The old saying that "time flies" could also apply in the metaverse.
How Virtual Reality Tricks Your Brain
The key to making the metaverse more realistic may be controlling how users perceive time, according to a new paper. The authors argue that visual cues about time and fatigue are essential to making virtual reality experiences more engaging. It's part of an ongoing effort to use time perception to make virtual reality more realistic and exciting.
“When a VR app engages the user, they experience time passing quickly,” Roderick Kennedy, founder of virtual reality software company Simul, told Lifewire in an email interview. “When the user is bored, they experience it passing slowly.”
The new paper refutes previous claims that simulating the sun's movement in VR affects time perception, making the user feel as if time passes more quickly when the virtual sun moves faster. Instead, the authors said that the VR experience affects time perception because of the stress and mental effort it places on the user.
