LCS
How to reduce VR sickness on walking
VR Sickness occurs quite commonly in the first person view games. In severe cases, it is almost impossible to walk on a few steps. The first person view had been expected to be the most effective way to show VR immersiveness. But if it were too uncomfortable to walk in those games, it would be the most big challenge that developers and might-be Killer title must deal with from even on the planning stage.
That’s the main reason that i focused on studying the comfortable locomotion method on relatively simple VR games, and the part of the result has gone public on the cardboard game that recently released. This is more elaborated explanation on that result which is hard to give solely on the game.
The image above is showing why motion sickness occurs when you use gamepad on sliding locomotion system.
When the direction of the stick, the player tilts to move, and the controller, the player holds, are not match each other, the motion sickness occurs as much as the difference in angle between the stick and the controller. In VR, the player moves around much and finds it hard to see controller within sight. Therefore, the player can't hold the controller in the right direction all the time and can't see the stick's and controller's direction easily.
To prevent the confusion, it is the first important requirement having stick moves accordingly only its direction regardless of the controller.
But when the player attempts to make quick switch, it still remains as a problem that regular stick or trackpad can’t help maintain the sense of equilibrium(sense of balance).
Player uses both directional information obtained from the fingers and sight(visual) from long before. When you see the standard monitor, it is easy to know the direction of movement because the game screen and the outside area of the monitor are clearly distinct. However, it is hard to figure out the moving direction in VR due to its wide FOV(field of view).
Game needs to show something stationary in the screen to use visual information of VR, but it can take the risk of interrupting the immersion sometimes. So I felt the necessity of supplementing the information needed to sense of balance instead of visual information.
Then I found the effective way to do so. It can help the player extend one’s somatosensory system and I’ll explain how it works below with the image.
On the right, you can see how the player grips the VR controller generally. The player grips it with five fingers and palm and then use it with entire arm.
Our hands do have favorable condition compared with other body parts to receive somatosensory input due to the numerous cutaneous sensation on hands and the proprioceptors distributed to the joints, bones, and muscles of the forearm.
That is the second important requirement to improve the existing one-finger stick control system to let the player know the stick’s tilting direction through the somatosensory system.
The ‘Leaning Control System(LCS)’ I designed is the system which satisfies all requirements as mentioned above. This is how it works :
LCS employs the whole controller as a stick, so the player can get the direction of the stick intuitively. Furthermore, its range, reaching almost 90 degrees, allows the player to control the speed of walking through rushing. These make it possible to learn how to control faster than any other means.
Particularly, physical interactive games which support weighty peripherals such as guns or swords are very suitable for hardcore gaming as it stimulates somatosensory system much more. Of course you can see the same improvement when using rather light PaperStick.
When you use PaperStick, however, you should hold it upright to stop moving because there is no 'Move' button due to its lack of sensitivity. 'Move' button has to be provided by default basically so the players make a move only when they are pushing the button.
There is no restriction on applying LCS to VR peripherals. From mobile gear to high ends, it is applicable to any hardware only it can recognize its lean.
That’s it for my explanation. I have patented the system built upon the main points I said above, and, as humble contribution towards popularizing VR, I decided to provide the right to use of LCS free.You can immediately apply LCS to your VR contents under development or already developed, as a patch in that case.
I hope that this invention could give VR lovers joy and happiness, and I really appreciate Virtualworld letting me have such a precious opportunity to tell my ideas to people. Thank you.
▶gameplus@paperstick.net