The Effects of Steering Locomotion on User Preference and Accuracy in Virtual Environments

Abstract

Abstract Locomotion in virtual environments presents challenges due to the discrepancy between the virtual and the real-world space. Teleportation has been suggested for rapid transit and low cybersickness. However, users often find the method disorienting and difficult over short distances. This is problematic in many gaming scenarios where moderate distances are common. We examined three methods of self-directed, steering locomotion for short to mid-range distances. The methods were pointing, head, and semi-decoupled head and controller. The decoupled method was to explore if game console navigation would be preferred due to familiarity. The experiment focused on user preference and accuracy and had 19 participants. We anticipated that more intuitive methods would be preferred. The pointing method had the greatest impact on accuracy. History of motion sickness susceptibility and prior use of video games did not affect preference with participants favoring the pointing method twice as often over the head method and with none preferring the semi-decoupled method. The pointing method also had lower average illness scores, although not statistically significant. The results suggest that pointing provides an accurate method of locomotion while also being a lower cybersickness option for steering navigation.