Comparing Gamepad and Naturally-mapped Controller Effects on Perceived Virtual Reality Experiences

Abstract

A virtual reality (VR) system’s interface determines its corresponding interaction fidelity. While there exist several naturally-mapped interfaces, these have not been directly compared – in terms of presence, engagement, perceived performance, and real performance – to a more commonly-used interface for interacting with virtual reality: the gamepad. Because gamepads have evolved over several decades and have widespread adoption, it is pragmatic to ask whether it is viable to import them into the design of VR experiences. To study this, we developed a first-person shooter (FPS) Virtual environment and contrasted the VR experience using the Microsoft Xbox 360 controller against the HTC VIVE wand. We assessed the effect of the input device on self-reported presence, engagement, and performance as well as real performance in terms of accuracy and speed, two metrics relevant for our particular environment. A within-subjects FPS shooting task under accuracy and time constraints confirmed our hypotheses in favor of the VIVE wand: presence, engagement, perceived performance, and real performance were deemed significantly higher than the Xbox controller condition. These results are contextualized with participants‘ comments in a post-experiment debrief, in which (paradoxically) several participants reported preferring the gamepad. We discuss the implications of our findings and how what we call genre fidelity can impact the design of VR experiences.