VERY IMPORTANT FOR THIS GAME! Testing Your Dominant Eye..

Your Ocular Orientation matters a ton in VR Games! Find out how it influences your shooting, and how you can improve your aim if you have Mixed Ocular Dominance or Cross Dominance!

Eye and Hand Dominance: Why do I care?

So, most of us don't really put much thought into our dominant eye, if we don't shoot in real life. Thing is, in VR, especially Pavlov, you're relying on binocular vision, because the game is thrown at your eyeballs that way. Thus, just like real life shooting, if your dominant eye differs from the one you're using to shoot with, you're going to have problems. You might notice that your shots that you could SWEAR were aimed RIGHT at the enemy through the ironsights are going a little above and off to one side... or you may notice yourself having issues leading targets... heck, you could even notice yourself having issues shooting moving targets.

It might not be that you suck at shooters, it might be that you are shooting with the opposite eye and hand that are actually dominant for you. You could be Cross Dominant, as well, meaning that your dominant hand is the opposite of your dominant eye. If you're SUPER unlucky, like I am, you could have what is called Mixed Ocular Dominance, meaning that your eyes are either equally dominant, or that they trade off dominance depending on the task you're performing. How do you find out?

There are plenty of tests on the internet, and you could easily google them, but two simple tests you can do at home are as follows:

Eye Dominance Tests

Method 1:

Form a triangle with the index and thumb of both hands, then center an object at a distance in the very middle of this triangle, with both eyes open.

Close your right eye, then your left. When you close one eye, you may notice the object moves its location inside of this triangle between your fingers. That means that eye is your non-dominant eye. With the other eye, you may notice the object does not move at all, or very little, from the center. That is your dominant eye.

If the object stays in the center with both eyes, then you might actually have Mixed Ocular Dominance... and.. well, that still doesn't mean that one eye isn't dominant for focusing at range, or even determining distance. The second method, however, can help you figure that part out.

Method 2:

Make a "Thumbs up" Sign (An F-you sign in some cultures, amusingly enough. Careful when you go traveling abroad.).

Using this thumbs up sign, and with both eyes open, center your thumb over a distant object, so that it covers that object completely. It may appear to "phase" in and out of view at this point, or "Disappear" in some spots.. that's fine, your eyes have some overlap naturally, and that means it's actually pretty centered. I like to focus on the doorknob of my room, simply because of how VR works.. it's basically two small screens that are magnified, so you're actually focusing on something rather close, as opposed to something far way. For Mixed Ocular Dominance, this means you're ensuring that the dominant eye you're testing for is the one you'll be using in Pavlov.

Now, just like the previous test, close one eye, then close it and switch to the other eye. One of your eyes will continue to obscure the object with your thumb. That is your dominant eye. The other will move the object slightly to the side, uncovering it.


Those of you who have Same-Side Dominance.. enjoy playing Pavlov with no necessary adjustments. For those of you, however, that are not Same-Side Dominant.. see my other guide "Compensating for Cross-Dominance or Mixed Ocular Dominance in VR".

So what do I do with his knowledge?

For those of you that are right hand dominant and right eye dominant.. congratulations, you don't need to do anything except practice your aim. For those that are left hand and left eye dominant.. Unlike in real life, where many guns are constructed for right hand use and either require you to use them right handed, or buy modification kits to make them right handed, Pavlov lets you use their guns in either hand, so it's simply a matter of using them left-handed with your left-dominant eye.

For those of you who are unfortunate enough to have Cross Dominance (Left hand dominant, right eye dominant, or right hand dominant, left eye dominant), or even worse, people who have Mixed Ocular Dominance, there are a few options, but you'll need to alter how you play in order to improve how you play and bypass what is, essentially, a natural "Handicap" in this game... because you're likely shooting with the wrong eye.

Methods to compensate for Mixed Ocular Dominance or Crossed Dominance

There are actually quite a few methods to correct this, and thanks to how VR works.. some of them are more viable in VR than they are in real life.

Method 1:

Simply switch to your non-dominant hand. This is what most people do in real life to compensate. It's easier in real life for Right Eye Dominant Lefties than it is for Left Eye Dominant Righties, simply because most guns in real life are produced for Right Handed use... and you'd have to buy a kit to convert them to Left Handed use.. in Pavlov, it doesn't matter. Weapons can be used in either hand. This is easier to do if you're already ambidextrous to some degree, and most professional shooters practice with their non-dominant hands anyway, just in case they suffer an injury to their dominant hand. In Pavlov, since you don't physically "muscle down" the recoil of the gun, this might be even easier, because your dominant hand tends to be more dexterous, thus making it easier and faster to change magazines and ready your gun for firing. Though, getting used to grabbing things with your non-dominant hand might take some practice to get used to. The advantage of this is that your dominant eye will always be capable of properly aiming down the sights.

Method 2:

Some professional shooters will close their dominant eye until right before they fire, to force the other eye to focus so that they can use their dominant hand. The trade-off in this is much the same as that in real life: Reduced peripheral vision. Just like in real life, it's not a good trade-off in the battlefield.

Method 3:

I love the P90. It's my favorite gun. I also love red-dot scopes. The p90 in Pavlov has a red-dot scope. Turns out the reason I love the red-dot scope, is because they're designed to work with BOTH of your eyes open. For people who have true Mixed Ocular Dominance, this will probably be their best scope. The main advantage, however, is that you can keep BOTH eyes open while you aim down the sights, thus making eye dominance less of a factor. The red-dot will only function when your dominant eye has the scope lined up, and it's easy enough to do so, even with Crossed Dominance.

Just like real life, this method works pretty damn well, with pretty much no drawbacks, except requiring the red-dot scope. An alternative for ironsight guns is to aim with both eyes, then close your non-dominant eye and correct the aim at the last moment.. a little harder to do.

Method 4:

Cocking your head to the side. This can allow you to aim down the sights while using your Dominant hand, if you have Crossed Dominance. In real life, this would likely lead to a crappier weapon stance and reduced peripheral vision. In the VR world, you'll probably get a sore neck if you play for long periods. Which you probably will, without even realizing it.

Method 5:

You may have already caught yourself doing this.. I certainly have. Canting the gun is turning the gun slightly, not completely on its side gangster-style, but just enough so that you're using your Dominant Eye to line up the sights, while still using your Dominant Hand to aim. For a Cross-Dominant person with a Left Eye Dominance and a Right Hand Dominance, that means you'd likely slightly tilt the gun to the left, so that the sights are lined up with your eye, while your Right Hand is gripping the handle.

In real life, this means less recoil control, issues with long-range shooting due to bullet drop, and shards of hot metal flying back into your face as casings are ejected from automatic weapons. In Pavlov, it simply means that your recoil will push your gun sideways, instead of up, so if you rely on recoil to score those headshots.. this method will not be as efficient for you.

So which method do I pick? Which one is the best?

Unfortunately, this isn't something I can answer for you. Like guns, classes, and favorite foods, it's ultimately up to you which one ends up being your favorite, or most effective. Play around with different methods and see which ones work for you. Pavlov is, after all, a game, and thus, all about having the most fun you can. No one wants a stiff neck, and hey, if you practice with your non-dominant hand in Pavlov, who knows, that might translate into a real world application if you ever decide to head down to the shooting range to shoot these beasties for real.

How I actually figured out I had Mixed Ocular Dominance, and a very shameless promotion.

I have just gotten into streaming on Twitch, and like many new Twitch Streamers, the whole broadcasting and capturing thing, despite hours of research, is really a trial-and-error thing for me. As such, I typically re-watch my own broadcasts to see what worked and didn't work, and what type of problems happened during the stream. I wasn't using the Oculus Mirror program to record Pavlov at first, so both eyes were captured in stereoscopic vision. I didn't pay too much mind to it, and figured out how to activate the Oculus Mirror. Doing a little research, I learned that it captures the right eye by default and I thought to myself "okay, that's fine. I'm right handed, it shouldn't be an issue."

Upon re-watching a post-oculus mirror broadcast, however, I realized that my red-dot scope wasn't showing at all in the recorded videos! "What!?" I thought to myself, I was using it the whole game, and yet the captured footage makes it look like I was blind-firing the whole time... but the mirror was capturing my right eye, wasn't it?

I quickly looked back to the stereoscopic recording of my pre-oculus mirror broadcast, and sure enough, there was the red-dot scope, working perfectly in the LEFT eye render. A few basic tests later.. turns out I wasn't right eye dominant, as I had thought. When it comes to my eyes, they switch dominance based on the task I'm performing. When judging distance and trying to target things, my left eye is the dominant one, despite my right hand being the dominant one.

I spent the next half an hour or so researching Cross Dominance and Mixed Ocular Dominance, and how it influence gunplay and archery. During one article, the writer mentioned "Canting the gun towards the dominant eye" and I instantly thought "I have seen myself do this both in game and in my recorded broadcasts plenty of times.. that explains everything." It turns out, this whole time that I thought I was missing shots because I was rusty at playing FPS games, or because the hitboxes were bugged horribly, I was simply aiming wrong because of this issue. My recent "improvement" was actually me doing things to compensate for my Mixed Ocular Dominance.

I realized that this probably a problem that a lot of people are having with this game, and simply don't realize they're having it, so I set about writing this guide, in the hopes that it will help aleviate the frustrations of some of these players. VR, itself, is a new application for many people, and with it, there are many differences compared to how we play standard games.

Things we might not even normally think about, or might not even know about ourselves, influence our gaming, when you begin to pull it into a more physical realm. This is a concept that both excites, and intrigues me, and when I'm in a situation like that... well, I can't help but to create something out of it. Thus, you have this guide.

If you liked this guide, and want to show your appreciation, or you just want to watch me playing this game and others, feel free to stop by my twitch channel at Vexrathus[www.twitch.tv]. I'm very new at streaming, and I'm far from perfect at it, but it's fun for me, and I enjoy having others along for the ride.

Thank you for reading, and I hope this guide helped you out.

[WireJockey]

you dont need a dominant eye as you can aim without it in this game

[The Investigator]

According to the tests in your post I'm pretty sure I'm right eye dominate and right handed, but I have always had to close my left eye to aim down "sights" or "scopes" (I get a cross eye like effect if I don't that's quite distracting). Mind you the closest I have come to aiming IRL was playing light gun arcade games (my favorite was the terminator game my local movie theater had in the lobby for years) if I was "hip" firing I could have both eyes open, but epsically with this one dear hunter arcade cabinet (not sure if that one counted as a light gun game, the "gun" was mounted to the cabinet and felt like it controlled more like a giant joy stick) I always had to close my left I when looking down that "scope". Also in films I tend to see people closing one of their eyes when aim down sights or scopes, so I honestly never knew it was a problem to close an eye when aiming.

[yoshi bob]

wait nvm im left handed left footed and left eyed

[yoshi bob]

wait im left handed left footed but right eye'd???

[Tomorrow ^\DA/^]

Excellent bit of knowledge here. this should be required reading for any VR shooter fans. They should get this post with their purchase of their headset of choice. I found out i was right eye dominant years ago when i got into gel-blasting (airsoft's retarded cousin, thanks for living in the stone ages Australia). When i moved into VR shooting when gel-blasting was inevitably banned, it wss a huge benefit to have. I was left hand dominant when shooting, so i trained myself to shoot right handed, which was a learning curve, but i adjusted eventually. Being able to focus your dominant eye down a rifle scope while keeping your left eye open is excellent for peripheral awareness. I highly recommend everyone practise this skill.

[raiden]

SO YOUR FUCKING TELLING ME IM LEFT EYE DOMINANT

[Man with Pickle]

what do i do if neither eye is centered when i do either of those

[(K)eep (Y)ourself (S)afe]

I am right hand dominant but not right eye dominant, i found this fact not from VR but from playing airsoft with some friends and one of my buddies let me borrow his sniper (SVD replica) and when he noticed me looking from my left eye yet holding the gun with a right hand and Zend0's advice is correct. I came to learn how to use my right hand and left hand in airsoft and used the same way in VR.

[Zend0]

left eye right handed here, I'd suggest after years of competitive shooting to just practice with your non dominant hand no matter what, being able to switch grip to present the smallest target possible is a huge advantage, when you go to drive your barrel into a corner while room clearing or peak a corner if you're holding the gun in the wrong hand then you present about 2/3 of your body before the barrel clears the corner as opposed to maybe 10% of your head and body before the barrel clears, your barrel should always clear before your whole head does otherwise they see you before you're able to return fire

[fideys]

The triangle test just makes it not center at all when i switch the eyes. Does that mean it's same side dominant?