The effects of locomotion and steering methods in virtual reality on unintended positional drift

Unintended positional drift (UPD) is an important factor during virtual reality (VR) use, as it may contribute to safety risks diminishing user experience, potentially hindering the broader adoption of VR technology. This study investigated the effects of locomotion and steering methods on UPD through a 2 × 2 within-subject experiment. We selected two locomotion methods (joystick and teleportation) and two steering methods (controller-based and physical-based). Thirty-two participants (16 males and 16 females; mean age = 22.65 years, SD = 2.06) completed a VR task under all four conditions. Joystick locomotion resulted in significantly greater movement variance (MV) compared to teleportation, leading to higher Y-axis MV per minute (MVY: p = .043) and significantly longer task completion time (TCT: p = .002). For subjective measures, joystick locomotion also produced higher body movement cognition (BMC) (p = .001) and greater postural stability questionnaire scores (PSQ) (p < .001). Compared to controller steering, physical steering resulted in significantly greater total movement (TM) and MV, including TMX, TMY, MVX, and MVY (all p < .001). Physical steering also led to higher BMC (p < .001), greater PSQ scores (p < .001), and increased virtual embodiment questionnaire (VEQ) scores-specifically for ownership (p = .002) and agency (p < .001). These findings suggest that the choice of locomotion and steering methods in VR should be carefully tailored to the intended application, with designers considering the trade-offs associated with UPD.