  This investigation examined the relationships among scene complexity,
workload, presence, and cybersickness in virtual reality (VR) environments.
Numerous factors can influence the overall VR experience, and existing research
on this matter is not yet conclusive, warranting further investigation. In this
between-subjects experimental setup, 44 participants engaged in the Pendulum
Chair game, with half exposed to a simple scene with lower optic flow and lower
familiarity, and the remaining half to a complex scene characterized by higher
optic flow and greater familiarity. The study measured the dependent variables
workload, presence, and cybersickness and analyzed their correlations.
Equivalence testing was also used to compare the simple and complex
environments. Results revealed that despite the visible differences between the
environments, within the 10% boundaries of the maximum possible value for
workload and presence, and 13.6% of the maximum SSQ value, a statistically
significant equivalence was observed between the simple and complex scenes.
Additionally, a moderate, negative correlation emerged between workload and SSQ
scores. The findings suggest two key points: (1) the nature of the task can
mitigate the impact of scene complexity factors such as optic flow and
familiarity, and (2) the correlation between workload and cybersickness may
vary, showing either a positive or negative relationship.
