1. A computer implemented method for providing a virtual reality experience, the method comprising: defining, in computer memory, a model representing an object, the model including one or more experimental parameters; by a processor coupled to the computer memory: performing a model simulation using one or more variations of the one or more experimental parameters, performing the simulation producing respective results for each of the one or more variations, the respective results including a respective value for a behavior of interest of the model for each of the one or more variations; compressing the respective results to an interpolant including discrete polytope bins with continuous surrogates of the behavior of interest; responsive to user provided values of the one or more experimental parameters, predicting a value for the behavior of interest given the user-provided values, said predicting using the interpolant; and providing a virtual reality experience to the user by displaying to the user an effect on the model for the user-provided values of the one or more experimental parameters, the displayed effect on the model reflecting the predicted value for the behavior of interest.