Space Walk at Gamescom: Hamburg start-up combats VR disease

Thursday 22nd August 2019

Space Walk at Gamescom
Hamburg start-up combats VR disease

By Michael Bauer, Cologne

If the eye perceives movement, but the body does not, this leads to discomfort – this problem often occurs in virtual reality. A Hamburg project aims to get rid of VR disease with a new technology. In doing so, they trick the players' brains.

Dive into other worlds with the help of virtual reality glasses: everyone can dare to experience this, but not everyone can enjoy it. Because like on the high seas, movement seen but not felt can lead to nausea. Motion sickness is the name of this disease that affects 50 percent of all players. The Hamburg start-up "Space Walk" has now developed a technology that enables natural walking in virtual worlds and is intended to prevent motion sickness.

The team around VR expert Eike Langbehn, PR strategist Dennis Briddigkeit and 3D artist Hannah Paulmann works with the method of "redirected walking". For the trio, the challenge is how to create the illusion of moving in much larger spaces in the player below their perceptual limit. In doing so, the people of Hamburg trick the brains of the VR players.

On "bending" and "overlapping"

"'Redirected Walking' consists of various components," explains Langbehn in an interview with n-tv.de. "For one thing, the player's real path is bent in such a way that it is slightly different from the virtual one." Space Walk uses a perception threshold. The player does not even notice a change of five degrees per meter.

On the other hand, overlapping rooms are used. Due to the human field of vision, an overlap of less than 50 percent is not noticed by VR users. In interaction with the "bending", for example, three virtual objects have the same physical place in the player's room. The result: The player can move constantly in an environment that seems much larger than it actually is.

And precisely at the point of constant movement, Space Walk prevents or reduces the occurrence of motion sickness with its technology. This occurs when the brain, as usual in virtual reality, perceives movement from the first-person perspective, but the body does not. Headaches, dizziness, nausea and even nausea can result.

Story-based games in the focus of Space Walk

The problem also affects the video game industry, because it is impossible to predict which players will suffer from motion sickness. The future start-up is therefore an expansion that is interesting for the entire industry. "In six months the technology should then be mature and be released for the market," emphasizes Briddigkeit. Until then, the team is looking for partners to develop story-based games themselves.

In the field of VR games, Space Walk will not be able to enrich all genres. The faster the movement in virtual reality, the more difficult it becomes for the algorithm. However, the graphics in VR games often decrease with increasing speed. Role, puzzle and adventure games would benefit immensely from "redirected walking".

However, the development is mainly based on an area of ​​four by four meters – too large for home use for VR devices. However, the technology would also work on a smaller area. The adjustment would then only have to be made in the games.