Physics governs everyday interaction, yet in Virtual Reality (VR) the fidelity of such interactions can diverge from reality. We investigate how Physical Fidelity (virtual object behavior) and Action Fidelity (virtual hand behavior) of physics-driven interaction shape user experience. In a within-subject study (n = 34), participants performed gamified tasks under three conditions: No-Physics (lower Physical and Action Fidelity), Object-Physics (higher Physical, lower Action Fidelity), and Full-Physics (higher Physical and Action Fidelity). Results show that higher Physical Fidelity reduces task efficiency and increases overall workload, with the No-Physics condition outperforming the others in these metrics. When combined with higher Action Fidelity, although efficiency gets even worse in some cases, the Full-Physics condition enhances body ownership and interaction quality. The hybrid Object-Physics condition consistently ranks lowest across all qualitative measures. Interpreting these results through the Interaction Fidelity Model, we offer design implications for VR applications.

Figure 1: Original illustration visualizing the process of this research: Each puzzle piece represents an integral part of the board game creation process, and the aim of this work is to discover the way the pieces connect with each other.

Physics-based hand interaction in VR has been extensively explored, but almost none of the solutions are usable. The only exception is CLAP, a custom soft body simulation offering realistic and smooth hand interaction in VR. Even CLAP, however, imposes constraints on virtual hand and object behavior. We introduce HPTK+, a software solution that utilizes the physics engine NVIDIA PhysX. Benefiting from the engine’s maturity and integration with game engines, we aim to enable more general and free-hand interactions in virtual environments. We conducted a user study with 27 participants comparing the interactions supported by both libraries. Results indicate an overall preference for CLAP, but no significant differences in other measures or performance, except variance. These findings provide insights into the libraries’ suitability for specific tasks. Additionally, we highlight HPTK+’s exclusive support for diverse interactions, positioning it as an ideal candidate for further research in physics-based VR interactions.

Continuous artificial locomotion in VR typically involves users selecting their direction using controller input, with the forward direction determined by the Head, Hands, or less commonly, the Hip. The effects of these different sources on user experience are under-explored, and Feet have not been used as a direction source. To address these gaps, we compared these direction sources, including a novel Feet-based technique. A user study with 22 participants assessed these methods in terms of performance, preference, motion sickness, and sense of presence. Our findings indicate high levels of presence and minimal motion sickness across all methods. Performance differences were noted in one task, where the Head outperformed the Hand. The Hand method was the least preferred, feeling less natural and realistic. The Feet method was found to be more natural than the Head and more realistic than the Hip. This study enhances understanding of direction sources in VR locomotion and introduces Feet-based direction as a viable alternative.

In this paper we present the results of our research exploring the possible challenges board game creators might face while developing and playtesting games and we identify user requirements for their ideal digital game development platform. Our goal is to gain insights into the game development process and foster a deeper understanding of the creators’ perspectives and needs to inform our design of an effective digital tool to support them. We proceeded in two stages: (a) researching the web for designers’ views on the creation process, as well as reviews of commonly used digital tools, and (b) creating a questionnaire based on the information acquired in step (a) and organising a user study. 16 board game developers participated in the study, whose valuable feedback along with the data gathered from the online research will set a strong foundation for the development of an innovative platform.

Virtual grasping is one of the most common and important interactions performed in a Virtual Environment (VE). Even though there has been substantial research using hand tracking methods exploring different ways of visualizing grasping, there are only a few studies that focus on handheld controllers. This gap in research is particularly crucial, since controllers remain the most used input modality in commercial Virtual Reality (VR). Extending existing research, we designed an experiment comparing three different grasping visualizations when users are interacting with virtual objects in immersive VR using controllers. We examine the following visualizations: the Auto-Pose (AP), where the hand is automatically adjusted to the object upon grasping; the Simple-Pose (SP), where the hand closes fully when selecting the object; and the Disappearing-Hand (DH), where the hand becomes invisible after selecting an object, and turns visible again after positioning it on the target. We recruited 38 participants in order to measure if and how their performance, sense of embodiment, and preference are affected. Our results show that while in terms of performance there is almost no significant difference in any of the visualizations, the perceived sense of embodiment is stronger with the AP, and is generally preferred by the users. Thus, this study incentivizes the inclusion of similar visualizations in relevant future research and VR experiences.

Many studies have been conducted in the past few years that focus on interaction and embodiment in the field of virtual reality. However, despite the recent widespread use and continuing rise of controller-based head-mounted display (HMD) hardware for VR, there is little research on the use of handheld controllers in this context. We explore the effects of different virtual hand representations on interaction and the user’s sense of embodiment, extending the work of Argelaguet et al. in 2016, in this case using controllers. We designed an experiment where users perform the task of selecting and moving a cube from and to specific positions on a table inside an immersive virtual environment, interacting with three representations: the abstract shape of a Sphere, the 3D model of the Controller, and a realistic human-looking Hand. For each representation, users were asked to perform the same task with and without obstacles (Brick Wall, Barbed Wire, Electric Current). Statistical analysis of the results show that although no significant differences were identified in the sense of agency, the users’ performance with the Sphere was significantly worse compared to the other two, and in the case of the positioning task the Controller outperformed the others. Additionally, the Hand generated the strongest sense of ownership, and it was the favorite representation.