realism of the virtual experience. This systematic review aims to provide readers with an overview of methodologies used throughout the literature to evaluate realism in immersive virtual, augmented and mixed reality. A total of 79 from 1300 gathered articles met the eligibility criteria and were analysed. Results have shown that virtual reality is by far the platform where realism studies were performed. Head-mounted displays are by far the preferred equipment for such studies. Visual realism is the most researched, followed by audiovisual. The majority of methodologies consisted of subjective, as well as a combination of objective and subjective measures. The most used evaluation instrument is questionnaires where many of which are custom and non-validated. Presence questionnaires are the most used ones and are often used to evaluate the presence, perceived realism and involvement. Cybersickness evaluation is consistently assessed by one self-report questionnaire.
Highlights
The possibilities of realistic virtual experiences are very wide and still being explored in several application fields as technology advances which allows higher realism
Because realism enables a better illusion of the virtual environment as being real, such can lead users to act the same way as they would in an analogous situation
The search query considered keywords related to immersive Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed reality, as well as, terms related to realism and methodologies
Summary
The possibilities of realistic virtual experiences are very wide and still being explored in several application fields as technology advances which allows higher realism. Experiments that were previously inconceivable due to constraints in costs and logistics as well as ethics [1] can be considered to be done using realistic immersive experiences (assuming the results are replicable in the real-world conditions). It opens doors for training professionals by giving them a real-world experience [2]. The knowledge they gathered in those experiences can be translated to real-world situations, bypassing costs, time, and safety constraints [3]–[6]. Other studies are addressing the potential of this technology to protect cultural heritage by giving users a similar realistic experience as if they were really there [12], [13]
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