In the VR Storytelling class this past Wednesday I tried experiences on the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, I also watched others try these experiences. One of the big things that stood out to me was the amount of variation in how motion sick people felt with the different devices and with different applications. Some classmates could only take 20 or 30 seconds before mentioning dizziness, others could go for more extended periods.

One of the discussions I’ve read was the idea of having a static object or UI element that acts a center for spotting, much like a dancer, to reduce dizziness and help with perceived balance. One experience that used this idea was the on-rails snow canyon tour, which allowed you to have a raven guide directly in front of you. Much like carsickness, when the feeling of motion is not the same between vision and other senses it can cause nausea, and reducing this without physical locomotion is something that many are still trying to solve. One idea redditor /u/thelonglurkends suggests is the idea of Stroboscopic Illumination: flashing a stationary, translucent HUD or Grid every few frames. This is something I hope to test in a project this semester.

In terms of the technical aspects, screen resolution and the “Screen-door Effect” play a big part in overall physical presence. The difference between cardboard and the DK2 is very drastic, and the positional tracking on the DK2 further enhances the experience. I find this also reduces motion sickness for certain applications which require a lot of head movement. One downside of the DK2 I found is that the tether, while not overly intrusive, does seem to break immersion when it lands the wrong way on your arm or you have to move it out of your way. Another aspect which I found in many Gear VR games, but only a few Oculus experiences was showing the controls before the user was in the world. I think this definitely helps with mentally putting the player in the world right when it loads up, as opposed to having them distracted in the first few seconds.

Despite both the technical advantages and drawbacks, the ability to tell a good story and/or create an immersive environment will still rule when trying to get people to buy into whatever world you are trying to build. The most immersive experience / game I’ve tried has been Dreadhalls. While I have not made it very far in the story mode (I can only last so long before the cold sweats kick in) the game constructs a very good environment through the use of ambient sounds and lighting effects. The UI and controls are intuitive and don’t break immersion even using a controller. Your inventory, for example, floats out in front of you as opposed to being a static menu.

One thing in particular that I found with this game that may help with future VR storytelling is using both lighting audio cues to get people to look in a certain direct. (However, in a horror game, this may cause people to look in the opposite direction.) I’ve found that users will instinctively head towards the brightest area in a scenario, especially if other areas are much dimmer. While this helps with 3D constructed scenes, it can also apply to VR Filmmaking in situations where the lighting is controllable (or possibly through post-processing).

Overall, I’m excited for the possibilities of VR Storytelling and can’t wait to start creating projects!