Investigating Motion Sickness in Racing Simulators using Virtual Reality and a Motion Platform

Abstract

Motion sickness has been a downside of virtual reality since its beginning. According to the "Sensory conflict" theory, simulation sickness and cybersickness often occurs due to the feeling of self-motion. This thesis aimed to investigate if a motion platform could mitigate simulation sickness. By using commercial available motion platform and virtual reality headset, the experiment had three conditions, one without any added motion, one with motion and the last with increased motion. Participants were put in a complete racing set to drive an Edge 6D motion simulator in Asseto Corsa. The participants drove a high-speed car for 10 min on the. Other research points included game engagement, measured with the Game engagement questionnaire. Our findings indicates that adding simulated motion to virtual reality interactions can have a positive effect towards reducing simulation sickness. Added motion can also improve game engagement. How-ever, further investigations should focus on specific parameters that causes simulation sickness. This investigative research presented potentials for further improvements for combining virtual reality with a motion platform for car/racing training.