The Role of Hue and Realism in Virtual Reality

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in general and virtual geographic environments (VGEs) in particular is becoming more and more common. However, the use and usability of traditional graphical variables within such environments is still rather unclear. Our research is based on a review of studies about the three-dimensional spatial visualization. We performed two empirical studies focusing on the role of colour hue and the level of realism within the VR environment on the task (wayfinding) performance of users. In the first pilot study we compare their wayfinding ability using colour hue markers (decision points) versus grey markers in the test virtual environment. In the second pilot study we compare their wayfinding within two environments with different levels of realism, realistic and symbolized, including points of interest (PoI) used for navigation. Our results showed that colour hue highly influences the participants’ selection of points of interest and the level of realism affects their orientation ability, especially the number of PoIs they used. In general, participants perform wayfinding more effectively in the more realistic environment.