Designing Virtual Environments for VR Learning

Spatial perception in the VR world differs from the physical environment; space is no longer needed to protect, but to give a sense of feeling, security and scale. Likewise, one can think about whether the surfaces that define the space must resemble the real world or whether they can be made more abstract.

On the Metaverse platforms, the so-called polygon and texture budget largely determines the detail and number of 3D models and thus affects the visual outfit. In the instructions for several metaverse platforms, it is desired to limit the number of polygons to 500,000 and the textures to 2K size.

Factors affecting visual quality include lighting, materials and details. Especially indoors, Global Illumination lighting (simulating light´s physical behavior) should be used to achieve realism. Materials and details also add visual interest to 3D models and views.

At the start of the project a group of students were able to design their own spaces by using a 3D software such as Blender and further bring the objects and assets to the game engine platform to allow virtual experience. First virtual spaces did not have many functionalities.

Metaverse platforms are changing and evolving rapidly. During this project the evaluation and testing phase, the most potential platform changed and instead we started to use the spatial.io platform.

In Spatial platform we were able to create a functional space for distance learning that have visual and functional qualities and support learning. Design focuses on the size of the spaces, creating an interesting landing area and spaces for different purposes, like lecture space and spaces for team work or one to one discussions when the space audio can be controlled.

Image: Coralie Island has been created in Spatial by Pedcharat Cheremnykh Coralie Island!!!!

Image: Saara Myllylä´s Early Dusk Gathering

image: Parinaz Mohammadi´s Frozen World