Three ways to ‘walk’ in VR (and why they are all kinds of bad)

The recent visit to the enhanced reality expo found me to think about a big issue with virtual reality: until you have an empty warehouse, your VR gaming experience is going to be limited by the simple fact you cannot walk far away. Searching for a huge blank space and being transported completely is a very high point of many video games and VR experiences, and when you are worried about the collision in your coffee table you cannot get that complete immersion.

But if you are ready to take your VR setup to the next level, there are ways to bring closer to the real movement in the virtual world. Nobody is right, but some are civilized. Some are surprisingly inexpensive, while others are ridiculous at the price. From the Omni-directional treadmill to the motorized shoes, there are some solutions to walk in the VR.

Omni-directional driven treadmill

VR is something out of VR science fiction with an Omni-directional moving treadmill, but it is now commercially available, but only if you have deep Pocket.

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Is the device above InsindeckA multi-directional treadmill that lets you go in any direction and react to the speed of your feet. It seems like The solution of movement in VR, but it has an important negative side: cost. Infinadeck is aimed at businesses and institutions, and the price tag for the match. I am not getting an accurate figure on the site of Infinadeck, but an old version of its site gave the price between $ 40,000 and $ 60,000. Auch. If you are interested then you can contact the company. There is a similar, big treadmill OmnipotenceBut I am not getting any information about its price. Therefore, until these treadmill solutions become cheap, some (semi) are affordable consumer options.

Friction-Prakash VR Movement Platform

Credit: Stephen Johnson

The picture above is Omni forest From Virtuix, a VR device that takes a low-technical approach to the problem of movement in VR. It is basically a very slippery concave surface, which is with a harness to catch you straight and catch the sensor to detect the speed of your foot. You take one step forward and slide your leg down. A complete system, which includes $ 3,495 to all controllers required for treadmill, standalone VR headset, and all the controllers required for you. Another friction-based option is the Cat Walk C2 core VR Treadmill. This concept is the same, but the cat walk is a slant platform unlike the shape of a bowl. It is even more cheap at $ 999.

Shoe based solution for VR movement

Credit: Stephen Johnson

Maybe the answer is not to provide a floor that runs or to slide on a surface. The answer may be that to add small treadmills under the shoe, let you “walk” without walking. It is behind the concept VR shoes of freeaim: You take a step and your feet are directed back under you, without knowing it. To avoid broken hips, it requires an harmony and standing, until you are really brave. The estimated retail price for these is $ 1,100, but they are not yet in the market.

Speaking of Not-on-the-Market, remember the name enlightening Cyber ​​shoes? This inexpensive shoe-based VR device lets you copy walk while seating. For some reason – perhaps because “walking while sitting while sitting” is nothing that anyone wants – they could not catch. They are no longer commercially available.

Maybe there is no solution?

The death rate of cyber shoes and low adoption rates of VR movement systems may be evidence that technology is not yet, demand is not yet, prices are too high, or a combination of all three. But it can also be evidence that we are not just Meaning To walk in VR.

I tried a slippery-stage platform for a brief moment, but the fear of an intestine stopped a deep dive. people who have Tested more expensive omni-directional treadmill Report that, while they are calm, walking doesn’t really feel like this WalkingThe feeling of walking is harsh in us, and “hold yourself and step on this very slippery floor” or “This shoe will put your feet back”. Perhaps a technical solution is coming in the future, but perhaps we are looking at the wrong place.

AR vs VR Experience

For a true “walking in cyberspace”, virtual reality can be wrong medium. Enhanced and mixed reality experiences that overlay the virtual elements in the real world, let you all move around, without $ 50,000 treadmill or without a harness to catch you.

I do not know about any AR game that offers the “traditional” video game expansion, but we are getting closer. Like games Drop dead: cabin, A VR zombie-killing game for Meta Quest is showing the way. Close A mixed reality mode includes that lets you scan the room that you are inside, and the game replaces some elements of real life with virtual, so your window view is of a different world, and your end-table looks like a gun rack. Then the corpse breaks. watch Trailer:

Whereas Drop dead: cabinThe “home invasion” mode is a fairly limited experience that is a type of pain to establish in the future, when the technique reaches there, I hope to see the games that re -skin in the real world or a distant planet in the real world, which allows VR players to allow VR players to move around their hearts only on their two legs. Till then, we may not have to try to move the furniture, walk in place and break the lamp.