In recent years research in the three-dimensional sound generation field has been primarily focussed upon new applications of spatialised sound. In the computer graphics community the use of such techniques is most commonly found being applied to virtual, immersive environments. However, the field is more varied and diverse than this and other research tackles the problem in a more complete, and computationally expensive manner. Furthermore, the simulation of light and sound wave propagation is still unachievable at a physically accurate spatio-temporal quality in real-time. Although the Human Visual System (HVS) and the Human Auditory System (HAS) are exceptionally sophisticated, they also contain certain perceptional and attentional limitations. Researchers, in fields such as psychology, have been investigating these limitations for several years and have come up with findings which may be exploited in other fields. This paper provides a comprehensive overview of the major techniques for generating spatialised sound and, in addition, discusses perceptual and cross-modal influences to consider. We also describe current limitations and provide an in-depth look at the emerging topics in the field.

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Presentations of virtual cultural heritage artifacts are often communicated via the medium of interactive digital storytelling. The synergy of a storied narrative embedded within a 3D virtual reconstruction context has high consumer appeal and edutainment value. We investigate if 360° videos presented through virtual reality further contribute to user immersion for the application of preserving intangible cultural heritage. A case study then analyzes whether conventional desktop media is significantly different from virtual reality as a medium for immersion in intangible heritage contexts. The case study describes bridge diving at Stari Most, the old bridge in Mostar Bosnia. This application aims to present and preserve the bridge diving tradition at this site. The project describes the site and history along with cultural connections, and a series of quiz questions are presented after viewing all of the materials. Successful completion of the quiz allows a user to participate in a virtual bridge dive. The subjective evaluation provided evidence to suggest that our method is successful in preserving intangible heritage and communicating ideas in key areas of concern for this heritage that can be used to develop a preservation framework in the future. It was also possible to conclude that experience within the virtual reality framework did not affect effort expectancy for the web application, but the same experience significantly influenced the performance expectancy construct.

In order to be used for skill development and skill maintenance, virtual environments require accurate simulation of the physical phenomena involved in the process of the task being trained. The accuracy needs to be conveyed in a multimodal fashion with varying parameterisations still being quantified, and these are a function of task, prior knowledge, sensory efficacy and human perception. Virtual reality (VR) has been integrated from a didactic perspective in many serious games and shown to be effective in the pedological process. This paper interrogates whether didactic processes introduced into a VR serious game, by taking advantage of augmented virtuality to modify game attributes, can be effective for both beginners and experts to a task. The task in question is subjective performance in a clay pigeon shooting simulation. The investigation covers whether modified game attributes influence skill and learning in a complex motor task and also investigates whether this process is applicable to experts as well as beginners to the task. VR offers designers and developers of serious games the ability to provide information in the virtual world in a fashion that is impossible in the real world. This introduces the question of whether this is effective and transfers skill adoption into the real world and also if a-priori knowledge influences the practical nature of this information in the pedagogic process. Analysis is conducted via a between-subjects repeated measure ANOVA using a 2 × 2 factorial design to address these questions. The results show that the different training provided affects the performance in this task (N = 57). The skill improvement is still evidenced in repeated measures when information and guidance is removed. This effect does not exist under a control condition. Additionally, we separate by an expert and non-expert group to deduce if a-priori knowledge influences the effect of the presented information, it is shown that it does not.

Fidelity is of key importance if virtual environments are to be used as authentic representations of real environments. However, simulating the multitude of senses that comprise the human sensory system is computationally challenging. With limited computational resources it is essential to distribute these carefully in order to simulate the most ideal perceptual experience. This paper investigates this balance of resources across multiple scenarios where combined audio-visual stimulation is delivered to the user. A subjective experiment was undertaken where participants (N=35) allocated five fixed resource budgets across graphics and acoustic stimuli. In the experiment, increasing the quality of one of the stimuli decreased the quality of the other. Findings demonstrate that participants allocate more resources to graphics, however as the computational budget is increased, an approximately balanced distribution of resources is preferred between graphics and acoustics. Based on the results, an audiovisual quality prediction model is proposed and successfully validated against previously untested budgets and an untested scenario.