Generative AI Meets Virtual Reality: A Comprehensive Survey on Applications, Challenges, and Future Direction

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (AI) with virtual reality (VR) is reshaping how immersive environments are designed, personalized, and experienced. Unlike traditional VR systems that rely on static and pre-scripted content, Generative VR leverages AI-driven content generation, multimodal interaction, and contextual adaptation to create dynamic virtual spaces. This paper presents a comprehensive survey of the core components, applications, and challenges associated with Generative VR. It explores its transformative impact across education, healthcare, industrial training, entertainment, and emerging fields such as environmental conservation and virtual tourism. While Generative VR enhances user engagement and realism, it also introduces critical challenges, including computational scalability, ethical concerns, AI explainability, and real-time performance constraints. The paper further identifies key research gaps and future directions, such as AI-driven multi-user collaboration, cognitive load management, and cross-domain interoperability. By addressing these challenges and advancing the integration of AI with VR, Generative VR has the potential to reshape human-computer interaction, unlocking new possibilities for creativity, accessibility, and intelligent virtual ecosystems.