Effects of peripheral visual information on performance of video game with hemi-spherical immersive projection screen

The recent development of immersive displays with high resolution and a wide field of view (e.g., hemi-spherical projection screen) has made it possible to play video games with higher levels of presence. However, it is not yet clear how players utilize the visual and auditory information provided by such displays for game play. In this paper, we report three experiments on an arcade video game "Mobile Suit GUNDAM Senjyo no Kizuna" with a hemi-ellipsoidal panoramic optical display (POD). Highly trained participants (professional game debuggers) were employed. They played the game with various visual masks (Experiments 1 and 2) and sound conditions (with and without sound; Experiment 3). In all of the experiments, the game performance (i.e., game score) was recorded as well as ratings for enjoyment, sensation of presence, and visually induced motion sickness as the game was played. The results suggest that players have a certain size of "effective visual space" in which peripheral information can be utilized. Furthermore, the results suggest that auditory information, together with a wide range of visual information, would enhance a player's enjoyment and sensation of presence during game play.