Stompz - Low intensity, cost-friendly VR movement device

"SwordArtOnline" wrote:
I realized while developing it that there are major drawbacks to this kind of "omni-directional treadmill".
1. They are expensive.
2. They are uncomfortable and unsteady.
3. They are exhausting.
4. They assume the user is healthy with no medical issues.

I would love to hear everyone's feedback for this method of VR movement.

5. They can require a lot of room to use.
7. They can take up a lot of room or time to store.
8. They can be noisy.
9. They can be dangerous (like falling off a Wizdish).
10. They can require consumables (like the Virtuix Omni shoes).

Odds are most Oculus Rift PC users won't buy a Virtual Treadmill (not at 500$), while they already own a swivel chair (for their PC).

Anyway here was my idea of an even lower intensity VR movement device, before I read about yours :
- Attach a single simplified motion detector to the back of the swivel chair (wireless or wired to the HMD).
- Use it to detect the rotation angle of the swivel chair.

And that's it : Walking frontwards, walking backwards, strafing left and right, is all done through a 4-directional Bumper.

Let's compare the perceived advantages of my method over yours :
- My method allows 1:1 tracking of the Swivel chair (1:1 tracking works great against nausea).
- Using a bumper or button to move forward is less exhausting for long gaming sessions (and 1:1 tracking isn't possible here anyway).
- You only need one motion tracker (twice cheaper), it can be a cheaper tracker (because you just want to track a rotation angle), and the programing part is greatly simplified (no foot tracking).
- It works with less then 2 feet ^^°°°

Example of uses :
- Perfect for simulating an ingame 1:1 nausea free... Swivel chair (every game should have one :) ) ! Like allowing you to manually enter or leave the pilot seat of a Star Citizen spaceship by turning the Swivel chair 180° yourself (less nausea and more immersion then the seat turning the viewpoint for you by itself).
- Best used to control things like a rotating turret, preferably with 1:1 tracking (anything from a fixed ground turret to a fixed turret on a moving object like the top turret of a WW2 bomber or of the Millenium falcon...).
- Preferably used to simply turn your body left and right (specially with 1:1 analog input instead of non 1:1 keyboard/gamepad digital input).
- Not really suited for unrealistic fast FPS games though, the main purpose is to shine in providing nausea free left/right 1:1 rotation tracking to slower paced games (including horror games).

A few problems though :
- Competitors like Sixense might provide that exact function through Stems (but it looks like it's going to be expensive).
- Oculus Rift might provide that in the consumer version : It's so cheap and simple to include, compared to the amount of reduced nausea and immersion it can add to just about any Oculus game where you want to turn your virtual body or the virtual chair you are sitting on left/right (which is most of them).
- It works best if the game is designed to accept it as an analog input (instead of treating it like keyboard/gamepad digital input). And as much as possible with an easy on/off option included in the game interface. That's why I think it would be best for full game support from all Oculus games if analog swivel chair tracking (including the single extra cheap motion controller it requires for the back of the swivel chair) would be directly part of the Oculus consumer version.

Because although it doesn't make sense to sit in a swivel chair instead of stand up in a treadmill to play VR games, for plenty of reasons it makes plenty of sense to assume that Oculus Rift users will be a lot more likely (able and willing) to be sitting in a swivel chair then standing up in a treadmill, so Oculus Rift might as well put that assumption to good use and build on it. Even a VR Cinema (which will most probably be included in the Consumer version) could benefit from a default 1:1 swivel chair tracking :)

So if anything, I suggest you keep an eye on the second developer devkit, to check if Oculus (or to a less extent Sixense) isn't simply going to add such a cheap and effective solution which would benefit so many games, by itself.

And in the meantime feel free to try out my simplified single tracker implementation (by putting one of your motion trackers on the swivel chair), to determine and explain to everyone here how our two methods actually compare, how convenient and easy to use and useful they are, but also how comfortable they are to use for long gaming cessions.


Suggestions :
- You might also try adding the single chair motion tracker I suggested to your two leg trackers, to check if adding that third motion tracker adds anything useful to STOMPZ. Like using the chair motion tracker for rotation, using a gamepad bumper for moving around (forward, backward, strafe), and using your two leg trackers to perform special actions hands free. Such as kick right leg forward to jump forward (faster kick for a higher jump), bend right leg backward to jump backward (bend faster for higher jump), bend both legs backwards to jump on the spot, bend left leg backwards once as far as you need to crouch as much as you want (bend more to crouch more, you stay crouched), kick left leg forwards as far as you need to crouch less, kick both legs forwards while crouching to stand up... basically you can implement whatever leg movement that can't be mistaken with using your legs to rotate the swivel chair.
- As far as STOMPZ all by itself goes, it should at least feature the option to activate an auto walk/run forwards feature without having to keep your legs (or heels) up, if only for games with vast open spaces that require a lot of walking around (like Role Playing Games). Like only requiring to stretch out your legs in a comfortable position, instead of requiring to lift them up in a less comfortable position.