Attention and sickness in VR gaming

Abstract

The increasing demand of head-mounted displays (HMDs) in the consumer market has introduced a new era of virtual reality (VR) applications, offering diverse experiences from entertainment to professional training. However, VR experiences can lead to cybersickness, a phenomenon related to motion sickness, detracting from the user’s immersion and engagement.

This thesis seeks to address the correlation between attention and cybersickness by intentionally inducing varying levels of cybersickness in an interactive VR game environment, in order to understand how this impacts attention. The research methodology involves developing a VR game with deliberate sickness-inducing elements, which are tested by assessing users’ cybersickness symptoms through simulator sickness questionnaires (SSQs). The game consists of primary and secondary tasks, with the latter serving as a benchmark for data gathering. Through this setup, the study aims to analyze the correlation between cybersickness and attention levels.

The final implementation of the game consists of four levels: a baseline level, a tutorial level, Episode I, and Episode II. The baseline level establishes initial attention and cybersickness levels by having players focus on a flashing indicator. The tutorial level familiarises players with gameplay mechanics to mitigate the learning curve. Episode I combines the former two and demonstrates that the gameplay does not impact players’ ability to focus on the secondary task, while Episode II introduces elements aimed at increasing levels of cybersickness, achieved through randomized rotations and the absence of visual cues of orientation.