We present VisionPort, an enhanced Point-and-Teleport technique designed for navigating building-scale indoor virtual environments, specifically addressing the challenges posed by obstacles including walls, ceilings, and floors. VisionPort is available in two versions: VisionPort-essential and VisionPort-full. VisionPort-essential removes only the necessary portion of an obstacle targeted by the pointer, revealing the landing position behind it. In contrast, VisionPort-full allows for the complete removal of obstacles. Both versions enable users to seamlessly pass through barriers during the Point-and-Teleport locomotion process, while preserving the natural flow of navigation within the virtual building. Our evaluation, conducted in a multi-floor building setting, demonstrates that VisionPort improves navigation by reducing the time, head movement, and distance required to reach destinations. While VisionPort-full enhances efficiency, VisionPort-essential provides users with a greater sense of control, reflecting diverse preferences among participants.

The Point-and-Teleport locomotion in VR allows for instantaneous movement and helps minimize motion sickness. However, precise targeting can be difficult when the intended destination is obscured by an obstruction. This work presents Preview Teleport, an enhanced point-and-teleport technique that incorporates a preview window, enabling users to visualize the landing site behind obstructions in a seamless, single-step process. In a study of 28 participants, we investigated how window position, arc type, camera pose - defined as the three critical design aspects of the preview window - affect user performance. Additionally, we explored the impact of environment familiarity, simulated through a see-through effect. Our findings suggest Preview Teleport boosts efficiency, enhances spatial awareness and reduces fatigue, though it slightly compromises accuracy relative to methods without previews. This drop in accuracy is due to Preview Teleport's use of a preview window for directly targeting distant, obscured areas. In contrast, no-preview methods typically involve users first teleporting to a nearby visible location, then making a final adjustment to the obscured destination, allowing for more precise targeting. Within preview teleport designs, the window attachment to the controller, the camera pose at user-height, and the use of the standard parabolic-arc pointer are recommended. Notably, the rotated-align arc pointer demonstrates superior accuracy in targeting within familiar environments.

We introduce Seated-WIP, a footstep-based locomotion technique tailored for users seated in confined spaces such as on an airplane. It emulates real-world walking using forefoot or rearfoot in-place stepping, enhancing embodiment while reducing fatigue for prolonged interactions. Our footstep-locomotion maps users’ footstep motions to four locomotion actions: walking forward, turning-in-place, walking backward, and sidestepping. Our first study examined embodiment and fatigue levels across various sitting positions using forefoot, rearfoot, and fullfoot stepping methods. While all these methods effectively replicated walking, users favored the forefoot and rearfoot methods due to reduced fatigue. In our second study, we compared the footstep-locomotion to leaning- and controller-locomotion on a multitasking navigation task. Results indicate that footstep locomotion offers the best embodied sense of walking and has comparable fatigue levels to controller-locomotion, albeit with slightly reduced efficiency than controller-locomotion. In seated VR environments, footstep locomotion offers a harmonious blend of embodiment, fatigue mitigation, and efficiency.