Collision Bounds Change - Feedback Please

[Alex V]

We pushed a new build to SteamVR Beta yesterday that has 5 different styles of collision bounds. If you give the HMD Window focus and press the ‘h’ key, you will cycle through all 5 of them.

We would like your feedback on these styles. Our plan is to offer a set of options to customers for them to choose how invasive they want their bounds to be along with a few other options. These are our initial 5 experiments with their temporary names:

1. Squares - Small floating squares on wall surfaces
   
2. Beginner - Grid pattern with the intersections removed
   
3. Intermediate - Same as beginner but square openings are about 2.25x the area (bars are 1.5x farther apart)
   
4. Advanced - A single horizontal line on each wall
   
5. Developer - A persistent line loop at floor-level that never fades away, so it helps you always be aware of where the walls are by just glancing down

This is still a work-in-progress, but please provide as much feedback as you can. If you have ideas for what types of options you’d like to see as a developer or customer of VR, please let us know.

[MistaLee]

Oh man, I can't say enough how much I love the Advanced mode's single simple line. It still has the perimeter wireframe, so it's not ALL that minimal IMO, and I'm a tall guy, so as people are shorter it's more noticeable I would imagine. It's just so much less obtrusive IMO.

I can't imagine (at least from watching demos I've given, I could be wrong) that many people walk around while looking upwards... so the focus of it being lower down seems like pure win, as it's not obstructing most of whats around you and above the horizon line.

personal opinions:
1- Squares = too dense visually
2- Beginner = better, but still cage-like
3- Intermediate = I get this uncomfortable chicken coop vibe now ;)
4- Advanced = blah blah, love it
5- Developer = Pretty dang cool, but not useful enough particularly when standing near walls and jamming my controller into windows and such.

[ggodin]

Love it! If it would be possible to expose the collision bounds selection as an API (enum with Set method), we could let the user choose in our apps UI

[Brad_Herman]

Overall a big step in he right direction. 2 and,4, 5 are my favorties. 2&4 for demos, 5 for us.
Any chance we get and even more obious one? The lines in all the modes seem a lot thiner than before.
Or perhaps if you go very close to past boumds they get bolder?

[AR@Trion]

Updated last night and gave this a try. Don't have a favorite yet, but one note: I was standing outside the play area (at the keyboard) hitting h to cycle through, and after the first three, it seemed to get stuck: The 4th one came up and at that point, hitting h was toggling between bright and dim versions of the 4th one (maybe that was the 5th?). In any case, I wasn't able to get back to the 1st/2nd/3rd from there.

[Cryect]

1-3 Too intrusive
4 - Advanced is definitely my favorite though wish I could adjust the thickness of the line more
5 - Didn't feel useful

[Porkhe Pigatov]

5's my favorite, 4 is a close second. I think probably because in my previous office, I barely had more than 3 feet to a side and constantly felt like I was in a tiger cage, so the unobtrusiveness of 5 and the minimalist wall feedback of 4 are a refreshing change of pace.

My current office has almost the whole room (except for the closet where my desk and PC are) dedicated to roomscale, so I don't see the bounds fade in as often as before, but I still have a silly aversion to any bounds rendering methods suggestive of being in a cage.

[Steel Crate Games]

Hey, Allen from Steel Crate here. These are my thoughts after trying these for the first time. I did them in order from 1 to 5, jotting down notes as I went. I have a 3mx4m space. I am 5' 11.5" tall.

Generally the walls took me by surprise (they didn't appear soon enough) when my controllers were at my side and I walked at a normal pace from one side of room to other. One time I actually hit my wall with a controller because I didn't have time to react when walking at a normal walking pace.

1. Squares: Felt weird to have them appear to my right and left, but not in front of me. (which happened sometimes when I approached the empty space between squares)

2. Beginner: Felt good because I'm 5'11.5" and the horizontal line always lined up pretty close to my center vision, so it was much more comfortable than the sparse squares appearing to my left and right.

3. Intermediate: Felt good, except that when approaching the beige wall in the "Valve office #2 demo room with aperture robot" I could totally miss the lines altogether. My center vision sometimes ended up in the exact center of the empty space, so the lines would only appear in my peripheral vision and the contrast was too low for me to notice them sometimes if I was moving quickly towards the bounds.

4. Advanced: Stubbed my toe a couple times with this one. It's also the one that I hit my controller against the wall with. If I happen to be looking right in between the middle and top lines as I approach the wall, I may notice them in time… except they quickly exit my FoV causing me to lose track of where the virtual plane is, and I often misjudge and go past where I meant to.

5. Developer: Gave me the most freedom, the least fear. Was able to dash and dance around the space rapidly and accurately without any hesitation. Would be very important for an action game or anything requiring fast movement. I believe "The Gallery" also implements something like this to aid in their free movement, except skinned a bit nicer to their colour pallet.

Hopefully those notes are helpful. Because my space was so large, I did my testing based on the idea of walking freely and seeing how I responded to the wall stopping me in time.

I guess overall I trusted the chaperon most when using Developer (though it was the least immersive), but I also felt fairly comfortable with Beginner. If I was to want more immersion without feeling like a cage, I might choose Intermediate or even Advanced... Except that I would be constantly thinking of/searching for the bounds if I chose this approach (depending on the game).

I'd be interested to see if you could use the vertical spacing of Beginner with horizontal spacing of Intermediate to create "wide" cells (or maybe just remove all but the corner vertical lines)... I feel that having something always appear directly above or below your center vision (or exactly in the center) is important, but things that appear to the left or right of center vision are not as useful. This approach may reduce the cage-like feeling: walking towards something more like a laser wall barrier, but with more "lasers": http://wiki.obeygame.com/images/8/8f/Item_laser_wall_active.jpg Maybe the line spacing could be more dense near where you expect the player's center-vision to be to give it some visual variety while increasing chance of it being close to center-vision without adding extra visual distraction close to the floor or ceiling.

Also, the colour definitely proved to be a contrast issue (try with the wall and window of Valve room #2)

Anyway, those are my exhaustive thoughts and opinions -- Let me know if there's anything that's unclear. Good luck! :)

[Steel Crate Games]

Hi there, Allen from Steel Crate again. I hope you don't mind the barrage of thoughts from just one person, but here's another point that might be useful:

Vertical stripes on walls can be used to make a room feel taller than it actually is (this technique was used in the "Diefenbunker" underground bomb shelter[hautevitrine.files.wordpress.com]). I'm not 100% sure, but I think horizontal stripes may make a wall feel longer than it actually is. Because VR space is limited in width and length, having only horizontal lines, like a laser fence[wiki.obeygame.com], might be doubly beneficial because it may reduce the "cage" feeling while also making the VR space feel larger than it actually is.

I haven't tried myself, but it might be interesting to see if people feel the space is wider or taller when the chaperon walls have only vertical lines, only horizontal lines, or both (aka "Beginner"). Maybe it just wouldn't matter because the chaperon is (hopefully) rarely visible.

I hope that helps! And thanks for asking for our feedback!

-Allen

['Rito]

Impressions after 10 minutes of each of the new modes:

1 - Since these were added I've had issues with them, I'm not a fan, they're too subtle for me
2/3 - I like these, they're nice and clear.
4 - Works and does the job but I feel like the aesthetic of this one puts me off more than it's functionality, It's gross.
5 - This one actually gave me the most confidence to move around freely, perhaps a persistent border should be incorporated into the beginner mode along side the walls that appear as you get closer?


With these new modes, I realise there's one thing I want that doesn't exist yet: optional ceiling calibration
I have a nice and high ceiling (somewhere between 8 and 9 foot) but I have a glass lampshade that hangs down and at it's lowest point is less than a foot above my head. I have plenty of space to raise my hands, but I have to be super careful to do it at the sides of the room.

Also, when can I change this to a yellow and black colour scheme? :p

[SnugglePilot]

I particularly like #4 as my favourite, but I don't like the corner verticals - could we get another option with like #4 minus those? Just a poly at your feet, a poly at the ceiling, and a poly in the middle?

[patrick_hackett]

Ran a couple people from our team through these. 'Advanced' was preferred 2/3 times, and 'Squares' was preferred 1/3 times.

As far as options, we'd like to be able to tint the color of the lines. We have environments of a variety of colors and would like to pick the complement for the grid lines.

[DannyB]

Are you guys working on a way to mark height as well? or at least to mark an obstacle inside the bounds?

I've set this up in my living room, and many of the people who have tried it have hit my hanging lamp while painting up above them in tilt brush (or that one guy shooting hoops with food in job simulator)... yeah.. I can only imagine how this would go with consumers and ceiling fans.

just saying. ;)

[Shen]

After showing a few people, the Advanced and Squares are the two main favourites

[jespertheend]

I think I prefer #5 but it would be even better if it also faded away :)

[Ats]

It would be nice if the fade in distance of the chaperone was tweakable, in a small play area 1.7x2.1m the chaperone is almost always visible if you take a step left or right or extend your arms.