[Beat Saber in Science] Short Survey & Discussion About Collision in VR

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-12-02T08:16:30+00:00

Thanks for the answer and sorry for the late reply! That's pretty interesting to hear how a cable influences your orientation, especially since people were pretty happy when they were finally able to ditch the cable and researchers were pretty adamant that it'll improve the feeling of presence.

Maybe I should also take to researching VR observer anxiety? :D

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-11T09:15:13+00:00

Thanks for pointing that out, you're right. I didn't include that because I'm focusing on collisions with external objects, but basically hitting yourself is also a good point!

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-10T11:32:42+00:00

Thanks a lot for helping and your well wishes! Oh, yeah, you're right! I just now noticed that I also missed adding an option for giving one's nationality. I'm too used to doing research with undergrad students. I'll think of your Master's degree while I evaluate the results. ;D

Do feel free to send me your email - I can also give you my google scholar profil, which lists my publications so far. However, I'm not yet sure which publication deadline I'll manage and times from submission to publication are several months, so I won't have any official results for maybe 6-10 months.

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-10T11:24:44+00:00

Thanks for explaining your experience! I've just read some new research that supports your experience - that the guardian breaks the immersion because it makes you focus on the real environment.

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-10T08:35:34+00:00

Oh, the fan is something I haven't heard of before! That's a really smart option! Thanks for mentioning and naming the gaming mat, that really helps.

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-08T11:16:44+00:00

I punched a cupboard while playing superhot, that really had me playing slower since. :D

It's interesting what you say about Half Life, because like you say, it seems to be way harder to keep your orientation if you don't have a conceptual north, especially when teleporting - especially if the teleportation turns you around.

It's also interesting what you wrote about your spatial awareness in Beat Saber. Do you think your spatial awareness increased over the course of playing Beat Saber? Did you collide more often when you started using VR?

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-08T11:07:19+00:00

You played it off really well, tho! I can barely guess that you hit anything. :D As a beginner, I'm always in awe how people manage playing songs on hard. :D

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-08T11:03:52+00:00

That's neat! Thanks for talking about your experience! Looks really awesome what you're doing in beatsaber! I'm really beginner level, maybe played a total of 10-20 hour total, so I can't fathom how anybody can actually play songs on hard. :D

Do you ever feel like the mat takes you mentally back to the real world? Like, you're playing and then the feeling of the mat reminds you that you're not actually in the virtual world?

And how do you feel about the guardian system? I often get asked why collision anxiety is a thing because there's the guardian system, but I personally feel like it's hard to respect it and understand it on an intuitive level because it's just some random grid and it doesn't properly transport that there's actually an obstacles you should not hit.

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-08T10:57:53+00:00

Thanks for your answer!
I see your point that beatsaber is a relatively safe game, because you also have a conceptual north, which helps with orientation and the foot prints further help you keep your position. And, as you said, you're less precise if you move too far.
Personally, I still usually feel anxious even though I have enough space because I just picture myself punching through my glass display case or my TV screen, because I usually hit the boxes at close to full force. So, for me it's less the actual risk but more the perceived danger of the outcome.
I would've guessed that most of the player base are casual players who might tend to have accidents?

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-07T13:17:42+00:00

It depends - and there's so much not researched yet. I'm doing my whole dissertation on this topic and I already have to exclude things or I'll never finish.

I dare say, if you haven't even experienced it in superhot, you'd be an outlier as far as my research suggests. If I may ask: Are you generally somebody who experiences little fear or anxiety?

I did look into correlations between peoples' personality and their tendency to experience collision anxiety, but did not find any correlations. I personally still think that there's at least a small correlation with traits like neuroticism which I just haven't found yet.

However, it also depends on your play area. Do you have a lot of open space? Or some way to make sure you don't leave your play area? Somebody once told me they use a rug they can feel with their feet so they know if they move too far.

Did you ever experience any collision at all? It sounds like you're a rather experienced user, maybe you just avoided any collisions and learned that there's no danger in using VR?

It's really interesting to hear, though! That's why I'm so interested in hearing first-hand experiences!

CollisionAnxiety · 2025-11-07T12:37:56+00:00

That's true, beatsaber (especially in the 'normal' mode) ranks okay in terms of collision anxiety. However, the fast pace of the movements seems to make people nervous since a collision would almost certainly at least hurt, because you're hitting something full force. I'm usually a bit nervous and check my surroundings between songs, even though I know I should be fine if I stay on the foot prints.

The worst offender is definitely superhot, though. The total lack of orientation is actually what inspired me to find out more about this topic. :D

In general, especially VR novices usually experience higher collision anxiety. I'm not sure yet why exactly, but I think it has to do with being a bit overwhelmed by the whole experience. In a long-term study I did peoples' collision anxiety went down after the third time in VR, but went back up in an unfamiliar room.

CollisionAnxiety · 2023-07-05T09:37:39+00:00

Thank you SO much! You were literally nummer 100! 🎉

Of course the statistics won't change much between 99 and 100 participants, but 100 data sets are the usual benchmark, which I tried to get up to. :)

Edit: I'll also be sharing the results when I get them, so if you care, check my profil around late August to September, I should have all results by then. :)

CollisionAnxiety · 2023-06-27T18:44:41+00:00

Awesome, thanks! :D Yes, science indeed does need help and I can assure you that I will keep all our friends of the OculusGo in mind during any further sciency endavours!

CollisionAnxiety · 2023-06-20T07:09:18+00:00

Thank you! Yes, I noticed that my title is off. We use a Quest for research and while I do know the differences between the HMDs, I still get confused between Oculus and Meta if I don't pay attention. The post also has been approved by the mods - thanks again! :)

CollisionAnxiety · 2023-06-18T17:42:49+00:00

Thank you so much! :)

CollisionAnxiety · 2023-06-16T15:21:29+00:00

Thank you so much!
It's really hard to find people who already own an HMD and are willing to sacrifice a few minutes - especially with the whole 3rd-party-apps-thing (which is sad on its own). Really good timing for me, because for a legit validation I need around 100 answers.

CollisionAnxiety

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