The inherent freedom of exploration in virtual reality poses a challenge for directing user attention toward relevant points or objects of interest, which are potentially located outside the user's field of view or are temporarily obscured. Accordingly, guidance must sustain users' perceptual focus while preserving the sense of presence. This paper presents RippleVision, a subtle gaze guidance technique using wave-like ripples that modulate brightness with inverted polarity between the eyes and appear only within a cone from the point of interest to the gaze location. A calibration study defined detectability and acceptability thresholds for the cues, followed by a comparative user study against four state-of-the-art techniques. Results show RippleVision achieves similar search times to clearly visible techniques while significantly reducing visual dominance. Moreover, its effectiveness scales with cue visibility, improving search performance with minimal impact on perceived visual obstruction and presence.

With the advent of consumer-targeted, low-cost virtual reality devices and facile authoring technologies, the development and design of experiences in virtual reality are also becoming more accessible to non-expert authors. However, the inherent freedom of exploration in these virtual spaces presents a significant challenge for designers seeking to guide user attention toward points and objects of interest. This paper proposes the new technique WarpVision, which utilizes spatial curvature to subtly guide the user's attention in virtual reality. WarpVision distorts an area around the point of interest, thus changing the size, form, and location of all objects and the space around them. In this way, the user's attention can be guided even when the point of interest is not in the immediate field of vision. WarpVision is evaluated in a user study based on a within-subjects design, comparing it to the state-of-the-art technique Deadeye. Participants completed visual search tasks across two virtual environments being supported with WarpVision at four different intensities. Results show that WarpVision significantly reduces search times compared to Deadeye. While both techniques introduce comparable levels of immersion disruption, WarpVision has a lower reported impact on the user's well-being.