VIRTUAL REALITY: A PROMISING APPROACH FOR LIGHTING RESEARCH

Virtual Reality (VR) seems a promising tool in lighting field, both for design and research applications. Despite several studies have been conducted on this topic, the opinions about the actual advantages of VR are conflicting. It is not clear if VR software are able to properly simulate spatial light distribution, and if the luminous sensation reproduced in Virtual Reality is representative of the real one. The paper revises the literature about the topic and then tests the reliability of a VR simulation software, Unreal Engine (UE), in calculating light. To do that, illuminance measurements were performed in a test room and the obtained values were compared with those calculated with both UE and DIVA for Rhinoceros. Results demonstrated that the percentage differences between the UE’s and the real values range from -2% to 5% and those between UE and DIVA from -4% to 0%.