The Current State of Locomotion in Virtual Reality 1

Locomotion in Virtual Reality (VR) is still an ongoing challenge that VR developers face. Many different forms of locomotion have been tested. Some of them are stationary based, while others are movement based.

Unfortunately, there is no one type of locomotion that works for all VR experiences. Depending on the experience, the developers choose to adopt certain types of locomotion.

My goal in this post is to share with you the types of locomotion that are working well out for VR right now.

Third-Person

Third-person point of view (POV) VR offers those who are new to VR something they are familiar with. Similar to traditional 3D platformers, your POV follows comfortably behind your character. The only difference is that the camera follows the rotation of your head instead of being controlled by a gamepad. Unlike first-person VR, third-person VR works best with a gamepad instead of motion controllers.

An example of a third-person VR game is Lucky’s Tale on the Oculus store.

Flight

Many of us probably want to fly or see what flying feels like. Eagle Flight by Ubisoft lets you experience what it is like to fly through VR.

The impressive ability to simulate smooth, gazed-based forward motion without causing any dizziness or motion sickness is what makes Eagle Flight so groundbreaking. It is incredibly difficult to create an experience that is meant to be played stationary with the movement being fast paced. If you are curious as to how Ubisoft prevent motion sickness in Eagle Flight, you can read about it here.

Vehicles

Racing/flight/space simulation VR experiences is a popular genre. One thing they all have in common is that the player is stationed behind some sort of protection inside the vehicle. It is comforting to know that you are protected while you navigate around.

Another benefit by placing the player in a vehicle is that it allows the player to assume their natural sitting posture. This makes it easier for a 1-to-1 match up of their brain with what is happening.

Two VR games that show usage of a vehicle are Project Cars and EVE: Valkyrie.

VR Comfort Mode

VR comfort mode is a hybrid between stationary and active movement. It is adaptive to the user. The locomotion system changes depending on what the user is doing.

For example, when standing and moving around, your POV have smooth world shifting pan that ties to your movement. When you sit down, the locomotion system shifts into stationary mode. During stationary mode, movement becomes micro-teleportation and smooth world shifting pan is replaced with snap to turns. By doing this, it helps combat against motion sickness.

Roomscale Locomotion

Roomscale locomotion requires a large play area. The large-scale track area allows for better exploration of the VR space. For example, you can walk around the VR environment, walk up to characters or objects, look under objects, and hide behind objects. When executed well, this can be very immersive.

The downside to room scaling is that not many people will have a large enough play area. VR at its current state still has too many cables, which can tangle, trip you, or limit how far you can move around.

Roomscale play area size from HTC Vive Developer Pamphlet

Teleportation

One of the most common methods to get around a small play area is teleportation. It is possible to traverse through an entire VR world by teleporting around.

Teleportation addresses a number of factors that induces motion sickness in VR. Teleportation works surprisingly well to combat about motion sickness.

Since teleportation prevents motion sickness and allows the user to traverse through VR space in a small confined space, many VR developers employ teleportation as their main locomotion. You can find examples of where teleportation is used in Cloudhead’s Blink locomotion, AltspaceVR, and Bullet Train.

Although teleportation is comfortable, it is not immersive. When you blinking around, it is difficult for you to keep a mental map of the space around you.

Freedom Locomotion System

VR studio Huge Robot created the Freedom Locomotion System, which allows for comfortable walking, running, and climbing in VR.

One of the components of the system is called CAOTS (Controlled Assisted On the Spot) movement. It is a run-in-place movement system. You can move forward in VR space by walking or running-in-place physically.

In addition, the system adjusts the elevation along slopes and stairs when the player crosses them. There is also a climbing system, which detects for geometry that the player can grab and use to climb.

Problem with Motion sickness

Poorly designed VR locomotion can cause motion sickness, but beyond a certain point, the issue is a human problem. You probably know or met someone who has motion sickness. Therefore, the issue with motion sickness from VR locomotion is technical and human dependent. We only have control over the technical side.

I hope this post provided you with some useful information about what is happening with locomotion in VR. If you found this post helpful, share it with others.

If you have any questions or would like to add something, feel free to leave a comment. To get in touch, you can follow me on twitter.