A Comparison of Gesture and Controller-based User Interfaces for 3D Design Reviews in Virtual Reality

Abstract

We present a custom virtual reality (VR) hand-tracking user interface developed in Unity, and compare it with a similar industry level application (CTRL Elements) utilising controllers. Both applications afford spawning, relocating, reorienting, and rescaling 3D-models within a virtual environment in addition to horizontal, vertical, and rotational user movement options. The interfaces are tested with Oculus Quest 2 VR headset, which is also responsible for the hand-tracking. Our main motivation is to gain an insight into whether hand-tracking UIs could provide added value to industrial design review solutions. We also pinpoint the major advantages and flaws in the controllerless approach and report which of our gesture-based controls are the most intuitive and usable.