During the week I tried out the Google Earth VR online, where you can experience varies views from different locations in the world by using the mode “walking” or “flying”. When you are “walking” in the scene all you need is just a VR headset, while in order to experience “flying” you need an extra handle as well to navigate the directions.
Here are two brief clips showing how it looks on a PC:
After experiencing the online Google Earth VR and looking at the videos of how it will work in a headset with a more immersive experience, I deepened my understanding of how the space works in terms of communications information that the way to communicate influence the user experience and the level of immersion. Take Google Earth for example, when the communication means is simply drag the mouse to rotate the 360 degree scene on a PC, it gives you less sense of reality since the user don’t see the instant reaction from the scene they are watching. While when the user is using a headset and maybe a handle to experience it, it feels more like reality since the user is asked to take less effort (no need to drag the mouse) and the scene will give you instant feedback and interactions as the user is moving the head around.
What’s more, beyond the communication means, the information included in the VR experience also matters. Wether the view is from the perspective from above (the god’s view), or it’s a fixed camera point in the middle of a 360 degree scene, the position from which the view starts really influence the level of immersion, or the level of how realistic it is. However, although the Google Earth VR in the flying mode gives you the perspective to see the world from above, it does provides you with the contextual background that you are in an aircraft, which makes more sense and smoothens the user experience.