Spacelegs and locomotion mechanics in VR

[Junky Juke]

To be clear, teleportation is a good workaround for motion sicknes but imho it halves the freedom you would experience in a FPS action game. Also I can't imagine how hard it would be to develop a multiplayer FPS with both traditional locomotion and teleporting.
I experienced some little motion sickness the first two weeks in VR expecially when playing ED in the SRV and Minecraft. But I got used to it with practice. Now it is completely gone and I can play ED, Minecraft, Subnautica, Obduction and others in full locomotion, without a single bit of dizziness. That's what I say. The VR crowd need to adapt their brains to VR, if they want to fully enjoy. I consider it an unusual gaming experience that is not meant to be played by everyone. Game developers should not dumb down their products to make it usable by all, unless the game is thought to be motion friendly, like Chronos and other fixed camera position games or the ones that require hand controllers to be played.

The Oculus store has a comfort indicator for each game, to warn buyers. The same should happen on the steam platform and the others to avoid bad surprises once you buy the game.

Minimum system requirements: VR ready brain

 

[Captain N]

The problem with WSAD with VR is that it can cause VR sickness. If you use your feet to move then it can trick your mind into thinking you are actually moving, and thus removing the VR sickness issue.

So I may be getting one of these:

https://www.3drudder.com/eu/ for when we get walking around.

Yes WSAD movement can cause motion sickness, but that's because of the mismatch between what your eyes see and what your vestibular system perceives. i.e. if it visually looks like to your brain that you're moving but your inner ear says you're not (or the movement looks different from what your balance says it should be), your brain can interpret it as a sign that something's wrong in your body and that possibly you ate something bad that needs to be hurled out.

Whether you use your fingers or feet to press those buttons makes no difference if the visuals are not exactly aligned with what your balance sense expects. And your balance organs are very finely tuned to notice these differences.

So no, generally these locomotion systems that rely on wiggling your feet in some fashion and pretending that you're walking don't work. It has to be actual walking and currently only a 1:1 roomscale tracking setup gives you that accuracy to translate real walking into VR motion in a way that avoids motion sickness for most of the people afflicted by it.

Also I can't imagine how hard it would be to develop a multiplayer FPS with both traditional locomotion and teleporting.

Did you check out the Pavlov solution?

 

[Junky Juke]

Looks interesting. I came across a survival/sandbox (cant remember the name) still in alpha that uses the same concept. You basically click on the terrain and the PG moves to that position, without teleporting. If the system works it is very welcome and it is a nice compromise. But I'm thinking about FPS strafing to dodge, very common in PVP. What about that? Would it be possible?

 

[Captain N]

While I didn't try the OOB locomotion myself when I participated in the Pavlov alpha test my understanding is that the movement works exactly the same way as normal touchpad locomotion, it's only you see your avatar move from a third person perspective and get teleported to its place periodically. So strafing should be possible.

It's also good to remember that strafing in a limited way can be done in these games typically just by physically moving around in the roomspace. One of the tactics I use is that I either teleport or "locomote" (depending on the game) next to a corner and then use my feet to sidestep in and out of cover.