Tobu - VR Locomotion System

Created Summer Semester 2022

The goal of this project was to come up with a new form of locomotion in VR.

Most applications use Teleportation or continuous movement for the user to get around. This specific form of locomotion was inspired by the Sugar Gliders. The only mammal known to glide.

Passive locomotion poses a challenge for players as they easily experience motion sickness. To address this issue, I attempted to integrate natural control through spreading one's arms wide, which helped a lot. However, during user testing, the major challenge for the users, was binding the head rotation to direction changes, resulting in difficulty navigating. Future applications must consider changing the control mechanism to be managed by hand.

This Unity-based application uses the build in gravity  to achieve its functionality. By accurately measuring the distance between the hands and the core, a surface is calculated. Using this surface we calculate the drag to simulated a seamless gliding or slow falling motion.


Scene Design

  • Level Overview
  • Starting Area
  • Landing Pad

In this project, the scene design served as a secondary element to promote movement and accentuate the overall aesthetic. Drawing inspiration from the Zhangjiajie National Forest, the design was composed of towering stone pillars


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