Interactive Dynamics for Large Virtual Reality Applications

Recent commercial virtual reality shows have become very demanding in terms of interactive credibility and visual realism. In an effort to push further the immersive quality and the sense of 'being there' in the most recent VR production of the Foundation of the Hellenic World “A Walk through Ancient Olympia”, the user, apart from virtually visiting the historical site, becomes an interacting part of the edutainment activity. Described in this paper is a new script-controlled generic dynamics system devised for heavy interactive VR applications and used in the above commercial production, which utilises the notion of force-fields and also simulates aerodynamic effects in a real-time, computationally efficient manner. The impact of the interactive dynamics system on the usability and virtual presence is also discussed, in the context of a fully immersive stereoscopic surround-screen virtual reality environment and a role-playing interactive show.