Mechanics of Coarse Movement

One way to control the coarse-movement is by way of what I call the “Volumetric D-Pad”. The D in D-pad stands for directional, a D-pad is the plus shaped set of buttons on a videogame-controller. The player would let the system know to switch movement modes by gesture or voice or some in game button. Once in coarse-movement mode, their body acts like a thumb on an invisible D-pad. If you step forward in the real you move forward in the virtual and keep moving forward until you step back into the neutral center of the virtual D-pad.

One interesting advantage of this approach is that because the headset turns your view automatically, there’s no need to reset the D-pad to change directions, if you turn to your left and step forward you will move “left” but it will just feel like forward. An extension of this idea leads to the next logical development: the “Volumetric Joystick”.

The joystick is very much like the D-pad, but rather than having discreet volumetric “buttons” for the cardinal directions, it allows the player to control speed and direction fluidly by moving away from a center point. Essentially, when you switch to coarse movement mode, the point you’re standing on becomes the center of the joystick. If you step to the right at a 73 degree angle, you move in that direction. The further from the center you move, the faster your movement.

With these mechanics, it’s possible to create a wide variety of virtual reality apps and games using hardware that is commercially available right now. Like any new medium, the limitations will shape the experiences.

Come back next time to learn about how technology will shape VR narratives.