When people ask me what unique things VR brings over other viewing technologies my answer is quite often "scale".

You can get 3D via stereoscopic displays. You can get the realism and wrap-around view from huge monitors or projectors but VR let's you see the true scale of something in a way that no other technology can (aside from "actually being there").

For viewing objects where their scale is a critical aspect, VR is invaluable. Aside from arts, architecture is another obvious candidate.

Animals is what excites me most by this. Many documentaries lack real, human scale when showing animals either living or extinct.

The prospect of seeing just HOW large dinosaurs were is something that makes the 6 year old inside me just giddy with excitement.

Certainly, dinosaurs are exciting but I recently blew my kids minds showing them pictures of how large a moose actually are in real life (they seem closer to "small elephant" size than "big deer" size).

Had the same reaction to seeing wild rhinos in SA. I had a misconception they were hippo sized but they were almost as big as elephants.

I haven’t found any games that exploit this yet. Traditionally it has been very difficult to make games that feature truly large entities that behave actively and not in very broad and uninterested patterns due to things like camera constraints and what not. Shadow of Colossus and it’s siblings come to mind as close examples of this almost working. But VR could make it great.

Lone Echo does this. The first time you look at the rings of Saturn hundreds of miles beneath you is truly breathtaking.

https://www.vgvids.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/lone-echo-...

While the bosses move in broad and uninterested patterns, I've found that Jet Island is a game that features very large entities which make great use of the scale vr allows.

I haven't played it (VR or otherwise) but I've heard Subnautica VR makes you feel very small in a big scary ocean.

Dear God, Yes. And also claustrophobic.

Underwater volcanic caves... With __things__ in...

In the robot repair demo in Valve's "The Lab", when GLaDOS shows up, she's menacingly huge. It was never noticeable to me in the non-VR games, but it's the same model. I instinctively physically flinched away to protect myself when she showed up.

The VR game-- er, experience-- "theBlu" has some neat visuals that really benefit from the scale.

THIS! This is exactly what I have spent the last few years working on. Though its on one of these small screens, I've been striving to bring a greater appreciation of the old masters with gameplay mechanics. (You basically repaint the paintings in the game (in a fun way)) I feel this, and what I'm working on is only the beginning of a growing group of technologies and design that brings understanding and appreciation to a large audience. It's really exciting to think that more and more people will give these beautiful wonders much more than a passing glance, but rather a develop meaningful connection with them.

Do you about David Hockney’s research and theories about how the old masters used pinhole cameras and projectors to trace their subjects? Could be a really interesting aspect to add to your game play. Just did a quick search and found this rough summary - well worth exploring Hockney’s ideas. https://www.liveabout.com/camera-obscura-and-painting-257825...

> Many modern paintings are massive in scale

There are also VR-native artworks where scale can be just another dimension to the art, like color or mood.

Here is Goro Fujita's "Worlds in Worlds" for an example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzsG1uqfDTQ

Why view or do anything in person if you can do it easier in VR in the future?

And if virtual reality is so real, why replicate what we already have? Why not create something entirely new? I think this is the premise of more than one movie recently.