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Exploring the effects of replicating shape, weight and recoil effects on VR shooting controllers

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conference contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 19:08 authored by Jose Luis Berna MoyaJose Luis Berna Moya, Diego Martinez Plasencia
Commercial Virtual Reality (VR) controllers with realistic force feedback are becoming available, to increase the realism and immersion of first-person shooting (FPS) games in VR. These controllers attempt to mimic not only the shape and weight of real guns but also their recoil effects (linear force feedback parallel to the barrel, when the gun is shot). As these controllers become more popular and affordable, this paper investigates the actual effects that these properties (shape, weight, and especially directional force feedback) have on performance for general VR users (e.g. users with no marksmanship experience), drawing conclusions for both consumers and device manufacturers. We created a prototype replicating the properties exploited by commercial VR controllers (i.e. shape, weight and adjustable force feedback) and used it to assess the effect of these parameters in user performance, across a series of user studies. We first analysed the benefits on user performance of adding weight and shape vs a conventional controller (e.g. Vive controller). We then explore the implications of adding linear force feedback (LFF), as well as replicating the shape and weight. Our studies show negligible effects on the immediate shooting performance with some improvements in subjective appreciation, which are already present with low levels of LFF. While higher levels of LFF do not increase subjective appreciations any further, they lead users to reach their maximum distance skillset more quickly. This indicates that while adding low levels of LFF can be enough to influence user’s immersion/engagement for gaming contexts, controllers with higher levels of LFF might be better suited for training environments and/or when dealing with particularly demanding aiming tasks.

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Accepted version

Journal

Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2019

Publisher

Springer

Volume

11746

Page range

763-782

Event name

INTERACT 2019: 17th IFIP TC.13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction

Event location

Paphos, Cyprus

Event type

conference

Event date

2 - 6 September 2019

Place of publication

Cham, Switzerland

ISBN

978-3-030-29380-2

Series

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Department affiliated with

  • Informatics Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Creative Technology Publications

Notes

This work is supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). We would like to thank Dr Emanuela Maggioni and Dr Rod Bond for their advice on the user study design and data analysis. Also, we would like to thank Prof. Sriram Subramanian for the feedback on the user study.

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Editors

L Nacke, P Zaphiris, F Loizides, M Winckler, D Lamas, H Petrie

Legacy Posted Date

2019-09-24

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-09-24

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2019-09-24

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