Planning Locomotion Techniques for Virtual Reality Games

Locomotion is a fundamental component in many virtual reality (VR) games. However, few techniques have been designed with game’s demands in mind. In this paper, we propose two locomotion techniques for fast-paced VR games: Repeated Short-Range Teleports and Continuous Movement Pads. We conducted a user study with 27 participants using these techniques against Smooth Locomotion and Teleport in a game-like scenario. We found that Movement Pads can be a suitable alternative for games, with competitive performance on various criteria such as time, damage taken, usability, workload, and user preference. On the other hand, Repeated Short-Range Teleport displayed lower usability and higher mental workload.