Virtual reality was an computer-simulated artificial system.
In 2050 it was a system of white numbers used for communications, games and imprisonment. Starkey was kept prisoner in a virtual reality detention facility, while Jorjie hacked into the reality using her VR goggles. (TV: Regeneration)
In the time of the Earth Empire, citizens of the Empire (and others) used puterspace, a form of virtual reality created by all on and in orbit around Heaven. Different puterspaces may have existed based on different planets. (PROSE: Love and War)
While "virtual reality" was generally used to refer to computer realities, the word "virtual" usually meant something was not-real. When she arrived in Cathedral, Bernice Summerfield asked the Grey Man if it was a "virtual-thingy, a parallel thingy, or a computer thingy?" (PROSE: Falls the Shadow)