[curuinor]

The quality of being realistic in a mediated environment is called telepresence, or presence. There's a journal for it. It's a small journal, although pretty old for a CS journal (not at all old for a social science journal) so I read an appreciable piece of the thing for an aborted attempt at my master's thesis (my actual thing was way more formal).

They've thought of all the stuff you just thought of. Even smells, in an Iraq War PTSD study or five (because they only have to simulate a few smells), and in some failed commercial products.

The head-mounted displays began with the "Sword of Damocles", which was named that because it weighed 150 pounds and was dangled over your head and rendered a princely 100 polys/sec. So everything will get better, don't worry.