I do understand motives for using the Teleport Mechanic, to counter Vertigo\Motion Sickness\Nausea, but it doesn’t fit well in many of the games I’ve played. Its ruining my enjoyment of VR. We need a better way to move in VR. Until a commercially viable brain computer interface/mind-machine interface hits the public market, I’m looking for ideas on this.
My solutions hover around the use of Semi-auto Rails system and Voice Commands. Open to any others.
Do people really hate using the joysticks to move that much? I’ve never had any issues at all with simply using the left joystick on the touch controller to move, like a gamepad game basically. It feels perfectly natural to me and I’ve always been a PC Mouse/Keyboard guy. I have no issues with motion sickness though, never have.
In the prototypes I’m creating and the game I’m currently working on, I just use the joystick for movement and allow total freedom of movement in an open world city like GTA, combining it with climbing buildings. I’ve gotten some praise (not trying to sound full of myself, it’s not towards me but simply that I’m trying something different that appeals to some people) from people who like that I have embraced freedom of movement. Others say there’s no way they’d play it because of how sick it makes them.
Still, I find it a lot of fun just having free movement like this, so it’s how I’m going to persue making my game since I think there’s a market for it.
Plus, the joysticks might be a bit difficult at first but you adapt quickly. I think people don’t give themselves enough of a chance to try to adapt to new systems.
I failed to mention other factors for teleport mechanic: space and general safety (to make sure players are not walking out into traffic and over cliffs). BUT, teleport feels so restrictive. Imagine playing UnrealTournament, but forced to stand in one spot. Ive used keyboards/mouse/joysticks/gamepad in FPS for decades and moving around with them is “natural”. I would expect this freedom of movement in VR too using the same technique.
I assume your Prototype provides a means to see the joystick/gamepad in the game world with VR head headset. If YES, I could easily use a joystick/gamepad, because every so often I have to look down at my input device to remind myself where the buttons are. LOL.
I personally use Teleport all the time, it doesn’t make me sick nor I have any side effects, and it’s a necessity because of the way HMDs work, meaning limited to a physical space.
A bit ago I developed what I call “world scale” VR, meaning that the player is able to freely walk around a ( flat ) environment, without cameras or physical restriction.
Being very not user friendly ( because of the hardware setup ), the only other solution I can think is very effective is what The Void and Zero Latency did, meaning that they created their entire VR setup around tracking the HMD and objects into a scene…pretty cool, but very expensive.
I’m developing a VR game with alternative controls ( VR Gloves ) and the best way to address the motion issue is to give the player both options, meaning that the use can move forward by having his hand closed, but when the gun is equipped the movement is done via teleporting onto pre-defined locations.
Treadmills are not going to be the answer to the motion illusion, but the most effective way to simulate and feel the VR is exactly what The Void and Zero Latency did, but it’ll be a couple of years to let everyone get the same experience, based on hardware cost, software cost ( everything is custom on the hardware ), and having a big empty space to use.
Have you not experienced much in the way of current VR experiences? This debate has been covered extensively since the release of consumer products and most game are incorporating either alternative movement outside of teleport, or straight up no teleport at all.
If your only experience is gearVR I could understand thinking that teleport is the only in use method as Gear VR is not well suited to locomotion, however even newer oculus home titles for the rift have locomotion and many many experiences on SteamVR utilize it…
There are many solutions in this very forum for alternate to teleport locomotion in VR…
Sorry for this self promotion… but I think maybe this thread is kind of relevant, since I just posted a Zero-G Movement Mechanic here a few days ago. From what I’ve seen, this movement method deals with the motion-sickness issue rather well for most people. Personally, I can’t really play thumbstick-movement games in VR for more than half an hour or so… but I can play through all of Lone Echo in just a couple sittings, no problem at all. And I play enough Echo Arena to be at lvl 40 heh. So this zero-g thing seems to be one of the best non-teleport methods I’ve encountered so far.
Until there’s an answer for real legs, or some other way to induce movement that feels natural to the brain… I really like what I’m seeing from hand-based movement mechanics. There’s a couple ‘swing-your-arms-as-if-walking’ mechanics out there, that I think are promising but still haven’t been done quite right yet, at least that I’ve tried. Climbing games are pretty good too. And I could even imagine a swimming game that might work. But anyway, obviously the Zero-G idea only really works in space games or maybe some kind of anti-gravity fantasy world. lol
I’m doing a survival horror VR game that’s unsuitable for a teleport mechanic because I need the build up of tension from a player WALKING from point A to point B with enemies popping out of engineering panels, air vents and light fittings. I’m going for old school stick locomotion and smooth stick turning because there are more people than you think that can’t stand teleportation in games, some even refuse to buy a game if it has a teleport mechanic.
I am going to have a couple of comfort options for people though. First I’m going to have snap turning so that the player snaps to 45 degree turns, and I’m going to have that fading to black and fading from black to the new position. The second thing I’m going to do is have a vignette as the player moves.
Tbh there aren’t enough developers that aren’t wrapping players up in cotton wool and if players are constantly wrapped up in cotton wool then they’ll find it difficult to build a resistance to simulation sickness as time goes on. The more options that developers give players the better but to have ONLY a teleport mechanic and no options for smooth locomotion is bad game design when the game can be played with it. There are some games (such as mine if I ever get it finished!) that aren’t suitable for a teleport mechanic and there are others (such as Wilson’s Heart) that isn’t suited to smooth locomotion but VR developers should ALWAYS give players plenty of options to choose from.
Thanks for your response. I’m aware there are other solutions, perhaps we can compile a list. But, my complaint is that there are plenty of VR Games being published that use Teleport mechanic that could benefit from another form of movement.
I’m very interested in your implementation on for old school stick locomotion and smooth stick turning. My solution is put a representation joystick/gamepad in the game world with VR head headset, just like the motion controllers are. One can feel the gamepad and memorize the controls. This allows us to play with out looking at the controls all the time, but, every now and then, I have to look down to remind myself where controls they are.
Locomotion/Directional movement?