Techniques disclosed herein involve adaptively or dynamically displaying virtual objects in a virtual reality (VR) environment, and representations, within the VR environment, of physical objects in the physical environment, i.e., outside the VR environment, in order to alert users within the VR environment. For example, if a projected movement of a user indicates that the user will move close to a physical object in the physical world, the representation of the physical object changes from an un-displayed state, in which the physical object is not visible in the VR environment, to a displayed state in which the physical object is at least partially depicted inside the VR environment. In this way, what is displayed inside the VR environment can include both virtual objects as well representations of physical objects from the physical space.