VR can be used to simulate a huge range of experiences.

But one of the big issues facing the art is comfort and simulator sickness.

This kind of discomfort can be caused by

differences in what the user sees in the headset.

Versus what the user feels in real life.

So, it's best to minimize any unexpected movement.

However this idea stands in opposition to locomotion

because you're moving from one place to another.

So, how can we move in VR without inducing simulator sickness.

This is a complicated question with no one single answer.

And it's probably the most rapidly developing area of VR.

However a few locomotion techniques have already been established

across a range of different VR games and applications.

Some techniques are more common than others.

Let's take a look.

Cockpit experiences represent some of the first attempts at

locomotion in VR and they remain popular today.

That's because in the early days of V.R.

It wasn't clear if room scale VR would indeed represent the consumer market.

So, developers targeted seated experiences.

A cockpit of some kind whether it's a spaceship,

a race car, submarine, or a fire breathing dragon.

Provides a fixed point of reference for your eyes.

This can make locomotion comfortable even while seated,

because it feels like the vessel is moving rather than your own body.

Linear motion works best in these cases and

changes in velocity should be avoided whenever possible.

In room scale VR, there have been many

experimental locomotion techniques across many applications.

One experimental concept that's been used is running in place,

using the motion controllers to detect if the player is running.

The big drawback is that some users report feeling VR sickness

when this form of locomotion is used.

However, the most popular technique is teleportation.

This is where the player points the motion controller like a laser

pointer at the floor, and then presses a button to jump to a new area.

When the player points the controller to the desired area and

teleports, the tracking volume will move to the new area.

This way the player can still stay in the same physical location

in the real world and stay in the safety of the tracking volume.

Different applications treat the moment of teleportation differently.

Some change instantly, some have a quick fade to black and

then fade back up and then others will actually animate the movement and

rapidly move the player to the new location.

We're going to keep things simple and just move to the new location instantly.

Before we continue, it's important to note that some players

don't prefer teleportation as a locomotion technique.

And still more players have a preference on how the teleportation occurs.

Instantaneously or with a fade or with movement.

This is not a perfectly agreed upon approach and

should still be considered experimental.

So, even though we're going to use teleportation as our locomotion technique

and perform the teleportation instantly,

you should still feel free to try other approaches.

It's very possible and highly probable that a much better approach exists and

has yet to be discovered.