January 31, 2017 at 12:34Through walls: overcoming obstacles
- Transfer
Virtual reality introduces new requirements for game design , imposes its own limitations, one of them is the fact that the user (for now) cannot be stopped in front of a virtual wall.
No need to be a terminator in order to go through a virtual 50-centimeter steel safe door. This can be a problem when it is the wall that represents the complexity that the user must deal with.
In traditional “flat” 3D games, this problem is solved very simply: the digital character stops and is not allowed to go through the steel door. And this does not cause any objections, since before we had no connection between the real and digital worlds, but in VR everything is not so.
Trying to continue to use this principle in virtual reality, it quickly becomes clear that this is a bad idea: control over the position in the virtual space is transferred to the user - and as soon as this happens, the visible picture (VR) ceases to correspond to the tactile (real) movements of the head and body, and this leads to the well-known Motion Sickness, in other words, it starts to make you sick.
One possible solution is a trick with a portal in the wall. With this approach, we are still allowed to pass through the walls, but it looks like a portal to an empty room . When looking back, another passage to the room just left is visible. Having taken a step back to this portal, we are again transported behind the wall.
In our example with a safe during teleportation, you are transported through a steel door, but not to the safe, but to some kind of empty abstract room, and there will be a portal behind you with the opportunity to reappear in front of the safe. Depending on the game scenario or your desire, this method can be adjusted accordingly.
Thanks to this technique, players will not be able to cheat and spoil the gameplay, but we still set the position and orientation of the head in space. Nausea does not go anywhere.
Technical implementation in engines like Unity, Unreal, or Source is pretty straightforward. You can program the portal once as a function, and then call it for the corresponding walls, doors and other objects.
This effect can be compared with the SteamVR “Chaperone” system: one of the walls in sight disappears shortly before moving to the next scene if the player comes too close to it.
However, in most cases, everything happens like this: visitors to virtual worlds do not want to ram virtual walls with their heads. The observed makes one believe in the reality of the virtual world at a subconscious level so much that a person will have to force or overcome himself at the psychological level in order to go through the solid material of the virtual world.
In the future, such techniques, the so-called "best practices", will be implemented in each engine. This will save VR developers from unnecessary problems and additional work.
Have you encountered other problems while developing your virtual worlds? Or did he find a cool solution? Then write to me , I will be glad to hear from you.
No need to be a terminator in order to go through a virtual 50-centimeter steel safe door. This can be a problem when it is the wall that represents the complexity that the user must deal with.
In traditional “flat” 3D games, this problem is solved very simply: the digital character stops and is not allowed to go through the steel door. And this does not cause any objections, since before we had no connection between the real and digital worlds, but in VR everything is not so.
Classic solutions not for VR
Trying to continue to use this principle in virtual reality, it quickly becomes clear that this is a bad idea: control over the position in the virtual space is transferred to the user - and as soon as this happens, the visible picture (VR) ceases to correspond to the tactile (real) movements of the head and body, and this leads to the well-known Motion Sickness, in other words, it starts to make you sick.
One possible solution is a trick with a portal in the wall. With this approach, we are still allowed to pass through the walls, but it looks like a portal to an empty room . When looking back, another passage to the room just left is visible. Having taken a step back to this portal, we are again transported behind the wall.
In our example with a safe during teleportation, you are transported through a steel door, but not to the safe, but to some kind of empty abstract room, and there will be a portal behind you with the opportunity to reappear in front of the safe. Depending on the game scenario or your desire, this method can be adjusted accordingly.
Thanks to this technique, players will not be able to cheat and spoil the gameplay, but we still set the position and orientation of the head in space. Nausea does not go anywhere.
Portal technical solution
Technical implementation in engines like Unity, Unreal, or Source is pretty straightforward. You can program the portal once as a function, and then call it for the corresponding walls, doors and other objects.
This effect can be compared with the SteamVR “Chaperone” system: one of the walls in sight disappears shortly before moving to the next scene if the player comes too close to it.
However, in most cases, everything happens like this: visitors to virtual worlds do not want to ram virtual walls with their heads. The observed makes one believe in the reality of the virtual world at a subconscious level so much that a person will have to force or overcome himself at the psychological level in order to go through the solid material of the virtual world.
In the future, such techniques, the so-called "best practices", will be implemented in each engine. This will save VR developers from unnecessary problems and additional work.
Experience exchange
Have you encountered other problems while developing your virtual worlds? Or did he find a cool solution? Then write to me , I will be glad to hear from you.