Assessing the efficacy of a diegetic game interface with Oculus Rift

The announced availability of new high-performance head-mounted displays is exciting the imagination of the consumer market and suggesting that we may soon have more immersive game playing opportunities. Leveraging on the commercialization of such devices, the expectation to enjoy a new generation of virtual reality-based games relies also on the development of game interfaces suitable to allow players to enjoy an adequate sense of presence and immersion, while playing. This paper shows, with results from field trials with the Oculus Rift head mounted display, that a diegetic game interface may help to enhance the feeling of “being in the flow of the game”, even when it is used to convey to players contextual gaming information (e.g., a game configuration menu). To this aim, a simple diegetic interface has been developed based on the design expedient of incorporating into the virtual game space some virtual devices (such as smart watches and tablets) through which contextual information is displayed to players.