Immersive environments that approximate natural interaction with physical 3D objects are designed to increase the user’s sense of presence and improve performance by allowing users to transfer existing skills and expertise from real to virtual environments. However, limitations of current Virtual Reality technologies, e.g., low-fidelity real-time physics simulations and tracking problems, make it difficult to ascertain the full potential of finger-based 3D manipulation techniques. This paper decomposes 3D object manipulation into the component movements, taking into account both physical constraints and mechanics. We fabricate five physical devices that simulate these movements in a measurable way under experimental conditions. We then implement the devices in an immersive environment and conduct an experiment to evaluate direct finger-based against ray-based object manipulation. The key contribution of this work is the careful design and creation of physical and virtual devices to study physics-based 3D object manipulation in a rigorous manner in both real and virtual setups.