Virtual-reality can present fantastic sprawling
imaginative worlds.
While the user is confined to a small empty room for her safety and tracking to navigate a large virtual
environment, the user needs to use artificial locomotion techniques such as teleporting.
VRoamer is a proof of concept system that enables the user to navigate large virtual
worlds using natural walking as its main locomotion technique.
The system, equipped with the wearable tech camera, scans the environment in front of the user and
visualizes a playable virtual world. The virtual geometry may differ from the real environment and
may differ between different games, yet
it maintained the users safe from obstacles, both static and
dynamically moving. Once the game narrative is represented as a graph
where nodes are location that progress the story and the player moves between them. For example, in a game inspired by the classic Rogue, a
dungeon exploration game, the player may reach a room with a well and find the key hidden in the pail.
This key may lead her to a throne room where the key may be used to recover a treasure.
The transition between story nodes are done through corridors that are constructed according to the available space in the users environment.
The user starts her journey at a room constructed around her.
Doors in the walls may lead her to additional rooms as she explores the dungeon.
Corridors may vary between different users depending on the physical geometry around them and they can be designed to contain resources,
weapons and enemies. When the system detects a physical opening of required size,
it will map a story node such as the flow know. The story nodes are offered and present similar narrative to all users.
Dynamic obstacles or obstacles detected at last minute may be represented by objects in the dungeon or
characters, such as the skeletons or spikes that comes out of the floor.
In summary, VRoamer is a novel system that enables usage of
uncontrolled environments as a base for VR interaction.
Thank you
