Analysis of translation gains in virtual reality: The limits of space manipulation

Abstract

Physically walking in Virtual Reality (VR) creates a truly compelling user experience. Many navigation techniques for VR have been presented in the literature. The room-scale technique allows a natural and intuitive navigation through physically walking in the virtual environment, but it is limited to the available physical space. The dimensions of the virtual space can be extended by applying translation gains, i.e., a mapping of physical movements to virtual ones. Previous works have studied the threshold at which users detect the spatial manipulation. However, little is known about the user experience and usability beyond this threshold. This paper presents a user study with 110 participants that explores the effect of using translation gains beyond the detection threshold on cybersickness and presence. The objective of this paper is to assess whether translations gains higher than the ones used in redirection techniques can be used for walking in a bigger virtual environment than the tracking area without influencing user comfort and experience. Results showed no difference in presence scores and minimal cybersickness symptoms when using no gain and a 1.5 × gain, but started to be of concern with a 2 × gain. This contribution supports the use of translation gains and the development of novel applications that allow the exploration of bigger virtual environments, thus improving presence and user experience.