Making Virtual Reality More Real: Experience with the Virtual Portal

The technical limitations of early Virtual Reality systems made them mere teasers for showing the potential of the technology. Since these early days. many researchers have focused on understanding the display factors affecting quality and realism in Virtual Reality display systems. This paper surveys such work, and presents some new data based on experience with the Virtual Portal: a new high-resolution. lowdistortion. inclusive Virtual Reality display system. built with three rear screen projectors covering three sides of a small room with head-tracked stereo display. Successes and limitations of this new technology are discussed.