Comparing Perception of Real and Virtual Architectural Space Using Video Game Technology

First person exploration of architectural models using video game technology holds a great deal of promise for the field of architecture. It gives architects and clients an immediate sense of a building that may not have been conveyed by traditional architectural drawings. A video game allows criticism of a building to be based on moving through a 3D space instead of analyzing 2D diagrams. However, to best make use of this technology we must understand how people‟s perceptions differ between the real and virtual versions of a space. The main objective of this research is to test how perception differs between a real building and a virtual walkthrough of the building in a video game engine. Participants in the experiment were asked a series of identical questions in a virtual and real version of the same building and the results were compared. It was found that in the virtual environment people tended to underestimate and to perceive distance less accurately than in real space. Findings show this underestimation of distance may not only be a product of limited field of view, as has been concluded in previous research, but may also effected by camera height and graphical quality of the walkthrough. If this technology can be used during the architectural design process it has the potential to fundamentally change the way we create, contemplate and critique architecture