Cloudstep
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| Cloudstep | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | Seated, Standing |
| Required Devices | Gamepad |
| Description | Using the analog stick from a gamepad, players will move in that direction in discrete steps, similar to miniature teleportations. This method is designed to remove vection, which is suspected to cause simulator sickness during first person locomotion. |
| Pros | Reduces simulator sickness and improve player comfort |
| Cons | ??? |
| Creator | IrisVR, VR Bits |
| Examples | Technolust |
Cloudstep is a Locomotion Method for virtual reality in which the player pushes a gamepad analog stick and the viewpoint moves in a series of discrete jumps instead of gliding smoothly through the scene.[1] It was developed by Iris VR, the studio behind the cyberpunk adventure game Technolust, with Mark Schramm of VR Bits, and was revealed on 21 October 2015.[1] Because each step has no acceleration or deceleration, the technique aims to avoid the illusion of self-motion (vection) that is suspected to cause simulator sickness during artificial locomotion.[2][3]
Cloudstep combines two earlier comfort ideas: the stepped movement of grid-based dungeon crawlers such as Crystal Rift, and the "comfort mode" style of turning in fixed increments. Unlike a grid system, it moves the player relative to the direction the head is facing.[2] Researchers at Carleton University later cited it as a commercial example of discrete viewpoint movement used to reduce cybersickness.[4]
History
Iris VR announced Cloudstep on 21 October 2015, the same day it released Kerser, a VR endless runner based on one of the arcade experiences planned for Technolust, to Kickstarter backers who owned an Oculus Rift DK2.[1] According to VRFocus, the name is a nod to Cloudhead Games, developer of The Gallery, which had recently shown its own teleport-based locomotion system called Blink for the HTC Vive's room-scale tracking. Like Blink, Cloudstep was designed for first-person experiences, but players move with an analog stick as in a conventional video game, and the view jumps toward the destination in a series of steps.[1] VRFocus described Mark Schramm as working at VR Bits, the developer of Darkfield, and reported that the system had been built with his help.[1]
In an episode of the Voices of VR podcast published on 4 November 2015, Technolust creator Blair Renaud said he was working with Schramm on the "discrete steps movement" and that it would be offered as a toggle alongside smooth movement.[3] At the time Renaud was preparing different experiences in the Technolust setting for the HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and Gear VR.[2]
Technolust itself was released on 18 April 2016 by IRIS VR Inc., which describes it as an Oculus Rift launch title. The version sold on Steam is the original 2016 Oculus Rift edition, playable with mouse and keyboard or an Xbox-compatible gamepad, and the developer states that a remastered edition with motion-controller support is in production.[5]
How it works
Created by IrisVR and VR Bits, Cloudstep is a zero vection, first person locomotion method originally developed for Technolust.[1] Using the analog stick from a gamepad, players move in that direction in discrete steps, similar to miniature teleportations.[1] The method is designed to remove vection, the sense of self-motion that is suspected to cause simulator sickness during first person locomotion.[2] Vection and sickness are linked to a mismatch between what the eyes see and what the vestibular system feels: when a stationary player's view moves under joystick control, the visual motion is not matched by physical motion.[4] Schramm also explained the system in a video.[1]
Renaud described the movement this way: holding the stick forward steps the player ahead, "like an old school dungeon crawler", and the scene "jumps towards you" in the same way that comfort-mode rotation jumps between angles.[3] Sprinting makes the steps further apart and shortens the interval between them.[3] Movement is not locked to a grid or to the four compass directions. The four step directions follow the player's head orientation, so the player can look in any direction and step that way.[2][3]
Turning works in a similar way. Renaud said that players rarely need the right analog stick to turn: a player who is standing can simply turn around physically, and pressing the thumbstick in turns the player 180 degrees at once.[3]
- Cloudstep is designed for a seated playing experience. Renaud said it also works for standing players, who can turn physically.[3]
Renaud said the stepped movement gives Technolust more of an adventure game feel. He compared it to the photograph analysis machine in Blade Runner, which zooms into an image in discrete "enhance" steps, and said it fit well in the Technolust universe.[3] Cloudstep is toggleable, so players who are comfortable with smooth movement can keep it.[3] Renaud also said he had found that players did not miss smooth movement: as long as they could get to a place and then explore it by standing, crouching and looking around, they did not care how they had got there.[3]
Problems
Because each step moves the player a set distance at once, the system has to check the destination before moving: the step may need to go up or down, or it may be blocked by a wall that the player would otherwise pass through.[2]
Solutions
In a video, Schramm described an implementation that uses four colliders arranged around the player's head position. Before each step, these colliders check whether the move needs extra handling for going up or down, or whether movement must be restricted to stop the player walking through a wall.[2] Renaud described the same system as a "feeler": when the player approaches an object, it detects the obstruction and places the player as close to the object as it can, which he compared to a person shortening their gait near an obstacle.[3]
Related research
In a 2018 Graphics Interface paper, Yasin Farmani and Robert J. Teather of Carleton University named Schramm's "Cloud Step" alongside the snap-rotation options in Serious Sam VR and Resident Evil 7 as commercial uses of discrete viewpoint movement.[4] Farmani's 2018 master's thesis noted that these commercial techniques had not been formally evaluated.[6]
The two researchers tested related techniques in their own studies. Their Graphics Interface study of "viewpoint snapping" (discrete rotation) in a custom first-person shooter found that it reduced Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) scores by about 40% compared with continuous rotation, with no significant difference in presence or error rate.[4] The thesis added a "translation snapping" technique, which, like Cloudstep, replaces continuous forward and backward movement with short discrete jumps. It reported that translation snapping reduced SSQ-reported cybersickness by 50% for translational movement, while presence, error rate and performance were not significantly different from continuous movement.[6] The two authors later published a journal article on discrete viewpoint control in Virtual Reality (vol. 24, 2020).[7]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Jamie Feltham (2015-10-21). "Iris VR + VR Bits Reveal Cloudstep Locomotion System, Release Kerser to Backers". VRFocus. https://web.archive.org/web/20151022234647/http://vrfocus.com/archives/23784/iris-vr-vr-bits-reveal-cloudstep-locomotion-system-release-kerser-to-backers/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Kent Bye (2015-11-04). "Technolust's 'Cloudstep' VR Locomotion and Overcoming the Uncanny Valley by Coding Social Behaviors". Road to VR. https://www.roadtovr.com/technolusts-cloudstep-vr-locomotion-overcoming-uncanny-valley-coding-social-behaviors/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Kent Bye (2015-11-04). "#237: Technolust's Cloudstep VR Locomotion and Overcoming the Uncanny Valley by Coding Social Behaviors". Voices of VR Podcast. https://voicesofvr.com/237-technolusts-cloudstep-vr-locomotion-overcoming-the-uncanny-valley-by-coding-social-behaviors/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Yasin Farmani, Robert J. Teather (2018). "Viewpoint Snapping to Reduce Cybersickness in Virtual Reality". Proceedings of Graphics Interface 2018, pp. 159-166. https://www.csit.carleton.ca/~rteather/pdfs/GI_2018_viewpoint_snapping.pdf. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ IRIS VR Inc.. "Technolust on Steam". Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/379670/Technolust/. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Yasin Farmani (2018). "Discrete Viewpoint Control to Reduce Cybersickness in Virtual Environments". Carleton University, Master of Computer Science thesis. https://www.csit.carleton.ca/~rteather/pdfs/theses/thesis-yasinfarmani-final.pdf. Retrieved 2026-09-27.
- ↑ Yasin Farmani, Robert J. Teather (2020-01-13). "Evaluating discrete viewpoint control to reduce cybersickness in virtual reality". Virtual Reality, vol. 24, no. 4, pp. 645-664. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00425-x. Retrieved 2026-09-27.