Using Visual Guides to Reduce Virtual Reality Sickness in First-Person Shooter Games: Correlation Analysis

Area of Science:

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Virtual Reality Technology
• User Experience Research

Background:

• Virtual reality (VR) content market growth is hindered by VR sickness.
• Current rest frames reduce immersion and presence.
• Visual guides offer a potential solution to VR sickness without compromising fidelity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the correlation between VR sickness and the use of crosshairs as a visual guide in first-person shooter (FPS) games.
• To investigate the impact of visual guide parameters on VR sickness.

Main Methods:

• Eight experimental scenarios were designed to evaluate VR sickness.
• Variables included visual guide presence, game controller status, and visual guide size/position.
• User-reported VR sickness was measured across conditions.

Main Results:

• VR sickness significantly decreased with the application of a visual guide in FPS games.
• Optimal reduction in VR sickness was observed when the visual guide was 30% of the aspect ratio and head-tracked.
• User presence and immersion were maintained with visual guide implementation.

Conclusions:

• Visual guides effectively reduce VR sickness in virtual reality environments.
• This method preserves user presence and immersion, unlike traditional rest frames.
• Visual guides are a promising solution for widespread VR content distribution by mitigating VR sickness.