A Comparison of Zoom-in Transition Methods for Multiscale VR

Abstract

When navigating within an unfamiliar virtual environment in VR, transitions between pre-defined viewpoints are known to facilitate spatial awareness of a user. Previously, different viewpoint transition techniques had been investigated, but mainly for single-scale environments. We present a comparative study of zoom-in transition techniques, where the viewpoint of a user is being smoothly transitioned from a large level of scale (LoS) to a smaller LoS in a multiscale virtual environment (MVE) with a nested structure. We identify that orbiting first before zooming in is preferred over other alternatives when transitioning to a viewpoint at a small LoS.