Do You Feel Like Flying? A Study of Flying Perception in Virtual Reality for Future Game Development

Being able to fly is still a dream. Till today, it is only possible with heavy use of technology. Video games incorporated flying as a fancy way of movement inspired by mythical creatures, gods, and fantasies. In virtual reality (VR), with its deep immersion, the avatar control, especially for flying, is still performed by physical controllers that do not feel like a natural extension, thus, hindering the full immersion. To overcome this limitation, this work did an exploratory study on, first, the perception of wings as a natural body extension and, second, the natural movement performed by humans when flying. In a virtual environment, we studied the extent of the virtual presence and body ownership of wings. Results highlight that placing wings on the shoulders in an angelic form and controlling them by arm movements is the preferred way to extend human capabilities toward flying in nontechnologically restricted VR-Games.