HONOURS PROJECT - COMPLEX ACCESSIBLE CONTROL SCHEMES FOR VIRTUAL REALITY

ROLE

Designer & Programmer

DESCRIPTION

This project is an exploration into alternate types of accessible controls for VR shooters to allow people with limb differences more easily enjoy VR games. This project focused on shooting and reloading a gun one-handed while limiting either button inputs or arm movements to account for as wide a range of disabilities as possible.

YEAR

2023

GENRE

Virtual Reality

PLATFORM

SteamVR

AT A GLANCE

A full showcase of this project can be seen in the video to the left.

The premise of this project is to design accessible control schemes for VR while keeping certain physical limitations in mind, such as using only one arm in cases where two are usually required or using only motion inputs to perform tasks which typically require additional button inputs.

This project is a VR demo, showcasing potential accessible control schemes for shooting and reloading a gun in VR. Button-based controls aim to improve accessibility for those with reduced mobility in their arms or missing an arm completely, but still having full mobility in their fingers. Gesture-based controls are the inverse of this – they are designed to improve accessibility for those with full or near-to-full range of motion in one or both arms, but lack fine control over their fingers, for example those using an arm prosthetic or with arthritis in their fingers which can make repeated button pressing painful.

On top of these control schemes, extra assistive features were added which were compatible with any controls. These included automatic magazine insertion, automatic magazine ejection on empty, a "floating mag" which spawned on the players hip which they then moved their gun towards, and snap-based aim assist.

GESTURES

This gesture will be most useful once continuous recognition is working, as the motion feels intuitive from testing and would effectively eliminate the need for a button press to eject a mag.

This gesture effectively allows the insertion of a magazine with only one hand and one button press (zero button presses with continuous recognition)

This gesture allows the player to cock the gun with only one hand, as they don't need to grab the slide.

This gesture needs more visual feedback, but it allows the ejection and insertion of a magazine in one motion, simplifying the whole process.

I used a 3D gesture recognition plugin to replace the need for some button inputs and secondary arm movements. the original intent was to use continuous gesture recognition to completely eliminate the need for button presses

Unfortunately I could not get this working in time, so for now a button needs to be held to begin a gesture, and released to end a gesture. There is a plan for this to be improved in the future, as continuous gesture recognition is feasible. It still works as a proof-of-concept.

BUTTON CONTROLS & EXTRA ASSISTIVE FEATURES

Button controls are a half-way point between using a gamepad in VR and realistic VR interactions. The user is still able to interact with the VR world at their own pace, but can press a button to simplify actions that would either require two hands or an uncomfortable movement.

Because of this button limit, I added extra assistive features. In the gif to the left the "floating mag" assistive option can be seen, where a magazine automatically spawns on the player's hip which they can then move the gun towards to load the magazine. Other features, not pictured, include auto-ejecting the mag when there are no bullets left in the gun and automatically inserting a new magazine when one is ejected.

VR AIM ASSIST

VR games generally lack an aim assist option that's comparable to traditional FPS games, so as part of this project I implemented a simple snap-based assist option. Targetable objects have an "assist radius" around them, which when targeted by the weapon the player is holding, snaps the aim to the centre of the object.

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