Despite the fact that Onward seems to be more tolerable than most of its kind and that things like FOV restriction can be very helpful to certain people, there will always be a certain (sizeable) portion of the player base that can’t tolerate any artificial locomotion. Onward, for example, would be ruined by a teleportation option. There are going to be lots of games like Obduction where both teleportation and smooth locomotion are applicable, but there are going to be some where only smooth locomotion works. This wasn’t even clear to me at first–something just felt “off”, and it wasn’t until I tried smooth locomotion VR games that I actually felt like I was somewhere else. For example, I couldn’t really enjoy The Gallery as a result of its teleportation. And, for me at least, that immersion entirely hinges on whether or not smooth translational artificial locomotion is an option. For me, Onward is absolutely incredible and I’ve never felt so immersed in VR (or any game).

Donate to the Voices of VR Podcast PatreonĪfter hearing podcasts like this, seeing the range of reactions to artificial locomotion online as well as offline, and playing Onward, I’ve realized that a fissure in the VR community is pretty much inevitable with respect to tolerance of artificial locomotion.

Here was Reload Studios’ setup at PAX West:

I had a chance to catch up with Reload Studios CEO James Chung at PAX West where we talk about motion sickness with VR first-person shooters with different VR comfort options, their integrations with the Virtuix Omni, their free-to-play business model, and VR eSports as well as the future of streaming in VR. This was all preparation for Twitchcon this past weekend where they were on the expo floor with the same configuration, except with PlayStation VR headsets instead of Oculus Rifts. They were livestreaming a couple of shoutcasters announcing a four-on-four player capture the flag game of World War Toons, which is a free-to-play, VR first-person shooter. At PAX West, Reload Studios made a strong push for cultivating World War Toons as a VR eSports title.

World war toons vr