User VR Experience and Motivation Study in an Immersive 3D Geovisualization Environment Using a Game Engine for Landscape Design Teaching

Carlos Carbonell-Carrera,Jose Luis Saorin,Dámari Melián Díaz

doi:10.3390/land10050492

Abstract

Realistic 3D geovisualization is necessary to facilitate the perception of a landscape designer in relation to the environment, which is a determining factor in decision-making in landscape planning and management. In the field of landscape design teaching learning environments, game engines can offer an immersive 3D geovisualization mode through Virtual Reality technology, which, in addition, can be motivating for the student. Game engines allow designing the scenarios where videogames take place, but game engines can also be used for geovisualization tasks in landscape design teaching environments. In this article, we present the landscape workshop, using a Unity 3D game engine. Twenty-five architect students performed landscape design tasks and worked with an interactive 3D geovisualization low-immersive desktop screen environment. The perception of the 3D environment during geovisualization was analyzed through the Questionnaire on User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environments, and the motivational factor with the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Results showed a high perception of the 3D environment during geovisualization in the nine subcategories (sense of presence, engagement, immersion, flow, usability, emotion, judgment, experience consequence, and technology adoption) analyzed. The game engine-based teaching approach carried out has been motivating for students, with values over 5 (in a 1–7 Likert scale) in the five subscales considered.

Highlights

Landscape planning and landscape design/architecture tasks require geospatial information from the environment, which has traditionally been represented through 2D topographic maps, the most common of cartographic products [1]
The perception of the 3D environment during geovisualization was analyzed through the Questionnaire on User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environments (QUXiVE) [10,28]
The results of each of the nine subscales considered in the Questionnaire on User eXperience in Immersive Virtual Environments are displayed for each subscale

Summary

Introduction

Landscape planning and landscape design/architecture tasks require geospatial information from the environment, which has traditionally been represented through 2D topographic maps, the most common of cartographic products [1]. For 3D terrain representation, maps use different cartographic techniques, which are abstract geographic representations such as contour lines, shading, or hypsometric inks, among others. In this way, topographic maps provide an abstract geographic representation of the Earth’s surface [2]. The inventory of landforms and surface structures provided by maps has been used as a research tool for landscape analysis and design [3]. It is necessary for the landscape designer to know how to interpret these cartographic techniques to perceive, in the two-dimensional environment in which a map develops, the three-dimensional reality of the topographic relief.

Results

Discussion

Conclusion