VR Comfort Settings Checklist & Glossary for Developers & Players

The image above shows the Vive Cosmos Elite virtual reality headset.

When it comes to VR comfort settings, it can be confusing for both new players and developers. To address this issue, developers should clearly communicate the essential VR comfort settings offered in their VR games or experiences. This checklist and glossary provide a clear overview of what comfort settings are available and should be included in the communication with potential customers.

For a more personalized analysis of your app’s comfort design, developers can now avail of private comfort design audits from Road to VR. Simply reach out to consult [at] roadtovr.com for more details.

The checklist includes examples from two games, Half-Life: Alyx and Beat Saber, showcasing various comfort settings such as turning, movement, posture, and accessibility. By providing this information upfront, players can make better-informed decisions when purchasing VR games. Here is a glossary providing basic definitions of each VR comfort setting:

Turning:

• Artificial turning – whether the game allows players to rotate their view separately from their real-world orientation within their playspace (also known as virtual turning)
  • Snap-turn – comfortable for most. Instantly rotates the camera view in steps or increments (also known as blink-turn)
  • Quick-turn – comfortable for some. Quickly rotates the camera view in steps or increments (also known as fast-turn or dash-turn)
  • Smooth-turn – comfortable for the least. Smoothly rotates the camera view (also known as continuous-turn)

    Movement:

• Artificial movement – whether the game allows players to move through the virtual world separately from their real-world movement within their playspace (also known as virtual movement)
  • Teleport-move – comfortable for most. Instantly moves the player between positions (also known as blink-move)
  • Dash-move – comfortable for some. Quickly moves the player between positions (also known as shift-move)
  • Smooth-move – comfortable for the least. Smoothly moves the player through the world (also known as continuous-move)
• Head-based – the game considers the player’s head direction as the ‘forward’ direction for artificial movement
• Hand-based – the game considers the player’s hand/controller direction as the ‘forward’ direction for artificial movement
• Swappable movement hand – allows the player to change the artificial movement controller input between the left and right hands
• Blinders – cropping of the headset’s field of view to reduce motion visible in the player’s periphery (also known as vignette)

  Posture:

• Standing mode – supports players playing in a real-world standing position
• Seated mode – supports players playing in a real-world seated position
• Artificial crouch – allows the player to crouch with a button input instead of crouching in the real world (also known as virtual crouch)
• Real crouch – allows the player to crouch in the real-world and have it correctly reflected as crouching in the game

  Accessibility:

• Subtitles – a game that has subtitles for dialogue & interface, and which languages are available
• Audio – a game that has audio dialogue, and which languages are available
• Adjustable difficulty – allows the player to control the difficulty of a game’s mechanics
• Two-hands required – whether two hands are required for core game completion or essential mechanics
• Real-crouch required – a game which requires the player to physically crouch for core completion or essential mechanics (with no comparable artificial crouch option)
• Hearing required – a game which requires the player to be able to hear for core completion or essential mechanics
• Adjustable player height – whether the player can change their in-game height separately from their real-world height (distinct from artificial crouching because the adjustment is persistent and may also work in tandem with artificial crouching)

  This glossary is a helpful baseline for communication between developers and players regarding VR comfort settings. For more information on locomotion methods in VR content, developers can refer to the Locomotion Vault. Players with disabilities seeking more accessibility options in VR games can explore the WalkinVR custom locomotion driver. Please rewrite this sentence.