Evaluating dynamic visual experience of designed environments: A real-time 3D simulation method utilizing game technologies

Abstract

Dynamic vision refers to a person’s visual perception of the environment when the person is in motion. Pedestrians naturally have dynamic visual experiences, the aesthetic qualities of which may modify their walking and seeing behaviors. Despite the subject’s significant design relevance, dynamic visual research has shown limited theoretical and methodological progress since the 1960s. Inspired by recent development in 3D visibility research, this paper proposes a Real-Time Dynamic Visual Evaluation (RtDVE) protocol that simulates and evaluates pedestrians’ dynamic visual experiences in designed environments. The protocol utilizes Downtown Explorer, a 3D game developed to allow research participants to simulate free-roaming walks by controlling a pedestrian avatar. The game synchronously collects graphic and numerical data about the avatar’s first-person sequential views. The RtDVE protocol prescribes computational procedures to convert collected data into diagrammatic charts illustrating view-to-view transitions within the avatar’s Field of View. The protocol also introduces Dynamic Visual Variance Index, a composite quantitative index synthesizing multiple numerical data to facilitate comparisons of dynamic visual experiences across various simulated walks. Through a two-stage empirical study, the paper reveals the RtDVE protocol’s conception and demonstrates its effectiveness. The study applied the RtDVE protocol to investigate simulated dynamic visual experiences about different architectural massing schemes. The descriptive analysis outcomes facilitated the exploratory evaluation of these design schemes’ implications on pedestrians’ dynamic vision. Given its strengths in operability and research quality, the RtDVE protocol can promote evidence-based, user-centered design practices incorporating dynamic visual evaluation. Future RtDVE studies may adopt evolved real-time 3D simulation technologies and more sophisticated research designs to examine the complex ecological interplay between the objective and subjective factors in dynamic vision.