Implementation showcase.

Subplot A shows the general layout of the implemented triangle completion task: Participants are guided along two legs of a triangle (beige arrows) and are then asked to first point at and then return to their starting location (a campfire). When reaching a distance of 12.5 meters from homing start (red dashed circle) participants are asked to point at their starting location a second time. The campfire was not visible during the pointing or return phase of each trial. In the first part of the showcase study, no trees were present and the translation velocity of the player avatar was manipulated, while in the second part of the study, 1, 2, or 3 trees were presented as shown in subplot A to aid in navigation, while the player speed was held constant at 2.5 m/s. These task variants were carried out repeatedly across several trials, either in the shown spatial arrangement, or in a design which mirrored the spatial layout along the world y-axis, yielding trials with either left or right-handed turns, which were presented in randomised order. Subplots B-F show the progression of an individual trial from the participant’s perspective: Subplot B shows the instructions given at the start of the trial, subplot C shows the participant reaching one of the waypoints during the outbound phase of the trial (waypoints are pieces of firewood, which the participant needs to collect), subplot D shows the instructions given at the start of the return or homing phase, while subplots E and F show the instructions given for pointing and the resulting marker placement by the participant respectively.