An Experiment in Virtual Reality to Measure Daylight-Driven Interest in Rendered Architectural Scenes

This paper introduces an experiment using a virtual reality headset to collect subjective evaluations of rendered daylit architectural scenes. By varying sky conditions and view directions from a fixed position in architectural renderings, the authors collected subjective perceptual ratings and compared them to image-based measures related to impressions of visual interest. The use of virtual reality allowed for the extraction of headtracking data, providing additional insight on how people perceived the immersive scenes. Findings reveal a dependency between visual interest impressions and quantitative predictors, both of which vary with sky conditions and view directions within the scene.