Abstract

Co-located social gaming with players and observers talking to each other is commonplace. However, it becomes less attractive when using virtual reality (VR): while VR increases players' presence by immersing them in a virtual world, it also shuts out their observing friends. We investigate whether extended reality (XR) can improve the observer experience by giving them agency over their viewpoint in the game and personalizing the representation they see of the player. In a user study, 24 pairs of players and observers experienced co-located VR gaming. Observers either watched the player's gameplay on a stationary screen i) from the player's viewpoint or ii) controlling their viewpoint with a gamepad, or on an XR-enabled mobile screen controlling their viewpoint by moving the screen iii) with the player represented as a generic game avatar or iv) a personalized avatar obtained through live player footage augmentation. Results show that giving observers agency over their viewpoint with an XR-enabled mobile screen provides substantial benefits to presence and observers' overall experience.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR 2024
EditorsUlrich Eck, Misha Sra, Jeanine Stefanucci, Maki Sugimoto, Markus Tatzgern, Ian Williams
Place of PublicationU. S. A.
PublisherIEEE
Pages1226-1235
Number of pages10
ISBN (Electronic)9798331516475
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 25 Oct 2024
Event23rd IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR 2024 - Seattle, USA United States
Duration: 21 Oct 202425 Oct 2024

Publication series

NameProceedings - 2024 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR 2024

Conference

Conference23rd IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality, ISMAR 2024
Country/TerritoryUSA United States
CitySeattle
Period21/10/2425/10/24

Keywords

  • agency
  • co-located gaming
  • presence
  • VR
  • XR

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Computer Science Applications
  • Media Technology
  • Modelling and Simulation

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