Underperception of egocentric distance in virtual reality has been a persistent concern for almost 20 years. Modern head-mounted displays (HMDs) appear to have begun to ameliorate underperception. The current study examined several aspects of perceived space in the HTC Vive. Blind-walking distance judgments, verbal distance judgments, and size judgments were measured in two distinct virtual environments (VEs)—a high-quality replica of a real classroom and an empty grass field—as well as the real classroom upon which the classroom VE was modeled. A brief walking interaction was also examined as an intervention for improving anticipated underperception in the VEs. Results from the Vive were compared to existing data using two older HMDs (nVisor SX111 and ST50). Blind-walking judgments were more accurate in the Vive compared to the older displays, and did not differ substantially from the real world nor across VEs. Size judgments were more accurate in the classroom VE than the grass VE and in the Vive compared to the older displays. Verbal judgments were significantly smaller in the classroom VE compared to the real classroom and did not significantly differ across VEs. Blind-walking and size judgments were more accurate after walking interaction, but verbal judgments were unaffected. The results indicate that underperception of distance in the HTC Vive is less than in older displays but has not yet been completely resolved. With more accurate space perception afforded by modern HMDs, alternative methods for improving judgments of perceived space—such as walking interaction—may no longer be necessary.

Teleporting is a popular interface to allow virtual reality users to explore environments that are larger than the available walking space. When teleporting, the user positions a marker in the virtual environment and is instantly transported without any self-motion cues. Five experiments were designed to evaluate the spatial cognitive consequences of teleporting and to identify environmental cues that could mitigate those costs. Participants performed a triangle completion task by traversing two outbound path legs before pointing to the unmarked path origin. Locomotion was accomplished via walking or two common implementations of the teleporting interface distinguished by the concordance between movement of the body and movement through the virtual environment. In the partially concordant teleporting interface, participants teleported to translate (change position) but turned the body to rotate. In the discordant teleporting interface, participants teleported to translate and rotate. Across all five experiments, discordant teleporting produced larger errors than partially concordant teleporting which produced larger errors than walking, reflecting the importance of translational and rotational selfmotion cues. Furthermore, geometric boundaries (room walls or a fence) were necessary to mitigate the spatial cognitive costs associated with teleporting, and landmarks were helpful only in the context of a geometric boundary. Public Significance Statement: Movement through a virtual environment (VE) can be accomplished by walking, but physical space constraints require a navigation interface. One popular interface is teleporting, whereby the user points to a place in the VE and is instantly transported there. In this study, we reveal that teleporting can lead to spatial disorientation due to lack of self-motion cues. Boundaries in the VE, such as walls or a fence, reduce but do not eliminate the disorienting effect of teleporting.

Virtual reality systems typically allow users to physically walk and turn, but virtual environments (VEs) often exceed the available walking space. Teleporting has become a common user interface, whereby the user aims a laser pointer to indicate the desired location, and sometimes orientation, in the VE before being transported without self-motion cues. This study evaluated the influence of rotational self-motion cues on spatial updating performance when teleporting, and whether the importance of rotational cues varies across movement scale and environment scale. Participants performed a triangle completion task by teleporting along two outbound path legs before pointing to the unmarked path origin. Rotational selfmotion reduced overall errors across all levels of movement scale and environment scale, though it also introduced a slight bias toward under-rotation. The importance of rotational self-motion was exaggerated when navigating large triangles and when the surrounding environment was large. Navigating a large triangle within a small VE brought participants closer to surrounding landmarks and boundaries, which led to greater reliance on piloting (landmark-based navigation) and therefore reduced-but did not eliminatethe impact of rotational self-motion cues. These results indicate that rotational self-motion cues are important when teleporting, and that navigation can be improved by enabling piloting.

Distance is commonly underperceived in virtual environments (VEs) compared to real environments. Past work suggests that displaying a replica VE based on the real surrounding environment leads to more accurate judgments of distance, but that work has lacked the necessary control conditions to firmly make this conclusion. Other research indicates that walking through a VE with visual feedback improves judgments of distance and size. This study evaluated and compared those two methods for improving perceived distance in VEs. All participants experienced a replica VE based on the real lab. In one condition, participants visually previewed the real lab prior to experiencing the replica VE, and in another condition they did not. Participants performed blind-walking judgments of distance and also judgments of size in the replica VE before and after walking interaction. Distance judgments were more accurate in the preview compared to no preview condition, but size judgments were unaffected by visual preview. Distance judgments and size judgments increased after walking interaction, and the improvement was larger for distance than for size judgments. After walking interaction, distance judgments did not differ based on visual preview, and walking interaction led to a larger improvement in judged distance than did visual preview. These data suggest that walking interaction may be more effective than visual preview as a method for improving perceived space in a VE.

The number of people who own a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) has reached a point where researchers can readily recruit HMD owners to participate remotely using their own equipment. However, HMD owners recruited online may differ from the university community members who typically participate in VR research. HMD owners (n=220) and non-owners (n=282) were recruited through two online work sites-Amazon's Mechanical Turk and Prolific-and an undergraduate participant pool. Participants completed a survey in which they provided demographic information and completed measures of HMD use, video game use, spatial ability, and motion sickness susceptibility. In the context of the populations sampled, the results provide 1) a characterization of HMD owners, 2) a snapshot of the most commonly owned HMDs, 3) a comparison between HMD owners and non-owners, and 4) a comparison among online workers and undergraduates. Significant gender differences were found: men reported lower motion sickness susceptibility and more video game hours than women, and men outperformed women on spatial tasks. Men comprised a greater proportion of HMD owners than non-owners, but after accounting for this imbalance, HMD owners did not differ appreciably from non-owners. Comparing across recruitment platform, male undergraduates outperformed male online workers on spatial tests, and female undergraduates played fewer video game hours than female online workers. The data removal rate was higher from Amazon compared to Prolific, possibly reflecting greater dishonesty. These results provide a description of HMD users that can inform researchers recruiting remote participants through online work sites. These results also signal a need for caution when comparing inperson VR research that primarily enrolls undergraduates to online VR research that enrolls online workers.