VR’s Quirkiest Locomotion Device ‘Cybershoes’ Shuts Its Doors for Good

TL;DR: Physical movement in VR is essential up to a certain point to avoid nausea, but beyond that only slightly increases immersion while adding a lot of friction to the experience, and much of the effect can be achieved much easier by tricking the brain with other body movements.

Attempts to bring physical locomotion to VR are in some ways doomed, because they are by default limited and not really essential, while similar effects might be much easier to achieve. And all physical motion in VR basically serves two purposes: reduced nausea and/or increased immersion.

The first, reducing nausea, is essential. 3DoF head tracking allows looking around and probably makes up 90% of the immersion provided by VR, but a lot of people get motion sick when moving their head doesn't translate to a movement in VR. So the most essential physical movement was 6DoF head tracking. Following with some distance, 6DoF controllers allow for natural interaction, which is why 6DoF head and controller tracking were implemented in the very early days of consumer VR.

Actually walking around with room tracking, also available early on, is primarily about immersion, and a lot of people still use VR mostly standing or seated with either stick navigation, unbearable for some, or teleporting. But it already requires a lot more space and effort and increases the danger of hitting something. Everything going beyond that like the cybershoes or any type of VR treadmill comes with diminishing returns, requiring a more complex/expensive setup for a minor increase in immersion, and only somewhat resembles natural movement.

And in many ways this is redundant. The reason why people get motion sick is a discrepancy between signals from the eyes and the vestibular system used for balance in the ear. If the eyes indicate a movement/turn, but the ear signals standing still, the brain detect misaligned senses. This is a sign of poisoning, for which throwing up is the proper reaction, which is unfortunately triggered in VR.

But our senses aren't really precise, you only need a very rough match, so you can easily "fake" a proper alignment by somewhat similar motions. Just bopping up and down while moving forwards in VR can reduce nausea because the brain now detects a typical walking sensation, even if the legs are standing still. Similarly swinging your arms to move is also accepted as a valid explanation why you suddenly move despite your ear signaling that you are standing still, and used in for example HCotM.

Tools like "Natural Locomotion" on Steam allow you to map several body movements to gamepad controls, which can cover most of the "nausea" issues and a lot of the "immersion" all the physical locomotion VR accessories try to solve. And our brain is very willing to accept even nonsensical things, as long as they are somewhat consistent with the movement detected by the vestibular system.

AFAIR Dirt Rally offers an option to keep the camera steady during accidents, so the horizon stays fixed and the car rotates around you while you tumble down a cliff. Makes no sense at all, but gets rid of the nausea you'd no doubt experience with realistic camera movement, and it doesn't really break immersion. It also doesn't matter how far your had moves when you visibly hit a bump that moves you body up, it only matters that you feel some movement in the same direction.

In many ways trying to bring realistic physical movement into VR is therefore kind of the wrong approach, as you get very little for a lot of effort, and it might be much easier to simply trick the brain with some type of similar, but much easier to achieve movement, even if it is only slightly related. So outside of arcades or enthusiasts going for every tiny bit of immersion that's technically possible, I don't see any of these devices succeeding. The sole exception are things like full body or eye tracking, because these again increase the alignment between senses, when you see your legs where you feel they are.