VR HMD color calibration and accurate control of emitted light using Three.js

Virtual reality (VR) can be used to design and create new types of psychophysical experiments. Its main advantage is that it frees us from the physical limitations of real-life experiments and the hardware and software limitations of experiments running on two-dimensional (2D) displays and computer graphics. However, color calibration of the displays is often required in vision science studies. Recent studies have shown that a standard color calibration of a head-mounted display (HMD) can be very challenging and comes with significant drawbacks. These drawbacks include the need to completely disable tone mapping or to use unlit materials when tone mapping is only partially disabled. In this article, we introduce a new approach that allows for successful color calibration of an HMD and overcomes the disadvantages associated with other solutions. We utilize a new VR engine, Three.js, which offers several advantages. This article details our setup and methodology and provides all the elements required to reproduce the method, including the source code. We also apply our method to evaluate and compare three different HMDs: HTC Vive Pro Eye, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3. The results show that the HTC Vive Pro Eye performs excellently, the Meta Quest Pro performs well, and the Meta Quest 3 performs poorly.