Influence of Path Complexity on Spatial Overlap Perception in Virtual Environments

Real walking in large virtual indoor environments within a limited real world workspace requires effective spatial compression methods. These methods should be unnoticed by the user. Scene manipulation that creates overlapping spaces has been suggested in recent work. However, there is little research focusing on users’ perception of overlapping spaces depending on the layout of the environment. In this paper we investigate how the complexity of the path influences the perception of the overlapping spaces it connects. We compare three spatial virtual layouts with paths that differ in complexity (length and number of turns). Our results suggest that an increase of the path’s length is less efficient in decreasing overlap detection than a combination of length and additional turns. Furthermore, combination of paths that differ in complexity influences the distance perception within overlapping spaces.