Jin, Meneely, and Park studied responses to virtual reality and “real life” experiences. They determined “how participant perceptions of a single interior environment varied among a real-world space (R) and two surrogate VR spaces (one made with 360° spherical photography and one made with 360° spherical digital rendering). . . . Each participant completed a visual acuity task and evaluated perceived brightness, glare, and spaciousness within the real-world space and one of the two surrogate VR environments. Participants reported acceptable baseline levels of perceived realism in both VR environments. There was no significant difference between the rendered-VR simulation and real-world space for brightness, glare, and spaciousness, while the photographed-VR simulation was seen as significantly brighter and glaring. Performance on the visual acuity task was significantly lower in both VR simulations than in the real-world-approximating the difference between 20/20 and 20/60 vision.”
Xu Jin, Jason Meneely, and Nam-Kyu Park. 2022. “Virtual Reality Versus Real-World Space: Comparing Perceptions of Brightness, Glare, Spaciousness, and Visual Acuity.” Journal of Interior Design, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 31-50, https://doi.org/10.1111/joid.12209