Investigating Generative Workflows for Immersive Prototyping: A Study on Scene- and Object-Level Creation in VR

The integration of generative AI into immersive prototyping tools offers unprecedented potential to accelerate VR content creation. However, a critical gap exists in understanding the most effective interaction paradigms. We present DreamCraft, a novel VR prototyping system designed to integrate two fundamental workflows: scene-level creation, where users generate entire, navigable environments, and object-level creation, where scenes are iteratively populated with AI-generated assets. A formal user study with 12 VR designers was conducted to evaluate these workflows, evaluating both workflows through qualitative feedback and quantitative metrics, including task completion time, creative exploration, and perceived cognitive load. Our primary contribution is a set of empirically-grounded design guidelines derived from this analysis. These guidelines provide a crucial framework for the development of next-generation, user-centric generative tools for immersive virtual environments, directly informing future research and system design in the field.