JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

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 (occurs while experiencing VR) still 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 (IVB) that are widely used as rest frames cannot maintain the VR fidelity as they reduce the immersion and the presence of the user. A visual guide (VG) is a visual element (e.g. 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 VG with VR sickness.

Objective:

This study analyzed the correlation between VR sickness and crosshair which is widely used as a VG in FPS games.

Methods:

The eight scenarios were designed having the VG on/off, the game controller on/off, and varying the size and position of the VG to determine the effect of VG on VR sickness.

Results:

The results showed that VR sickness significantly decreased when VG was applied in FPS game. In addition, VR sickness was lower when VG 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 VG can achieve VR sickness reduction while maintaining user presence and immersion in the virtual environment. In other words, the use of VG is expected to solve the existing difficult of spreading various content due to VR sickness.