如何为虚拟现实游戏设计挑战

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作者：Martin Pichlmair

上周末我加入了在歌本哈本举办的VR Game Jam。据我所知这是世界上最大型的现场VR游戏jam活动。鉴于组织者强大的产业人脉，我们可以发现演讲阵容非常惊人。本文将基于他们在活动上所分析的内容对当前VR领域所出现的挑战做出快速的总结。

VR是一个未得到较多探索的设计领域

鉴于可行VR系统的新颖性，我们对这一设计领域未能得到有效探索这点并不感到惊讶。游戏jam为我们提供了非常棒的试验机遇，然而包括我在内的许多人都需要在开始设计前进一步熟悉硬件和软件。如今的大多数游戏引擎都能够提供较为稳定的VR支持。开始总是很容易，但是一旦开发者开始致力于真正的项目，许多问题便会相继涌现出来。一个简单的例子便是，如果出现一个夜晚的场景，那么头戴式显示器的呈现与计算机屏幕间的亮度区别意味着我们只能在真正的设备上进行校准。计算机屏幕只能呈现出一张漆黑的图像。

身体反应也是另外一个设计挑战。VR能够欺骗大脑，但却是以一种并不细致的方式。设计师会不断意识到比起传统电子游戏，他们将会更加接近玩家。同时，人们对于视觉刺激物的反应也是不同的。一些让某个玩家感到稍感不适的事物可能会让其他玩家非常厌恶。对于各种类型的玩家的接受度我们只拥有粗略的了解，但是在视觉执行中我们需要依赖于很多细节内容。在VR Game Jam的群组中我们将制作一款让玩家在电梯中玩的游戏。当你上升到一个物质世界时，你同时也进入了一个虚拟世界。作为试验，群组同时也尝试着在你回到现实中时降低虚拟性。让人惊讶的是，在现实世界中上升与在虚拟世界中降低之间存在明显的区别，反之亦然。这一试验让我们清楚自己还未真正理解平衡感与视觉感知的影响。

我们的团队创造了一个非常简单的场景—-超越于游戏的体验。同样的，在提到游戏设计时，大多数已经实现的项目都受限于它们的野心中。Oculus所呈现的Crescent Bay演示版本就如非互动性一般。在我们的情况中，我们并未找到适当的输入设备去实现我们最初关于互动的理念。于是我便好奇这是否与Oculus相同。

VR需要一个控制器

我必须承认自己尝试过Razor的Hydra，但却从未有机会去测试Valve的HTC Vice控制器。但也许这一问题已经得到了解决。

与鼠标如何重新定义我们与计算机间的合作一样的是，存在一种突出的输入方法能够定义我们与VR对象间的互动。其要求是明确的。控制器必须能够精准地在3D空间中发挥功效，并保证最小的延迟性。在一个完美的世界中，VR设置需要适应任何起居室的设置。遗憾的是，所有现有的位置追踪系统都要求在房间里安装摄像头。如果控制器需要摄像头才能够精确地呈现出周围的空间的话该怎么办？

三星的GearVR便是一个非常有趣的尝试，它不需要额外的周边设备或主机。它的触屏和传感器都是能够满足最低需求的轻量级解决方法。随着过去5年里iPhone的性能增强了20多倍，我们相信在不久的未来这一问题将会得到解决。不管是GearVR还是谷歌Gardboard，将手机变成一个专门的VR设备可能会把我引向VR面临的下一个挑战中。

VR是一种反社交技术

maxresdefault(from gamasutra)

当家用计算机开始受到欢迎时，它们还不是一种社交设备。我们是通过聚集它们并分享游戏体验才将其变得具有社交性。而禁止这种体验的VR在现实世界中是不具有分享性的。只有在虚拟世界中我们才能聚在一起游戏。看到手机如何作用于虚拟世界以及现场社交（游戏邦注：分享耳机并在一机模式下共同游戏）中，我们便清楚拒绝这一能力的技术将面临适应性所带来的挑战。让第一个人与待在同个房间中的另一个人直接交流对于这一技术的网络效果来说非常关键。

VR体验

来自索尼的Jed Ashforth提到他们公司清楚这一挑战并致力于创造能够缓解这一问题的技术。其中一种解决方法便是在屏幕中呈现来自玩家视角的游戏场景。我发现如果屏幕能够呈现更多不同的角度，即实现有趣的异步多人游戏玩法，结果便会更好玩。我敢保证人们将会适时想出有关这一解决方法的完美游戏设计理念。适当的优秀设计理念：VR开发是昂贵的。之所以存在如此多2D独立游戏便是因为这是一种经济的选择。大多数小型工作室都支付不起创造3维世界的费用。即使3D图像是可实现的，但是玩家往往不会将独立游戏与AAA级游戏进行比较，除非独立开发者追求的是一种独特的美术风格。我个人便非常好奇独立开发者会如何解决这一问题。他们会采用怎样的类型？也许他们将创造虚拟的桌面游戏。

虚拟桌面游戏将会非常大

虚拟桌面游戏（既呈现第三人称视角而不是第一人称视角的游戏）将成为全新的2D游戏。从技术上来看我们也可以在基于模拟电影屏幕距离的虚拟银幕上看到表现出色的2D游戏。然而在Crescent Bay演示版本中的《模拟城市》般的虚拟桌面游戏场景给我留下了深刻的印象。那些三维世界中的小小公民比之前T-Rex中的场景更生动。比起在贫瘠的星球所遇到的外星人以及带着魔法警棍相互战斗的机器人，我在这些公民身上拥有更多同感心理。这一场景向我传达了VR所拥有的强大影响力，同时也告诉了我其设计挑战有多巨大。所以让我们正视它吧。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转发，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Design Challenges for Virtual Reality Games

by Martin Pichlmair

Over the last weekend I took part in the VR Game Jam in Copenhagen, Denmark. To the best of my knowledge this is the biggest on-site VR game jam in the world. Given the excellent industry connections of the organisers, the lineup of speakers was excellent. This article is a quick summary of current challenges in VR based on how they manifested during the jam and the presentations leading up to the jam.

VR is a Little Explored Design Space

Given the novelty of working VR systems, it is no surprise that the design space is still very much unexplored. Game Jams are an excellent opportunity to experiment, yet a lot of people – including me – need to become much more familiar with the hardware and the software, before they can start to design more than simplistic experiences. Most game engines offer more or less stable support for VR equipment by now. It is easy to get started but a number of issues manifests once developers start to work on actual projects. A simple example is that if a scene plays during the night, the difference in brightness between the head-mounted display and a computer screen means that calibration can only be done on the actual device. Since lighting is the same in both views, the computer screen only shows a pitch-black image.

Designing with consideration of bodily reactions is another design challenge the is unexpected. VR is tricking the brain and it does so in a very unsubtle way. Designers have to be constantly alert that they are much closer to the player than in a traditionally presented video game. At the same time, people are different in how they react to visual stimuli. What makes one person slightly uncomfortable might be completely nauseating for the next. There is a rough understanding on what is acceptable to a wide variety of players, but in the actual implementation a lot depends on details. On group at the VR Game Jam made a game to be played in the elevator. When you went up in the physical world you also went up in the virtual one. As an experiment, the group also tried out going down virtually when you went up in reality. What was surprising about this experiment was that there was a significant difference between going up in the real world and down in the virtual and the other way round. The experiment highlighted how much we do not understand about the influence of the sense of balance and visual perception.

Our own team created a very simplistic scene – more an experience than a game. Similarly, most of the realised projects were limited in their ambition when it came to game design. The Crescent Bay demo presented by Oculus was as good as non-interactive. In our case, we did not find a suitable input device to realise our initial idea for interaction. I wonder if it was the same with Oculus.

VR Needs a Controller

I have to admit that I’ve tried the Razor Hydra but never had the opportunity to test Valve’s HTC Vive controller. It might as well be that this problem is already solved and if you have this opinion, please skip this paragraph.

Similarly to how the mouses redefined how we work with computers, there will be a dominant input method that is going to define how we interact with VR objects. The requirements are given. The controller has to work accurately in 3D space and feature minimal latency. In a perfect world, the VR setup would not require any adaptations of the living room. Sadly, all existing accurate systems for position-tracking require cameras in the room. Now what if the controller – and the headset – featured a camera and could accurately create a representation of the space around it?

Samsung’s GearVR is an interesting proposition in that requires no external peripherals or host computers. It’s touchpad and motion sensors are a lightweight solution that fulfils minimal requirements excellently. With the iPhone increasing more than 20x in its performance over the last 5 years (see e.g. Geekbench), this is a problem that will be solved in the near future. Whether GearVR or Google Cardboard, turning your personal mobile phone into an ad-hoc VR device is a prospect that leads me to the next challenge VR is facing.

VR is Antisocial Technology

When home computers first became popular they were in itself not very social devices. We made them social by gathering around them and sharing the experience of playing. VR is prohibitive in that the experience is not sharable in the real world. Only in the virtual world we might gather and play together. Seeing how mobile phones are used for virtual as well as on-site socialising (sharing a headset, playing games in hot-seat mode) it is clear that a technology that denies this ability will face challenges when it comes to adoption. Making the first person experience transparent to people in the same room will be crucial for network effects of the technology.

VR experience

Jed Ashforth from Sony mentioned that his company is aware of this challenge and is actively working on techniques to mitigate this issue. One solution is that screen shows the game scene from the viewpoint of the player. I would find it even more interesting if the screen showed the viewpoint from a different angle than they player’s, allowing for interesting asynchronous multiplayer gameplay. I’m sure in time people will come up with excellent game design ideas for this situation. Apropos excellent design ideas: developing for VR is expensive. The reason why so many indie games are 2D is economic. Most small studios can not afford to create three-dimensional worlds. Even if 3D graphics is achievable, players would unfavourably compare indie games to AAA games, unless indie developers go for a unique art style. I’m personally curious how indies will solve this problem. What genres will they adopt? Maybe they will build virtual tabletop games.

Virtual Tabletop Will be Huge

Virtual tabletop games – where you assume a third person view instead of experiencing the world from first person – will be the new 2D game. Well, technically I can also see 2D games projected on a virtual projection screen at simulated cinema-screen distance, to work quite well. Still, the virtual tabletop Sim City-like scene in the Crescent Bay demo left me with the strongest impression. Those tiny citizens of a three-dimensional world that was about table-sized were more alive than the T-Rex in the scene before. I could feel more empathy for them than for the alien I encountered on a barren planet and the robots that were fighting each other with magic batons. This one scene demonstrated to me how much impact VR can have – and how huge the design challenge is. Let’s work on it.(source:gamasutra)

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