I'm putting out an example of a menu UI system because I want to make the case for a stronger focus on gaze-based interactions.
While a hand-based input device is obviously in the cards, I think now's a good time to refine the minimal input we have available in the current hardware iteration. Once something viable does emerge for hand input, I think hand and gaze interactions could work in tandem with surprising fluidity.
On the current roadmap, an option for a gaze-based UI would be especially useful for something like GearVR, where things like video players and photo viewers will be core features.
The UI in the demo is made up of a couple different trigger types: gaze timers and "snags". The snags are directional and take a slight nudge to trigger. I've played some demos that require a lot of neck work to interact with stuff, so I tried to fine-tune the sensitivity to respond to a slight nod or shake of the head.
Bear in mind, the art in this demo is very much a work in progress. I put a lot of the UI elements in as filler just to better demonstrate the functionality.
TL;DR hands-free VR is surprisingly doable, what do you think?
Please can you post screenshots? This really needs to become a standard for developers on this site 🙂
I realise that your demo is based around a UI design or mechanic you have come up with and so it is basically entirely visual and so screen shots may give something away, but just throw them in a spoiler tag so people get the choice to view them or not 🙂
It took me a few tries to figure out what I was supposed to do to toggle options, but it's quite a natural (and fun!) thing to do once I understood. Seems like you might run into a problem of the player having to deal with "pathing" through the options so as not to inadvertently toggle any options, but maybe that could be addressed via clever option layout?
Thanks for sharing! Headtrip is the name of a game right? No relation to Headtrip Games?
Titans of Space PLUS for Quest is now available on DrashVR.com
Thanks for checking it out drash. I did put a lot of thought into layout, putting only gaze timers in the middle section and keeping the "snags" to the top and bottom so the player wouldn't have to worry about triggering anything on accident. Plus, limiting the snags sensitivity to a single direction means you have to be a little more intentional.
I also think it would be possible to divide the UI space into 3 vertical sections, and have paging mechanisms for each section (instead of just for the middle section like in the demo). This way you could have a single row of settings to page through instead of having to navigate a minefield of triggers with your head.
No relation to Headtrip Games. Thanks for cluing me in there. I'll reach out to them before we release our final thing and see if they have a problem with the overlap.
Simpanra, here are some screenshots. A video would probably be a more efficient way of getting the ideas across, I'll post one soon.
BTW, the ";Op" in the subject was a mistake, supposed to read "Opinions Please". I blindly copy and pasted from an external doc, didn't realize it'd been truncated.
