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Why don't I feel sick in Ripcoil? Could "Leaning" Mechanic by Implemented in Other Games?

AndrewJ71
Heroic Explorer
Firstly I should say I've mostly got my VR legs by now. But a mild nausea can still hit me a little when cameras move in an unnatural way etc.

But it occurred to me that I've never felt the slightest bit of nausea in Ripcoil. I couldn't help but wonder why - doesn't it break some of the so-called fundamental rules of VR design re no sideways movement of the camera?

My suspicion is it's all to do with the leaning mechanic employed. If I used a thumbstick on a controller to move left and right, it would likely be barf city. But because I'm leaning to move, the motion is being controlled physically my body. So the outcome is what my brain is expecting to result from my body's actions.

It would be interesting to see this tested/incorporated into other games. Say Arizona Sunshine or the upcoming Fallout VR, for example. We could have strafing controlled by leaning your body, turning by turning your body and the thumbstick simply taking care of forward and back. Or perhaps it could be taken one stage further and have leaning forward or back (ie basically simply taking a single half-step forward or back) to control forwards movement and then returning to the "rest" position to halt. Though strafing and moving at the same time could be problematic - but I suppose you could take a half step at a 45 degree angle. I'm not sure how well they could track all those subtle movements and translate it into movement, beyond the simple left-right in Ripcoil.

Anyway - it would be interesting to see something like that tried.
10 REPLIES 10

HiThere_
Superstar
- Leaning helps, like when you move forward you tend to lean forward, and that's what you do in Ripcoil.
- Ripcoil's flying disk can count as driving.
- Thumbstick controlled body rotation is specially bad for first time users, and Ripcoil doesn't feature full body rotation.


Yoirgl said:

The game i'm developing is using the all classical teleport system. I couldn't find any other way that is sickness safe for any user (and i've been testing quite a few of those 🙂 )

Inexperienced users may need to start with teleport, but experienced users want teleport mechanics in their VR games as much as you want training wheels on your car.

My recommendation for 2017, as the amount of experienced VR users grows, is to develop for free roaming, and add teleportation (and snap rotation) mechanics as the default option, that can be switched off by experienced users who have grown out of them and can't stand them anymore.

If you're worried about bad reviews by users who switch teleportation mechanics off too soon for their own good, do what Arizona Sunshine did : Release with teleportation mechanics only, then patch in the free roaming mechanic the game is designed for later on.