The Effect of Photorealism Consistency between the Virtual Hands and Environment on the Sense of Body Ownership and Presence in Virtual Reality

2026-07-27

AI Summary

This study systematically investigates how visual consistency in photorealism between virtual hands and their surrounding environment influences the sense of body ownership and presence in virtual reality, addressing a gap in prior work that insufficiently distinguished the roles of photorealism and anthropomorphism. Conducting a 3×3 mixed-design remote VR experiment (N=117), the authors manipulated the rendering styles—non-photorealistic, semi-photorealistic, and photorealistic—of both virtual hands and environments, and assessed user perceptions via subjective questionnaires. Results indicate that neither the rendering style of the virtual hand nor its consistency with the environment significantly affects body ownership; however, higher environmental photorealism significantly enhances presence. The findings underscore the necessity of multidimensional, fine-grained categorization of virtual body realism to more accurately elucidate its mechanisms in shaping immersive experiences.

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) technology allows users to feel a virtual body as if it was their own (i.e., body ownership illusion). Previous studies have explored how the visual realism of the user's virtual body influences the sense of body ownership in VR, focusing on the aspect of anthropomorphism. However, the effect of photorealism, another element that characterizes the visual realism of a virtual human, has not been systematically examined in the context of body ownership illusion. Therefore, we investigate the effect of the rendering style of virtual hands on the sense of body ownership, hypothesizing that the effect is affected by the rendering style of the virtual environment. In addition, we examine the effect of photorealism on presence (i.e., the sense of being there), as existing studies have offered inconsistent evidence. To this aim, we conducted a 3 x 3 mixed-design remote VR experiment (N=117) that factored in the rendering styles of both the virtual hand and the environment and analyzed the subjective data from the questionnaire. The results suggest that neither the rendering style of virtual hands nor the consistency of the rendering style between the virtual hand and the environment influenced the sense of body ownership. Nevertheless, the more photorealistically the virtual environment was rendered, the stronger the presence. Our results indicate that different dimensions of virtual body realism affect the sense of body ownership differently, thereby highlighting the importance of applying a suitable classification of realism to understand the body ownership illusion for virtual bodies more in depth.

Problem

• photorealism
• body ownership
• presence
• virtual reality
• visual realism

Innovation

• photorealism
• body ownership
• presence
• virtual reality
• rendering consistency