Finding of the week #306

The Need for Natural Input Devices

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the need for natural input devices to enhance the immersive effects of virtual environments.

Recently, I enjoyed playing X-Plane 11 in Virtual Reality (VR) mode. Being visually immersed in a detailed and accurate cockpit of an airplane was an unprecedented experience to me. It was one of the most realistic flight experiences in a simulation thus far.

This week, we gave Assetto Corsa a try in VR mode. The experience was quite similar, as it allowed me to accurately steer the virtual racing cars by allowing me to look to the sides without any issues. Also, the natural perspective made it much easier to find the correct braking points.

Ferrari LaFerrari in Assetto Corsa
Ferrari LaFerrari in Assetto Corsa

However, these two very positive VR experiences were affected by some overall comfort issues with the HTC Vive’s head-mounted display (HMD) as well as the control devices. The HMD is designed to almost completely reduce visual information from the real environment and to replace these information with computer generated ones. For this purpose, the HMD has to sit tight over a user’s eyes.

While this might work well for people who do not need to wear glasses, it is a constant struggle for me. Frequently, my glasses get caught by the cushions as well as pressed on my nose. This works for short exposure times, but becomes quite uncomfortable when using the HMD over a longer period of time. This issue is even enhanced when using the Oculus which is even smaller.

A more general issue comes from the control devices used. The controllers often feel like a combination of a TV remote and a gamepad. They of course allow for an interaction with the virtual environments in an efficient way, but also feel not very natural. Instead, their bulkiness often reduces my perception of the virtual environment and the feeling of being a part of it. Although others might disagree, this feeling is even enhanced when using gamepads. Here, every interaction feels highly artificial. Thus far, only highly specialized input devices like racing wheels provide a decent natural feeling.

In conclusion, while I still see the importance of developing better devices for visualizing the simulations, improving the comfort and designing new input devices should be focussed first. By developing devices that provide a more natural feeling, e.g., gloves, the immersive effect of VR as well as desktop simulations could be improved.

Finding of the week #305

Pathfinding Computer Games

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the lack of good pathfinding games that challenge players with difficult terrain.

One of my favorite hobbies is hiking. The more wild and untouched the nature around me is, the more happy I am. Wild nature not only looks beautiful, but it also is more challenging and adventurous to get through it. Finding new paths and ways to overcome obstacles provides me personally with a great experience as I feel more connected to nature and the world around me.

The fascination of exploring the wilderness also plays a major role for me when playing computer games. I enjoyed playing The Long Dark and Spintires. The Long Dark is a survival game that takes place in the Canadian wilderness. Players need to seek shelter from the cold outside temperatures, hunt for food and deal with strong snow storms that quickly can become a dangerous threat. Despite just being a game, being exposed to the virtual elements and finding ways to survive under these harsh conditions provides me with a good substitute for times when I cannot explore the real world.

Spintires challenges players with the goal to drive heavy trucks through very muddy and difficult terrain. Trucks can easily get stuck in this kind of terrain, thus requiring players to find other ways to overcome the obstacles, e.g., using the winch. As a result, Spintires provides me with the aspect of actually being challenged to find a way through wild nature.

Unfortunately, there are not many other games that feature such a focus on exploration and pathfinding. Of course, other games approach the idea of pathfinding, but they mostly create challenges by requiring a certain timing. For instance, the Tomb Raider games require players to find a way through difficult terrain. However, from a pure game mechanic perspective, solving challenges mainly requires jumping or pressing other interaction keys at the right moment.

A potential explanation for this is the problem of finding good game mechanics that provide an exciting amount of choices and a huge degree of variety during the gameplay. This is due to the fact that computer games need to be playable with common control devices. For instance, most games implement the WASD keys for general travel. These four keys however cannot allow for a gameplay that mirrors the challenge of crossing a stream via slippery rocks. Here, one needs to use the entire body to avoid falling into the water which would need a tracking of a players entire body.

Thus, these challenges are reduced to more simple interactions like pressing a button in the right moment to initiate a sequence of events. While this might result in a very polished visualization of the events, it does not provide me with the same rewarding experience as actually being required to deal with the environment directly.

In conclusion, pathfinding games might provide an exciting gameplay, but they require also complex input game mechanics. This, however, would result in a very artificial gameplay as players need to remember a large amount of keybindings. Hopefully, the continuous advancements in computer technology, such as better tracking systems, will finally allow pathfinding games that go beyond the usual jump and run approach.

Finding of the week #304

Flying in VR

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about the experiences I made during my first flight using VR technology.

Despite being involved in Virtual Reality (VR) research for several years by now, I rarely came across VR applications that really kept me interested and motivated for a longer time. Often, I explored and tried out my own capabilities inside a particular virtual environment, but quickly stopped using it after having experienced most of the game mechanics. The reason for this is the lack of content that keeps me motivated beyond the initial curiosity.

This changed as a friend invited me to an X Plane 11 VR session. X Plane 11 presents a highly realistic flight simulation. It provides many realistic airplanes and allows users to practice flight procedures. Personally, I spent many hours playing flight simulations so I was immediately excited to give it a try in VR.

The most exciting moment was as I put on the head-mounted display and suddenly found myself inside a virtual Cessna 172. The realistic 3D cockpit gave me the feeling of actually being in a real airplane. All elements and instruments were at their correct position. Also, all control elements could be grabbed and manipulated using the game controllers. In this way, it was possible to use the yoke with one controller while adjusting the throttle with the second one.

This unprecendented flight experience was enhanced by the possibility to freely move my head and to change my perspective. Thus far, I was used to fixed views when playing flight simulations. This not only allowed me to better determine my position in respect to the runway, but also to have an overall improved overview over the instruments. It never was that easy to land a virtual airplane!

As a result, I was completely amazed by this VR flight experience. However, like most other simulations, things start to feel a bit unrealistic when haptic feedback is missing. While this is still ok for flicking switches or turning knobs, it becomes very difficult for using the yoke as well as the throttle. Of course, visual feedback helped me to keep the plane under control, but having no real control device in my hand reduced the overall immersive effect.

As a result of this, X Plane 11 VR might not necessarily allow for a direct training transfer in respect to actually flying an airplane. However, the realistic 3D cockpit models and accurate positions of relevant controls allow for a very effective and realistic training for procedures and check lists.

In the end, despite these limitations, it was the best flight simulation experience I ever made. Also, it was the first time, that I did not get quickly bored after having experienced most of the existing game mechanics. I am looking forward to my next virtual flight hours!

Finding of the week #303

View Dependent and Vehicle Dependent Navigation

During my ongoing literature review I often discover interesting facts about things I’ve never thought about. Sometimes I can connect these facts with my own observations: The result is mostly a completely new idea why things are as they are. Maybe these ideas are new to you, too. Therefore I’ll share my new science based knowledge with you!

This week: This time, I think about two different approaches of implementing vehicle control in computer games: view dependent and vehicle dependent navigation.

Like in the real world, one can distinguish between two integral elements when it comes to navigation tasks inside a virtual environment. One has to be able to turn the gaze and to control the direction of motion.

Traditionally, computer games implement the mouse as a means to change the gaze and the keyboard as a means to control the actual locomotion. For instance, WASD commonly allows for a forward, backward and sidewards movement. Forward and backward movement depends on the gaze direction of a user.

Initially, this requires some training of hand-eye coordination and spatial orientation. Players are challenged to understand that they move towards the direction of their view when they keep the forward key pressed and away from it when the press the backward key. In this way, navigation is a combination of controlling the view direction and initiating a locomotion.

Driving virtual vehicles in Astroneer

However, this only applies to direct locomotion. In the case of navigation using vehicles, forward, backward and left/right are based on the vehicle itself. Hence, the direction of motion is independent of a player’s gaze. Similar to the real world, one can look to the side while moving into a different direction, e.g., driving forward with a car.

This technique allows for an intuitive control of vehicles. Players merely need to know in which direction the vehicle is facing to effectively navigate it through the virtual environment. However, in contrast to direct locomotion, vehicle control game mechanics also provide an alternative approach.

Here, the direction of forward and backward is dependent on the player’s view and not based on the structure of the vehicle. As a result, forward is all the time relative to a player’s perspective. While this not only is less intuitive, it also can result in a high degree of confusion when the player intends to circumnavigate an obstacle and suddenly is driving towards it

Therefore, I like to recommend to avoid view dependent controls for vehicles. These approaches cause a high degree of confusion, feel less natural and are less efficient. Before navigating, players first need to analyze which motion they want to initiate depending on their current perspective. Lastly, view dependent navigation causes a conflict with real world knowledge: a car always drives into the direction it faces independent of a player’s gaze.