Immersive teaching model for traditional Chinese opera costume design based on virtual reality: digital cultural heritage, inheritance, and innovation

Traditional Chinese opera costumes are vital carriers of intangible cultural heritage, embodying intricate craftsmanship, symbolic aesthetics, and cultural narratives. However, conventional pedagogy struggles to convey their complexity and cultural depth due to limitations in static, lecture-based teaching methods. This study proposes an immersive Virtual Reality (VR)-based teaching model that integrates high-fidelity 3D modeling, semantic annotation, and real-time rendering optimization-specifically Level of Detail (LOD) and Occlusion Culling (OC)-to enhance the design education and cultural transmission of traditional Chinese opera costumes. A controlled experiment involving 80 undergraduate students was conducted to compare the VR-based model with traditional teaching methods across five dimensions: learning effectiveness, user experience, cultural understanding, technological adaptability, and instructional interaction. Results demonstrated that the VR-based approach significantly improved educational outcomes, particularly in interactive engagement and practical performance, while maintaining high rendering efficiency and visual fidelity. This work contributes a technically optimized, pedagogically grounded framework for integrating immersive technology into cultural heritage education, offering a scalable solution for revitalizing intangible traditions in the digital era.