VR Comfort Settings Checklist & Glossary for Developers & Players

For those who have been playing or developing VR content for years, it might seem ‘obvious’ what kind of settings are expected to be included for player comfort. Yet for new players and developers alike, the confusing sea of VR comfort terms is far from straightforward. This has lead to situations where players buy a game but find it doesn’t include a comfort setting that’s important to them. So here’s a checklist and glossary of ‘essential’ VR comfort settings that developers should clearly communicate to potential customers about their VR game or experience.

Update July 24th, 2024: Road to VR now offers developers private comfort design audits for XR apps. Your app will get an overall ‘Comfort Grade’ with a straightforward list of comfort issues and suggested fixes. Reach us at consult [at] roadtovr.com for details.

Let’s start with the VR comfort settings checklist, using two example games. While it is by no means comprehensive, it covers many of the basic comfort settings employed by VR games today. To be clear, this checklist is not what settings a game should include, it is merely the info that should be communicated so customers know what comfort settings are offered.

Want expert insight on your app’s comfort design? Reach us at consult [at] roadtovr.com to discuss a personalized comfort design audit for your XR app.

ℹ We chose these two examples because a game like Beat Saber, despite being an almost universally comfortable VR game, will have many ‘n/a’ on its list because it completely lacks artificial turning & movement. Whereas a game like Half-Life: Alyx uses artificial turning & movement and therefore offers more options for player comfort.

If players are equipped with this information ahead of time, it will help them make a more informed buying decision.

For new players, many of these terms might be confusing. Here’s a glossary of basic definitions of each VR comfort setting.

Want expert insight on your app’s comfort design? Reach us at consult [at] roadtovr.com to discuss a personalized comfort design audit for your XR app.

Turning

• Artificial turning – whether or not the game allows the player to rotate their view separately from their real-world orientation within their playspace (also called virtual turning)
  • Snap-turn – comfortable for most
    Instantly rotates the camera view in steps or increments (also called blink-turn)
  • Quick-turn – comfortable for some
    Quickly rotates the camera view in steps or increments (also called fast-turn or dash-turn)
  • Smooth-turn – comfortable for least
    Smoothly rotates the camera view (also called continuous-turn)

Movement

• Artificial movement – whether or not the game allows the player to move through the virtual world separately from their real-world movement within their playspace (also called virtual movement)
  • Teleport-move – comfortable for most
    Instantly moves the player between positions (also called blink-move)
  • Dash-move – comfortable for some
    Quickly moves the player between positions (also called shift-move)
  • Smooth-move – comfortable for least
    Smoothly moves the player through the world (also called 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 called 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 called 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 therein
• Audio – a game that has audio dialogue, and which languages therein
• 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)

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As mentioned, this is not a comprehensive list. VR comfort is a complex topic especially because everyone’s experience is somewhat different, but this is hopefully a useful baseline to help streamline communication between developers and players alike.

For developers exploring various locomotion methods for use in VR content, the Locomotion Vault is a good resource to see real-world examples.

For players with disabilities who want more options for VR game accessibility check out the WalkinVR custom locomotion driver.