Designing the future of XR

When latency makes you dizzy and AI builds your reality, design stops being visual—it becomes visceral. From spatial smarts to generative genius, this is where XR stops mimicking life and starts bending it, one immersive frame at a time

- Ashok Pandey

As the boundaries between physical and digital spaces blur, immersive technologies are undergoing a seismic shift. From photorealistic virtual reality (VR) to the promises of spatial computing and generative AI, today’s immersive experiences aren't just about seeing another world—they’re about feeling present in it.

Dr. Irfan Siddavatam, Director, Somaiya School of Design, offers a pointed look into the evolving technical landscape of immersive environments, examining the challenges, transitions, and critical innovations shaping how we experience and design extended reality (XR).

Photorealism and its discontents: The latency dilemma

Creating photorealistic VR is not merely a feat of high-resolution graphics—it’s a race against time. The human brain expects near-instantaneous visual feedback when we move, but current systems often lag behind this expectation. “Motion-to-photon latency above 20 milliseconds significantly increases the risk of motion sickness, while less than 10 ms is ideal for comfort,” explains Dr. Siddavatam.

Achieving photorealism means rendering complex visual elements—ultra-high textures, lighting, shadows, reflections, and physics—in real time. That’s a colossal computational task. For instance, rendering a VR scene in 4K per eye at 90 frames per second (FPS) demands over 500 billion pixel operations per second, pushing current hardware to its threshold.