Virtual Reality views place the observer within a computer-generated, recorded or reconstructed visual environment rather than presenting the complete scene as a single fixed image on a conventional screen. The displayed view can change with the observer’s direction of looking and, in more advanced systems, with movement of the observer’s position through virtual space.
This visual collection presents representative Virtual Reality views, including stereoscopic headset images, spherical 360-degree environments, head-tracked views, room-scale and six-degrees-of-freedom systems, computer-generated worlds, virtual tours, architectural environments and scientific or technical simulations. The examples show how Virtual Reality can combine perspective projection, stereoscopic vision, wide fields of view, motion, tracking and interactive spatial representation within one system.
Virtual Reality views
Explore representative examples below. Each view illustrates a particular form, function or visual characteristic of Virtual Reality and immersive perspective.
Headset Virtual Reality Views
A head-mounted display presents an immersive view close to the eyes and changes that view as the observer turns the head. The displayed image therefore represents only the currently selected portion of a larger virtual environment.
Stereoscopic VR Views
Most immersive VR headsets present separately generated left-eye and right-eye views. Binocular disparity can therefore contribute to the perception of spatial depth while the perspective images change dynamically with head movement.
360° Spherical VR Views
A spherical 360-degree environment surrounds a fixed viewing position with image information in every direction. The observer can look left, right, above, below and behind while remaining at the centre of the recorded or rendered sphere.
Head-Tracked Perspective Views
Head tracking continually updates the displayed direction of view. The image is therefore not a permanent composition but a temporary perspective generated in response to the observer’s current orientation.
Room-Scale & 6DoF Views
Six-degrees-of-freedom VR allows the observer to rotate and also move position through the virtual environment. As the viewpoint changes, perspective, occlusion, parallax and visible surfaces change correspondingly.
Computer-Generated Virtual Environments
Computer-generated VR environments create spatial scenes mathematically rather than recording an existing physical location. Perspective views can be recalculated continuously as the observer changes position and direction.
Virtual Tours & Architectural Views
Virtual tours can connect several panoramic viewpoints or provide freely navigable models of buildings and spaces. They are widely used to inspect architecture, interiors, heritage sites and proposed designs.
Scientific, Technical & Training VR
Virtual Reality can transform complex spatial information into explorable visual environments for science, engineering, medicine, training and simulation. The observer can inspect structures and spatial relationships from viewpoints that may be difficult or impossible to obtain physically.
What Virtual Reality views show
A Virtual Reality view is usually not a complete permanent image in the same sense as a conventional photograph or drawing. It is the portion of a larger virtual environment currently presented to an observer from a particular position and direction.
As the observer turns or moves, the view changes. The system may recalculate perspective, reveal previously hidden surfaces, alter binocular disparity and modify the apparent position of objects in response to the new viewpoint.
Virtual Reality therefore transforms perspective from a fixed image relationship into an interactive and continuously changing visual system.
Read about Perspective in Extended Reality →
The observer inside the image environment
In an ordinary framed picture, the observer normally looks at the represented space from outside the physical image. Virtual Reality changes this relationship by placing the observer perceptually within the represented environment.
The visible field then surrounds the observer, and the displayed image changes according to the direction of looking. The frame of the conventional picture is replaced by the changing limits of the headset display and its field of view.
This inside-viewing relationship is one of the defining characteristics of immersive VR and makes spherical and directional models of perspective especially relevant.
Head tracking and changing direction of view
Head tracking measures changes in the observer’s orientation and uses them to determine which direction of the virtual environment should be displayed. Turning left therefore reveals the virtual field to the left; looking upward reveals the region above.
This differs fundamentally from turning one’s head while looking at an ordinary fixed screen, where the screen image itself does not normally change to preserve the spatial relationship between the observer and represented world.
In VR, the changing image is coordinated with bodily movement so that the environment can appear relatively stable while the observer’s view moves through it.
Three and six degrees of freedom
Virtual Reality systems differ in the kinds of observer movement they can represent. A three-degrees-of-freedom system primarily follows rotational movement: looking left or right, upward or downward, and tilting the head.
A six-degrees-of-freedom system additionally follows translational movement: moving left or right, upward or downward, and forward or backward through space.
This distinction is important for perspective. Rotation changes the direction of view from a substantially fixed position, while translation changes the actual viewpoint and consequently alters parallax, occlusion, apparent size and the visible aspects of nearby objects.
Stereoscopic perspective in Virtual Reality
Most immersive VR systems provide separate perspective images to the left and right eyes. Each image is generated from a slightly different viewpoint corresponding to the respective eye position.
The difference between corresponding image positions creates binocular disparity, contributing to the perception of depth. Stereoscopic perspective therefore operates together with the monocular perspective information contained within each eye’s image.
As the observer moves, the two eye positions also move, requiring both perspective images to be recalculated continuously if the virtual environment is fully interactive.
Field of view and immersive perspective
Field of view is especially important in Virtual Reality because immersion depends partly upon how much of the observer’s visual field is occupied by the display. A narrow field can resemble looking through an opening, whereas a wider field surrounds more of the viewer’s normal visual experience.
The headset optics, display dimensions and eye position together determine the available field and the way in which the rendered image reaches the eye.
Virtual Reality therefore combines the geometry of the computer-generated perspective view with the optical geometry of the physical headset through which that view is seen.
360-degree views and full Virtual Reality
A 360-degree image can create an immersive viewing experience, but a spherical panorama and a fully navigable Virtual Reality environment are not identical.
In a conventional 360-degree photographic panorama, the observer usually remains at the centre of one recorded viewpoint and changes only the direction of looking. Moving the head sideways does not reveal a genuinely new view of nearby objects because the environment was recorded from a fixed optical position.
In a six-degrees-of-freedom computer-generated environment, by contrast, the observer can change viewpoint as well as viewing direction. Objects then exhibit changing perspective, parallax and occlusion in response to movement.
This provides an important distinction between looking around a recorded spherical image and moving through a spatially modelled virtual environment.
Spherical perspective and Virtual Reality
Spherical Perspective provides a useful model for Virtual Reality because the visual environment can surround the observer in every direction. Forward, backward, left, right, upper and lower directions all form part of the available field.
A complete spherical panorama can therefore be conceived around a central viewpoint, while an interactive virtual environment can generate corresponding directional views dynamically as the observer looks around.
The sphere describes the complete surrounding directional field, while the headset normally displays only a limited portion of that sphere at any one moment.
Motion parallax and viewpoint change
Motion parallax is produced when the observer changes viewpoint and objects at different distances shift by different amounts within the visual field. Nearby objects generally change their relative image position more rapidly than distant ones.
This is an important component of natural spatial vision and can provide powerful depth information in a fully tracked Virtual Reality environment.
A system that responds correctly to positional movement can therefore provide spatial information unavailable from a static stereo pair or fixed 360-degree panorama.
Occlusion and revealed surfaces
Changing viewpoint also changes which objects and surfaces hide or reveal one another. Moving sideways may expose a surface that was previously concealed, while another part of the scene becomes occluded.
Correctly changing occlusion is one of the visual signs that the observer is moving through a genuine spatial model rather than merely turning within a fixed panoramic photograph.
Virtual Reality therefore combines perspective projection with the dynamic natural-perspective effects produced by observer movement.
Scale, eye height and virtual viewpoint
The apparent scale of a virtual environment depends upon the relationship between the model, the virtual eye positions and the observer’s movements. Incorrect relationships can make a room appear miniature, gigantic or otherwise inconsistent with the intended spatial scale.
Virtual eye height also affects the interpretation of the environment. A viewpoint near floor level produces a very different spatial experience from one corresponding to normal standing eye height.
Perspective in VR is therefore not determined solely by the geometry of represented objects. It also depends upon the position, separation and movement of the virtual eyes within the modelled space.
Virtual Reality and natural perspective
Virtual Reality attempts to coordinate computer-generated imagery with some of the changing relationships found in Natural Perspective. As an observer turns or moves, apparent size, aspect, occlusion, binocular disparity and motion parallax can all change.
The virtual environment is nevertheless represented through a technical imaging and display system rather than directly observed physical space. Natural spatial effects are therefore simulated or reconstructed through computer graphics, tracking and optics.
This relationship makes Virtual Reality an important meeting point between Natural, Optical, Visual, Digital and Computer Perspective.
Virtual Reality and 3D display systems
A Virtual Reality headset is a form of 3D display system, but Virtual Reality involves more than stereoscopic image presentation alone. The system may also include head tracking, positional tracking, wide-field optics, interaction and continuous regeneration of the perspective images.
A fixed stereoscopic photograph can produce binocular depth without creating an interactive virtual environment. Conversely, a monoscopic 360-degree panorama can provide immersive looking-around behaviour without stereoscopic binocular disparity.
Virtual Reality should therefore be identified through the complete relationship between environment, observer, tracking, imagery and display rather than through any one visual effect in isolation.
Virtual Reality across different fields
Virtual Reality is used across games, entertainment, architecture, design, engineering, science, medicine, training, education, cultural heritage and spatial visualisation. The perspective requirements vary according to the purpose of the environment.
An architectural model may emphasise accurate spatial scale and viewpoint. A scientific application may allow otherwise inaccessible structures to be inspected interactively. A training simulation may reproduce changing visual relationships associated with movement through a particular task environment.
The same underlying perspective principles therefore support many very different forms of immersive representation.
What to look for in a Virtual Reality view
- whether the view is monoscopic or stereoscopic;
- separate left-eye and right-eye perspective images;
- a wide or immersive field of view;
- whether the environment surrounds the observer directionally;
- changes in the image as the observer turns the head;
- whether the system tracks rotational movement only or positional movement as well;
- the distinction between three and six degrees of freedom;
- motion parallax produced by changing viewpoint;
- changing occlusion and revealed surfaces as the observer moves;
- whether the environment is a fixed 360-degree panorama or a navigable three-dimensional model;
- spherical or panoramic image organisation;
- changes in apparent scale and aspect with movement;
- the relationship between real eye position and virtual eye position;
- the role of headset optics in presenting the rendered image;
- whether perspective is generated photographically, computationally or through a combination of both; and
- how Natural, Optical, Stereoscopic, Spherical and Computer Perspective interact within the complete system.
A Virtual Reality view should therefore be understood not simply as a wide 3D image but as part of an interactive perspective system in which the displayed image can respond continuously to the position, orientation and viewing direction of the observer.