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Locomotion in VR (Gear VR)

motorsep
Rising Star
I finally tried 3 games - Dreadhalls, Herobound and Smash on Gear VR. While I was planning on using a gamepad to move around in my VR experience, after playing those games I think I have to rethink whole controls scheme all over again.

After trying Dreadhalls, I can say that moving in VR using gamepad is a no-no (maybe it depends on movement speed too). No side stepping, no moving backward, no fast movement. I got sick almost immediately playing Dreadhalls. It's a beautiful and atmospheric game, but I don't think standard FPS locomotion is valid in VR.

Smash and Herobound were pretty cool all around.

I think moving inside VR world is the biggest obstacle to overcome when it comes to comfortable experience. What do you think about this subject ?
28 REPLIES 28

Oculucious
Honored Guest
Just received promo free VR Gear. What a cornucopia of reactions I have been reading here and experiencing on You Tube. Guess I will just have to jump and find out for myself.

Anonymous
Not applicable
My opinion is : always give the player a choice. If you are making a game with any form of artificial movement, and using the gamepad, please let the user decide whether they want to blink or snap-turn. I have extremely solid VR-legs + tummy after developing Kumoon for two years, and I hate being forced to use comfort modes.

It is sadly true that artificial locomotion in VR is not for everybody, but that doesn't mean it should be totally forbidden. Huge issue though, no question of that. Last game I played, they set the movement speed to be so slow that I was seriously getting annoyed with it.

motorsep
Rising Star
That's why there are devs that will make your gamepad driven locomotion as in conventional games, and there are devs that won't do that. Just like not every game includes mechanics from all other games.

If I can't test my game with locomotion that makes me sick, I won't implement such locomotion - I won't be able to test the game properly.

brantlew
Adventurer

FiveEyes said:

I

The dolly zoom itself is not a solution but I'm wondering if anyone has tried dynamic camera lens/zoom tricks to mitigate the perception of movement of the surrounding space during sharp/larger movements in VR, essentially trying to simulate real-world brain compensation. Does anyone have thoughts on whether such a thing would be possible (in Unity or otherwise)? Or am I'm barking up the wrong tree completely??



What does the forum think? Do we need to create a 'lens jump'?


This perception of movement is called vection.  This dolly zoom creates vection all throughout your periphery and none in the center.  You really want the exact opposite - less vection in your periphery.  That's what happens in a cockpit.  You see vection only in the window while your surroundings remain stable.  With that in mind, yes I have experimented with this concept.  You can see the result here (although I haven't yet updated the build to 1.3 yet)

https://share.oculus.com/app/tunneling-locomotion-demo


motorsep
Rising Star
Finally got my initial locomotion mechanics working (still raw):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eme_bfqdMzU

bbagnall
Protege

motorsep said:

Finally got my initial locomotion mechanics working (still raw)


Have you tried dimming the screen and moving the player at a set velocity? (no acceleration) Smash Hit Plunder uses this technique I believe.

motorsep
Rising Star
There is no acceleration when teleporting player (there should be no acceleration with any locomotion since that messes with our vestibular system; at least until Samsung releases their "headphones" that trick your brain).

I am planning on testing it with fade in/out effect, but I don't think it's necessary. Plus it makes navigation around the map slower. If it adds to the comfort, I'll keep it. If it doesn't, I'll leave it as-is, without fading effect.

movoball
Honored Guest
Have you thought about using a motion sensitive seat where the user uses there core muscles to move the character. If this is done in realtime and there is accleration in the movement this should reduce motion sickness and enable locomotion to be contained within a small seated area. Games have tradionally always been played seated in front of a screen why change. You can do this with MOVOBall

motorsep
Rising Star
I am not sure it's a great idea for various reasons. For example, I hurt my back last week. I can't really tilt to the sides or twist. So what good is it going to do to use such chair? It's not possible for me (or anyone else with this condition) to use. Also, 99% of the gadgets for Gear VR are prohibitively expensive and require layers and layers of either software or hardware (Vive's Lighthouse for example, although it's not applicable to your chair) or both to get it really working with Gear VR.

All in all, I think using touchpad and optionally gamepad are the only options for input at this time. Once there is positional tracking and had tracking that doesn't cost small fortune and preferably come standard from Samsung, then it's going to be something to be utilized. Any big thing like chairs and whatnot are narrow niche products at this time (and for the next 10 years for sure).

BloodyBastard69
Protege
First two games I've tried since getting my Rift have been Lucky's Tale and Kumoon. Both made me nauseous. Took about 10 minutes in Lucky's Tale, but Kumoon did it in less then 2 minutes. 
Takes about 15 minutes for the nausea to go away each time. UGH
Does it get easier the more you play?