Within High Immersion VR, there are a number of potential setups, which we’re going to refer to as “modes”. The use of the word modes is arbitrary, but useful as a way to classify setup type. You’ll want to design your VR experiences with these modes in mind, and pick the ones that best fit your desired experience.

180 Degree

The first of these modes is a seated 180 degree experience, meaning the player sits in a chair facing forwards. You can look behind you if you want, but the software tries to focus your attention forwards.
The four main advantages of this mode are

1. It can keep you from getting fatigued
2. It can provide stability for games that affect balance
3. It can provide extra immersion for experiences in a seated setting such as racing
4. It keeps the cord well managed.

Because of the high mobility allowed by 6DOF controllers, this configuration is the least popular for high immersion VR. That being said, there are several titles that take advantage of it such as CasinoVR Poker.

The biggest disadvantage is that for experiences where your character is NOT seated, immersion is lessened. Also, your range of possible movement is the most constrained of all the modes, with desk and armchair collision a possible worry.

360 Degrees

Next up we have sitting 360 degrees, also known as “swivel chair” VR. Although great for mobile headsets,
high immersion VR suffers from the cord conundrum. Until high immersion headsets become wireless, sitting 360 experiences are too problematic to be playable.

Now, there are some exceptions to this. PC manufacturers have started making backpack computers, which solve the chord problem by attaching the wire to your back. Another potential solution is to hang your chord from the ceiling. And of course, if you’re making your own custom hardware like a theme park ride, anything is possible.

However, these are very specific scenarios that drastically cut down your potential userbase, so in general it’s best to avoid making a seated 360 experience.

Room Scale

Now onto standing modes, let’s first take a look at roomscale, where players can walk around a set space and are warned when approaching walls.

On the plus side, this can provide the highest level of immersion for an experience NOT meant to be seated. Moving your physical body around a room can limit the breaking of immersion caused by artificial locomotion.

On the downside, roomscale can be the most fatiguing, can cause tripping on chords, and is ultimately constrained by the amount of space you have, meaning your players can have varied amounts of space.

For Oculus, roomscale requires a third sensor for official support, while the Vive targets roomscale as its primary mode via its two laser stations.

Standing 180

Lastly we have standing 180 degrees. It provides a higher level of immersion for experiences where you’d typically be standing, and provides more space than when you’re seated. It can also be easier to manage chords since you’re not turning in circles.

A game that makes good use of the 180 standing mode is Dead and Buried, which has opposing teams face each other from opposite sides of a play area, guaranteeing you’ll always need to shoot forwards.

Unfortunately, constraining your natural movement to one direction can lessen immersion. Additionally, standing 180 is more fatiguing than sitting, although less so than roomscale.