Outstanding: A Multi-Perspective Travel Approach for Virtual Reality Games

Abstract

Figure 1. Our proposed navigation technique allows players to switch to a scaled third-person perspective on demand and control a virtual avatar to cover large distances in open world VR scenarios. ABSTRACTIn virtual reality games, players dive into fictional environments and can experience a compelling and immersive world. State-of-the-art VR systems allow for natural and intuitive navigation through physical walking. However, the tracking space is still limited, and viable alternatives are required to reach further virtual destinations. Our work focuses on the exploration of vast open worlds -an area where existing local navigation approaches such as the arc-based teleport are not ideally suited and world-in-miniature techniques potentially reduce presence. We present a novel alternative for open environments: Our idea is to equip players with the ability to switch from first-person to a third-person bird's eye perspective on demand. From above, players can command their avatar and initiate travels over large distance. Our evaluation reveals a significant increase in spatial orientation while avoiding cybersickness and preserving presence, enjoyment, and competence. We summarize our findings in a set of comprehensive design guidelines to help developers integrate our technique.

Teleportation in Virtual Reality; A Mini-Review

“…Regarding teleportation improvements, few papers specifically set out to improve a known disadvantage of teleportation, i.e., Bhandari et al (2018b) specifically aimed to reduce spatial disorientation whereas others [i.e., Bolte et al (2011) and Cmentowski et al (2019)] found spatial awareness to increase as a side effect. Liu et al (2018) set out to improve tracking space utilization, but this was not a previously identified problem with teleportation.…”

“…Randomly appearing and disappearing avatars is likely also to be detrimental to presence. Using a third person perspective Cmentowski et al (2019); Griffin and Folmer (2019) which maintains a continuous avatar representation could be a solution but how it affects presence has not been studied in multi-user environments yet. With teleportation likely continuing being the default VLT for many VR experiences, figuring out how its presence can be improved, especially in multi-user environments, would be an important question for future research.…”

“…Two techniques have explored offering a third person perspective to VR which is typically experienced from a first person perspective. Outstanding by Cmentowski et al (2019) and out-of-body locomotion by Griffin and Folmer (2019) let users switch between first and third person perspective with the press of a button. While outstanding lets users navigate their avatar over long distances using raycast aiming from a birds eye view, out-of-body locomotion uses the touchpad.…”

Multiple perspectives integration for virtual reality-aided assemblability assessment in complex virtual assembly environment

“…Salamin [39] and Gorisse [15] found that 3PP provides a wider view of the periphery of the virtual body, increasing user's spatial awareness. Cmentowski et al [8] found that navigating in a bird-eye 3PP can reduce user's disorientation after relocation.…”

Does scaling player size skew one’s ability to correctly evaluate object sizes in a virtual environment?

“…One such early system, named GulliVR [Krekhov et al 2018] is used as the basis for this paper. While GulliVR used the "Giant mode" technique, it did not employ an avatar, which many subsequent studies have done, including a hybrid approach by the same authors which combines a Giant avatar with teleportation [Cmentowski et al 2019].…”