  Metaverse virtual reality (VR) applications enable users to socialise, work,
entertain, and study online with immersive experiences beyond the classic
PC-based interactions. While the 360-degree immersion enables users to be fully
engaged in a virtual scenario, suboptimal Quality-of-Experience (QoE) like
poorly displayed 3D graphics, disruptive loading time, or motion lagging caused
by degraded network Quality-of-Service (QoS) can be perceived by users much
worse (such as dizziness) than a monitor visualisation. This paper empirically
measures user QoE of metaverse VR caused by network QoS. Specifically, by
focusing on both public social hubs and private user-created events in three
popular metaverse VR applications (Rec Room, VRChat and MultiverseVR), we first
identify three metrics, including environment freeze level, peripheral content
loading time, and control response time, that describe metaverse user
experience. By tuning three network QoS parameters (bandwidth, latency, and
packet loss), we benchmark each QoE metric's level from excellent to
unplayable. Key insights are revealed, such as freeze of metaverse virtual
environment is resilient to latency but sensitive to packet loss, and private
user-created events demand better network conditions than public social hubs,
providing a reference for ISPs to optimise their network QoS for superlative
metaverse user experience.
