To function effectively, VR applications with haptic proxies rely on sensory synchronicity, i.e. the automatic combination of different sensory inputs that share specific traits. However, they also seem to rely on mechanisms of sensory completion. By making use of these mechanisms, a reduced set of sensory input might be sufficient to simulate a wider range of sensory sensations. Audiovisual media have already developed methods to trigger sensory simulations by way of sensory completion. We are interested in collecting methods for sensory simulation in VR applications from a usability and design point of view. As realistic haptic feedback remains the most difficult sensory input to provide in VR applications, these methods Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). EPO4VR’21, May 8–13, 2021, Yokohama, Japan © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). can support the use of simple haptic proxies as triggers for haptic simulation.

The use of VR in training groups for wind turbine engineers can cause didactic and practical problems. Integrating the whole group into the lesson and retaining attention and motivation while only one or two trainees wear a VR head mounted display (HMD) can be challenging for the trainer. Whereas VR HMDs isolate the users, engineering on wind turbines is a group effort. The problem is exacerbated when trainees need to use remote access to participate in the lesson, as can be the case under pandemic restrictions. We propose to use methods from asymmetrical game design and constructivist didactics to integrate participants without VR headsets into VR trainings for engineers.

Visualising Volunteered Geographic Information (VGI), including air pollution data, can be used as an explorative tool in the context of workshops and maker labs. This requires a technology that has a low entry-level, but provides a powerful interactive prototyping framework. We describe the potential of real-time computer game engines as visualisation tools for interdisciplinary cooperation between non-experts and experts. We discuss how properties of air pollution, including invisibility, pervasiveness and its ability to permeate organisms, can be visualised with particle systems, and outline two use cases for different output devices, including AR and VR.

Study results on virtual reality (VR) environment properties and their impact on presence have been contradictory. And due to the media specificity of VR, which includes place illusion, rules for environment design cannot directly be transferred from 3D computer games or stereoscopic film to VR. This study develops a model for VR environments based on Mel Slater's observation that place illusion in VR is caused by the use of sensorimotor contingencies (SMC). It defines properties of the environment which provide action possibilities for SMC as sensorimotor affordances (SMA). SMC and SMA form a bidirectional feedback loop of perception. This model helps to clarify former contradictory study results on VR environments, and also provides the basis for a framework of preceptual design rules for VR environments.

VR environments with supernatural properties which expand or replace the laws of physics could be used to understand how the brain organises and interprets sensory stimulation. We built an application with a supernatural room that allows users to walk up the wall and on the ceiling. During preliminary tests, we optimised the application so that it rarely causes cybersickness. User reports and observed user reaction such as swaying indicate that users accepted the rotation as a self-rotation, as opposed to an animated rotation of the room around the user. Therefore the application is viable for future studies on spatial orientation, pathfinding and cognitive maps.

Understanding the parameters and underlying rules of perception of high quality, complex VR environments has become more important since the availability of consumer market, real-time rendered VR applications. VR is a medium that strongly affects the body, and due to its medium specificity, creates an experience of place illusion (Slater, 2009) that poses unique challenges for the environment designer. The study develops a sensorimotor framework for the underlying rules of perception, or sensorimotor contingencies, and the basic parameters, or sensorimotor affordances, of VR environments. It integrates the framework with a model of perceptual design (Ward, 2015), by describing how environmental affordances create information, simulation and spatial-temporal structuring in VR environments. The study shows that the framework can be used to plan and analyse different types of complex VR environments, both for scientific purposes and for day-to-day design decision. It can help to clarify research questions, and integrate existing and future research on VR environments.