A Study on the Impact of Virtual Immersive Lighting Environments on Gaming Behavior and Psychology

Abstract

In Half-Life: Alyx, when players illuminate corners with a virtual flashlight, the diffuse details of the light—not just its brightness—directly influence their confidence in exploration. This demonstrates that virtual immersive lighting in VR games has transcended the constraints of purely visual presentation. Given the current maturity of VR technology, this study, based on virtual game scenes, integrates lighting technology characteristics with psychological methods to explore the impact of parameters such as illumination and color temperature on operational accuracy and cognitive load. The authors argue that it is necessary to first clarify the perceptual differences between physical and virtual lighting and the logic of scene adaptation. However, does this difference require the same rigorous calibration in casual games as in competitive games? Using EEG-VR technology to quantify its effects on brain activity, they found that color can induce emotion in a targeted manner, and that illumination and color temperature can synergistically reduce cognitive load. While spatiotemporal multiplexing rendering algorithms improve lighting realism, they must be adapted to scene logic to prevent immersion. This research provides theoretical and practical references for lighting optimization, which is of great significance for improving the VR gaming experience.