VR vs AR vs MR: What is the difference?
The difference between Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) lies in how much of the physical world is replaced and how digital content interacts with physical surroundings. VR creates an entirely simulated digital environment that isolates the user from physical reality. AR displays digital overlays (such as text, diagrams, or 3D models) on top of the physical world without deep environmental interaction. MR blends physical and digital worlds so that digital objects anchor to real surfaces, hide behind physical obstacles, and interact dynamically with real objects in real time.
Comparison table: VR vs AR vs MR
The table below compares VR, AR and MR on the questions that matter most when choosing between them:
| VR | AR | MR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical world visible? | No, fully blocked by an enclosed headset | Yes, kept fully visible, with overlays added | Yes, and virtual objects react to it |
| Immersion level | Highest: total visual and often audio immersion | Lowest: digital content is an addition, not a replacement | In between: a digital layer that stays anchored to the real room |
| Typical hardware | Enclosed headset, standalone or PC-tethered | Smartphone, tablet, or optical smart glasses | Passthrough or optical see-through headset with depth sensors |
| Best suited when | The scenario is high-risk or hard to access, and full attention plus repetition matter | People need on-the-job guidance while still watching their real surroundings | People need to work with a real object and rich digital detail at the same time |
| Example interaction | Practising a scripted conversation with an animated character in a recreated room | Pointing a phone at a machine to see a repair step overlaid on it | Seeing a hologram sit on a real desk and duck behind a real monitor as you move |
Key distinguishing factors
When comparing these technologies, three primary technical characteristics determine their suitability for an organisation:
VR provides total immersion (the feeling of complete separation from the physical room), which maximises learner focus for complex simulations. Conversely, AR and MR maintain situational awareness (the user's ongoing perception of their physical environment, colleagues, and potential hazards), making them safer for active operational environments.
In basic AR, digital graphics sit on top of the display and do not recognise physical objects placed between the user and the virtual model. In MR, depth sensors enable occlusion (the ability of physical objects, such as a hand or a chair, to naturally conceal virtual objects behind them) and spatial mapping (scanning room geometry to make virtual items bounce off real floors and tables).
AR has the lowest barrier to adoption because it runs on standard mobile phones and tablets already owned by staff and students. VR and MR generally require specialised head-mounted displays, which offer higher immersion but involve dedicated hardware management.
Choosing the right technology for your organisation
No single format is universally superior. The most appropriate choice depends on training objectives, physical environment, and deployment budget:
The training scenario involves high physical danger (such as fire safety, high-voltage equipment, or confined space entry), where making mistakes in the physical world is hazardous or expensive. VR is also ideal when learners need complete visual immersion in an environment that cannot be physically accessed.
Workers require contextual guidance while performing everyday tasks on the job (such as field equipment maintenance, warehouse picking, or remote technical support), or when an organisation needs to deliver interactive learning to a large audience using existing mobile phones.
Learners need to interact simultaneously with both real tools and digital content (such as medical students practising procedures on physical manikins with overlaid virtual anatomy), or when engineering teams need to evaluate full-scale 3D digital prototypes inside an actual physical facility.
In practice at PTR
PTR delivers across all three: virtual reality, augmented reality and mixed reality. The largest body of published, independently evaluated case work is virtual reality, such as Mater Education's "Speaking with Good Judgement" program, because VR is where the evaluation literature is deepest. AR runs from marker-based experiences you can open on a phone through to guided overlays on real equipment, and MR anchors holographic people and objects in the room the learner is already standing in. The format is chosen from the problem rather than from a preference: ask any vendor, including this one, to show what they have delivered and evaluated in the format they are proposing.
Common overlapping scenarios
Modern spatial computing hardware is increasingly converging. Many standalone headsets now feature full-colour video passthrough, allowing a single device to function as a fully immersive VR simulator or switch instantly to an MR workspace with the double-tap of a button. Organisations often deploy a combination of formats, such as using mobile AR for broad introductory learning and dedicated VR or MR headsets for advanced practical simulation.
To see how organisations evaluate and apply these immersive formats, visit the XR overview page.
The fastest way to tell them apart is to ask two questions: can you still see the real room, and if so, do digital objects actually react to it? No to both means VR. Yes to seeing it but no reaction means AR. Yes to both means MR.
Sources and further reading
- A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays (Milgram and Kishino) - IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems, 1994
- A Survey of Augmented Reality (Azuma) - Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, MIT Press, 1997
- What is Mixed Reality? (Speicher, Hall and Nebeling) - ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2019
- A Discussion of Cybersickness in Virtual Environments (LaViola) - ACM SIGCHI Bulletin, 2000
Mater Education case study · PTR's Augmented Reality page · PTR's Mixed Reality page