Realism

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2005). Fidelity refers to certain external factors that might effectively improve the transfer of spatial knowledge from virtual to real situations (Wallet et al., 2011).

There is a need to transfer process knowledge acquired within VE to real-world situations, since increasing audio/visual fidelity often implies increased functional fidelity (Petridis et al., 2010). We concur with Petridis (2010) that high-fidelity can achieve adequate immersion to engage the learner. We can test this assumption using NPM’s case. This study follows Witmer’s (2005) definition because the dimensions of breadth and depth are not clear enough to measure its effectiveness (e.g. nowadays VR equipment has already evolved to a peak with certain sensory dimensions). In contrast, the dimension of fidelity (audio and visual) is more amenable as a measurement in a VR museum experience.

2.1.3 Realism

Related studies of realism and their findings in VR research are summarized in Table 2.3. Realism is also an important factor of presence—a sense of “being there” in a mediated environment (Oh & Sundar, 2016). Compared to vividness, realism focuses more on the level of “feeling real.” It often refers to the degree to which a person can be fooled into believing that the experienced situation is real if his mind cannot detect any discrepancies (Herbelin et al., 2015; Sanchez-Vives & Slater, 2005). Lombard and Ditton (2006) also emphasize the characteristic of plausible or “true to life” reflections in VR. This study combines the definitions of Lombard and Ditton (2006) and Herbelin (2015) to define realism as “the extent to which a media appears like the real-world, which can fully fool a person into believing that the experienced situation was real.”

Table 2.3. Realism

Source Research Definition of Realism

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(1) Social realism refers to the extent to which a media portrayal is plausible or

‘true to life’ as it reflects events that do or could occur in the non-mediated world.

(2) Perceptual realism refers to the extent to which mediated artifacts appear like their real-world counterparts.

Focus on two forms of realism that may contribute to the experience of presence, when perceived in isolation or in concert.

B. G.Witmer

&Singer, 1998 Teleoperation³

Scene realism refers to the connectedness and continuity of the stimuli being experienced, including consistency the information conveyed by a VE, meaningfulness of experience, disorientation or anxiety when returning from the VE to the real world.

Focus on four major categories of factors: Control Factors, Sensory Factors, Distraction Factors, and Realism Factors.

Freeman, Avons, Meddis, Pearson,

&IJsselsteijn, 2000

Video Media

Behavioral realism refers to the more similar a display becomes to the environment it mimics, the more the observer will respond to the display in the same way that he/she would respond to the environment itself.

Focus on measuring the feeling ‘really there’ for a float value between ‘complete there’ and ‘not at all there’.

Coyle &Thorson,

2001 n/a

Definition is not mentioned clearly. Realism is regard as part of interactivity and vividness.

Focus on investigating how varying levels of realism may affect attitudes, behavioral intentions, and the level of consistency.

Sanchez-Vives

&Slater, 2005 Media

Use Lombard &Ditton’s (2006) Definition.

Realism refers to the perceived correspondence between a technology-mediated experience and a similar experience not mediated by technology (often confusingly termed “real” or “real life”).

Sylaiou, Mania, Karoulis, &White, 2010

Museum Behavioral realism: Definition is not mentioned.

Bae et al., 2012 Game

Perceived realism: refers to the subjective realism that users feel. (1) factual realism is related to judging whether human and events are fictional (artificially made) or not. (2) psychological realism is referring to judging the plausibility, accuracy, and similarity between the world embodied in the media compare to real world. Dimensions: Egocentric & Allocentric representation

Wong, Nguyen,

&Ogren, 2012

Military Training

Realism is one of the six subsections of immersion; the feeling of being there is the best describe the essence. Focus on training assessment and effectiveness.

3 Teleoperation: A remote operation, which indicates operation of a system or machine at a distance.

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Visual realism: the degree to which the images of the simulated world are perceived to be real by the user.

Focus on the real-world location and measured by factors: geometry, textures, and lighting.

Houliez &Gamble,

2013 Game

(1) social realism: likelihood that the events heard/ seen in the medium would occur

‘‘in the real world’

(2) perceptual realism: how much the heat or coolness of the technology-mediated environment felt like it would have, if the user had experienced it directly.

Focus on eight measurements of presence (include realism).

Patton, 2014 Military Use Witmer and Singer’s (1998) ‘Presence’ Questionnaire. Greater realism produces a greater sense of presence.

Kaczmarek

&Drążkowski, 2014 Game Realism refers to the extent to which they viewed the environment as realistic.

Herbelin et al., 2015

Self-consciousness

Realism refers to an extent that a person can be fooled into believing that the experienced situation is real if his mind cannot detect any discrepancy.

Fox, Christy,

&Vang, 2014 n/a

Use Lombard &Ditton’s (2006) Definition.

Realism consists of not only the degree to which the virtual environment adheres to real-world features, but also the meaningfulness of the experience.

R Nordahl, 2014 Auditory Use Lombard &Ditton’s (2006) Definition.

Focus on the six different, yet interrelated, conceptualizations of presence.

Kuliga et al., 2015 architecture

 Visual realism: visual experiences which relate strongly to real visual experiences.

 Behavioral realism: represent perceptual and bodily experiences that relate to real-world user performance.

 Experiential realism: higher levels of realism which more immersive systems are believed to produce.

 Experiential realism was approached via visual realism, and active movement was enabled for an approximation of behavioral realism.

Use Witmer and Singer’s (1998) ‘Presence’ Questionnaire.

Toczek, 2017 n/a

Visual realism is regarded as the degree to which a simulated, artificial world resembles a corresponding real world.

The results showed that increasing visual realism led to an increase in presence;

visual realism may indeed positively affect presence.

Baus &Bouchard,

2017 Odours Realism refers to the degree to which the elements of the VE resemble their counterparts in the physical world.

Meinel &Chujfi, 2017

Digital Workspace

Pictorial and social realism may offer a sensorial-rich

mediated environment to provide users the confidence to effectively perform activities.

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Use Witmer and Singer’s (1998) ‘Presence’ Questionnaire.

Pardo et al., 2018 3D scanning

Definition is not mentioned clearly.

The results show a high correlation of the realism sensation with the fidelity of color reproduction, material texture, and definition of the artwork replicas. Moreover,

Iachini et al., 2018 psychology Realism regards the degree of realism attributed to the virtual scenario.

Use Witmer and Singer’s (1998) ‘Presence’ Questionnaire.

Schnack, Wright,

&Holdershaw, 2018 Game

Use Witmer and Singer’s (1998) ‘Presence’ Questionnaire. Participants who had not experienced in the past six months considered the products as more realistic than those who had experienced.

K.Kim, 2018 Virtual Human The perceived sense of a ability to sense the virtual object real.

Some studies have found that realism positively influences presence (Bae et al., 2012; Freeman et al., 2000; Patton, 2014; Toczek, 2017). Several outcomes of feeling presence could impact user experience and affect user behavior (van Herpen et al., 2016). Sylaiou’s (2010) research in a museum context mentioned realism, but statements and findings are not definitive. Thus, we aim to find evidence related to the museum context to support this argument. We want to know, besides presence, whether realism improves user experience in NPM’s case as well.