This week I decided to eliminate the flying unicorn animation I had prepared even though I managed to work it through. I did some research on VR motion sickness and realized that the flying unicorn interaction I had in mind might cause sicness and maybe have extra consequences.
More specifically the interaction I had in mind was to have the player tap the unicorn and then fly with the unicorn until a specific set location – the player would not be able to choose where to land. However, this interaction is prone to inducing sickness to the player so I chose to eliminate it.
Research behind:
“Virtual reality sickness occurs when exposure to a virtual environment causes symptoms that are similar to motion sickness symptoms. The most common symptoms are general discomfort, headache, stomach awareness, nausea, vomiting, pallor, sweating, fatigue, drowsiness, disorientation, and apathy. Other symptoms include postural instability and retching. Virtual reality sickness is different from motion sickness in that it can be caused by the visually-induced perception of self-motion; real self-motion is not needed.
Virtual reality sickness may have undesirable consequences beyond the sickness itself. For example, Crowley (1987) argued that flight simulator sickness could discourage pilots from using flight simulators, reduce the efficiency of training through distraction and the encouragement of adaptive behaviors that are unfavorable for performance, compromise ground safety or flight safety when sick and disoriented pilots leave the simulator. Similar consequences could be expected for virtual reality systems. Although the evidence for performance decrements due to virtual reality sickness is limited, research does suggest that virtual reality sickness is a major barrier to using virtual reality, indicating that virtual reality sickness may be a barrier to the effective use of training tools and rehabilitation tools in virtual reality. “
Conclusion:
I decided to change the flying unicorn interaction because not only I feared that it may induce VR sickness but also believed there could be chances the interaction may subconsciously encourage flying phobia or height phobias to the players.
The new interaction:
For now, the new interaction is to have the player tap/pat the unicorn. The Unicorn then flies away by itself and in its position is a shape of the unicorn made in particle effects. The player walks through this particle mesh and gets the feeling of walking through the unicorn’s soul.
Virtual reality sickness. (2020, October 30). Retrieved December 06, 2020, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality_sickness