Environments can affect mood, motivation, and productivity. Green spaces, for example, are known to have calming effects on people’s moods. In virtual reality (VR), we could take advantage of these effects, as we have full visual control over the environment. In this paper, we explore how such potential effects caused by the environment impact performance and user experience (UX) when playing an exergame. We created four environments differing in their level of detail and visual realism.: (1) a white room, (2) outer space, (3) an abstract space, and (4) a forest environment. In a user study (N=26) in which participants played an exergame in all four environments, we found evidence that VEs influence enjoyment and performance. The simulation of green spaces or abstract VEs with enjoyable background sounds has a particularly positive impact. We discuss how environmental features impact performance and UX and present promising avenues for future work investigating specific parts of environmental features.

Sedentary occupations and recreational activities carried out primarily while seated promote extended time periods spent in unhealthy sitting postures, contributing to physical and mental health issues. While apps and reminders can be effective, they often fail to sustain enjoyment and motivation or do not target stationary settings. In our work, we investigate whether sedentary waiting periods could be broken up through gentle full-body movements via full-body interactions on a large touchwall instead of remaining seated or standing. In a mixed-methods study (N=18), we compared a Match-3 game played (1) on a full-body touchwall, (2) on a smartphone standing, and (3) on a smartphone sitting, investigating user experience, performance, and acceptance. The touchwall game subtly motivated people to move, stretch and bend their bodies without performance loss while enjoying the game compared to the smartphone conditions. We suggest that full-body touchwall interaction has the potential to fill occasional waiting time while encouraging breaking up sedentary behavior.

Tile-based locomotion (TBL) is a popular locomotion technique for computer, console, and board games. However, despite its simplicity and unconventional movement, the transfer of TBL to virtual reality (VR) as a game platform remains unexplored. To fill this gap, we introduce TBL for VR on the example of two techniques: a controller and a feet-based one. In a first user study, we evaluated the usability and acceptance of the techniques compared to teleportation and touchpad locomotion. In a second exploratory user study, we evaluated the user experience of both TBL techniques in a maze and a museum scenario. The findings show that both techniques provide enjoyment and acceptable usability by creating either a relaxing (controller-based) or a physically active (feet-based) solution. Finally, our results highlight that TBL techniques work particularly well for small, constrained spaces that allow users to focus on exploring details in the nearby environment (important for games) in contrast to large open spaces that require faster locomotion, like teleportation.

High degrees of interaction fidelity (IF) in virtual reality (VR) are said to improve user experience and immersion, but there is also evidence of low IF providing comparable experiences. VR games are now increasingly prevalent, yet we still do not fully understand the trade-off between realism and abstraction in this context. We conducted a lab study comparing high and low IF for object manipulation tasks in a VR game. In a second study, we investigated players' experiences of IF for whole-body movements in a VR game that allowed players to crawl underneath virtual boulders and "dangle'' along monkey bars. Our findings show that high IF is preferred for object manipulation, but for whole-body movements, moderate IF can suffice, as there is a trade-off with usability and social factors. We provide guidelines for the development of VR games based on our results.