How Long Does It Take to Alleviate Discomfort? A Preliminary Study on Reducing Cybersickness in Novice Users

TL;DR

This study investigates how prolonged use of locomotion tunneling in VR affects cybersickness in novice users, showing significant mitigation by Day 4 but increased symptoms after scene changes, highlighting limitations and future directions.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the temporal effects of locomotion tunneling on cybersickness in novice VR users over a one-week period.

Findings

Cybersickness significantly reduced by Day 4

Scene changes on Day 5 increased cybersickness symptoms

Locomotion tunneling's effectiveness varies across scenarios

Abstract

Cybersickness significantly impacts the user experience in VR applications. Locomotion tunneling is a widely adopted technique for mitigating cybersickness in susceptible users. However, there is a lack of research investigating the effects of prolonged use of locomotion tunneling among novice users. To fill this gap, we used VRChat as our experimental platform. We recruited 24 novice VR users, defined as participants with no prior experience using immersive virtual environments. We collected five days of data within a one-week period. The results indicated that participants exhibited significant mitigation to cybersickness by Day 4. However, a change in the VR scene on Day 5 led to a notable increase in cybersickness symptoms. Qualitative feedback revealed participant-perceived causes of cybersickness and suggested that the effectiveness of locomotion tunneling was limited in some scenarios. Finally, we discussed the limitations of the study and proposed directions for future research.