Virtual reality is a powerful tool for teaching 3D digital technologies in building engineering, as it facilitates the spatial perception of three-dimensional space. Spatial orientation skill is necessary for understanding 3D space. With VR, users navigate through virtually designed buildings and must be constantly aware of their position relative to other elements of the environment (orientation during navigation). In the present study, 25 building engineering students performed navigation tasks in a desktop-VR environment workshop. Performance of students using the desktop-VR was compared to a previous workshop in which navigation tasks were carried out using head-mounted displays. The Perspective Taking/Spatial Orientation Test measured spatial orientation skill. A questionnaire on user experience in the virtual environment was also administered. The gain in spatial orientation skill was 12.62%, similar to that obtained with head-mounted displays (14.23%). The desktop VR environment is an alternative to the HMD-VR environment for planning strategies to improve spatial orientation. Results from the user-experience questionnaire showed that the desktop VR environment strategy was well perceived by students in terms of interaction, 3D visualization, navigation, and sense of presence. Unlike in the HDM VR environment, student in the desktop VR environment did not report feelings of fatigue or dizziness.
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Guidelines on Successfully Porting Non-Immersive Games to Virtual Reality: A Case Study in Minecraft
Virtual reality games have grown rapidly in popularity since the first consumer VR head-mounted displays were released in 2016, however comparatively little research has explored how this new medium impacts the experience of players. In this paper, we present a study exploring how user experience changes when playing Minecraft on the desktop and in immersive virtual reality. Fourteen players completed six 45 minute sessions, three played on the desktop and three in VR. The Gaming Experience Questionnaire, the i-Group presence questionnaire, and the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire were administered after each session, and players were interviewed at the end of the experiment. Participants strongly preferred playing Minecraft in VR, despite frustrations with using teleporation as a travel technique and feelings of simulator sickness. Players enjoyed using motion controls, but still continued to use indirect input under certain circumstances. This did not appear to negatively impact feelings of presence. We conclude with four lessons for game developers interested in porting their games to virtual reality.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1717937
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10067549
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Conference Paper:
- https://doi.org/10.1145/3242671.3242677
