Evaluating Performance and Gameplay of Virtual Reality Sickness Techniques in a First-Person Shooter Game

In traditional communities, some actions are widely regarded as bad and unethical. But in online “communities,” the virtual analog of those actions may not be regarded with the same clarity. Since “virtual” behaviors are distinct from ordinary acts, they require further analysis to determine whether they are right or wrong. In this chapter we consider an incident on the Internet that illustrates this confusion. The incident centered on a virtual act of sexual violence. This “rape in cyberspace,” reported by Julian Dibbell in 1993, has generated questions about the significance of behaviors in virtual reality environments. We use the case to explore the moral nature of actions in virtual environments, emphasizing the themes of harm and responsibility. We then offer some tentative lessons to be learned and, finally, apply the lessons to virtual sex and to first-person shooter computer games.

Download Full-text

Fear and loathing in VR: the emotional and physiological effects of immersive games

Virtual Reality ◽

10.1007/s10055-021-00555-w ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jeroen S. Lemmens ◽

Monika Simon ◽

Sindy R. Sumter

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Heart Rate Variability ◽

Virtual Reality ◽

Emotional State ◽

Physiological Responses ◽

First Person ◽

Physiological Effects ◽

Lower Heart Rate ◽

Sense Of Presence ◽

First Person Shooter

AbstractCompared to traditional screen-based media, virtual reality (VR) generally leads to stronger feelings of presence. The current study aimed to investigate whether playing games in VR resulted in a stronger sense of presence than playing on a TV, and whether these feelings of presence affected players’ emotional and physiological responses to the games. Two experiments were conducted among 128 students, comparing the effects of playing either a survival horror game (N = 59) or a first-person shooter (N = 69) on a TV or in VR on physiological and subjective fear, hostility and enjoyment. Results showed that playing games in VR resulted in a stronger sense of presence, lower heart rate variability and a stronger subjective sense of fear. The feeling of presence thereby mediated the effects of VR on fear. The effects of playing a first-person shooter in VR on hostility were mixed, and gaming in VR was not more enjoyable than on TV. Regardless of the type of game or display medium, hostility increased significantly post-play. This study provides evidence that commercial VR games can affect feelings of presence and the physiological and emotional state of players.

Download Full-text

Player performance with different input devices in virtual reality first-person shooter games

Proceedings of the 5th Symposium on Spatial User Interaction - SUI '17 ◽

10.1145/3131277.3134361 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Yasin Farmani ◽

Robert J. Teather

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

First Person ◽

Input Devices ◽

Player Performance ◽

First Person Shooter

Download Full-text

Using playability evaluation techniques in first person shooter games for virtual reality

Proceedings of the 18th Brazilian Symposium on Human Factors in Computing Systems ◽

10.1145/3357155.3360481 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Yan Fontão ◽

Tayana Conte ◽

Juliana Saraiva

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

First Person ◽

First Person Shooter ◽

Evaluation Techniques

Download Full-text

Using Visual Guides to Reduce Virtual Reality Sickness in First-Person Shooter Games: Correlation Analysis (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.18020 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Kwang-Ho Seok ◽

YeolHo Kim ◽

Wookho Son ◽

Yoon Sang Kim

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Rest Frame ◽

First Person ◽

Head Tracking ◽

Game Controller ◽

Visual Background ◽

Head Mounted Displays ◽

Tracking Direction ◽

Visual Element ◽

First Person Shooter

BACKGROUND The virtual reality (VR) content market is rapidly growing due to an increased supply of VR devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), whereas VR sickness (reported to occur while experiencing VR) remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used method of reducing VR sickness is the use of a rest frame that stabilizes the user's viewpoint by providing fixed visual stimuli in VR content (including video). However, the earth-fixed grid and natural independent visual background that are widely used as rest frames cannot maintain VR fidelity, as they reduce the immersion and the presence of the user. A visual guide is a visual element (eg, a crosshair of first-person shooter [FPS]) that induces a user's gaze movement within the VR content while maintaining VR fidelity, whereas there are no studies on the correlation of visual guide with VR sickness. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to analyze the correlation between VR sickness and crosshair, which is widely used as a visual guide in FPS games. METHODS Eight experimental scenarios were designed and evaluated, including having the visual guide on/off, the game controller on/off, and varying the size and position of the visual guide to determine the effect of visual guide on VR sickness. RESULTS The results showed that VR sickness significantly decreased when visual guide was applied in an FPS game. In addition, VR sickness was lower when the visual guide was adjusted to 30% of the aspect ratio and positioned in the head-tracking direction. CONCLUSIONS The experimental results of this study indicate that the visual guide can achieve VR sickness reduction while maintaining user presence and immersion in the virtual environment. In other words, the use of a visual guide is expected to solve the existing limitation of distributing various types of content due to VR sickness.

Download Full-text

Using Visual Guides to Reduce Virtual Reality Sickness in First-Person Shooter Games: Correlation Analysis

JMIR Serious Games ◽

10.2196/18020 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (3) ◽

pp. e18020

Author(s):

Kwang-Ho Seok ◽

YeolHo Kim ◽

Wookho Son ◽

Yoon Sang Kim

Keyword(s):

Virtual Reality ◽

Rest Frame ◽

First Person ◽

Head Tracking ◽

Game Controller ◽

Visual Background ◽

Head Mounted Displays ◽

Tracking Direction ◽

Visual Element ◽

First Person Shooter

Background The virtual reality (VR) content market is rapidly growing due to an increased supply of VR devices such as head-mounted displays (HMDs), whereas VR sickness (reported to occur while experiencing VR) remains an unsolved problem. The most widely used method of reducing VR sickness is the use of a rest frame that stabilizes the user's viewpoint by providing fixed visual stimuli in VR content (including video). However, the earth-fixed grid and natural independent visual background that are widely used as rest frames cannot maintain VR fidelity, as they reduce the immersion and the presence of the user. A visual guide is a visual element (eg, a crosshair of first-person shooter [FPS]) that induces a user's gaze movement within the VR content while maintaining VR fidelity, whereas there are no studies on the correlation of visual guide with VR sickness. Objective This study aimed to analyze the correlation between VR sickness and crosshair, which is widely used as a visual guide in FPS games. Methods Eight experimental scenarios were designed and evaluated, including having the visual guide on/off, the game controller on/off, and varying the size and position of the visual guide to determine the effect of visual guide on VR sickness. Results The results showed that VR sickness significantly decreased when visual guide was applied in an FPS game. In addition, VR sickness was lower when the visual guide was adjusted to 30% of the aspect ratio and positioned in the head-tracking direction. Conclusions The experimental results of this study indicate that the visual guide can achieve VR sickness reduction while maintaining user presence and immersion in the virtual environment. In other words, the use of a visual guide is expected to solve the existing limitation of distributing various types of content due to VR sickness.

Download Full-text