An in-game dashboard or control panel is a UI display that is integrated into the game itself. A typical scenario is an automobile or a spaceship, where you are seated in a cockpit. At waist level (desk level) is a panel with a set of controls, gauges, information displays, and so on. Dashboards generally feel more natural in a seated VR experience.
A few pages back, we discussed windshield HUDs. Dashboards are pretty much the same thing. One difference is that the dashboard may be more obviously part of the level environment and not simply an auxiliary information display or a menu.
In fact, dashboards can be a very effective mechanism to control VR motion sickness. Researchers have found that when a VR user has a better sense of being grounded and has a consistent horizon line in view, he's much less likely to experience nausea while moving around a virtual space. In contrast, being a floating one-dimensional eyeball with no sense of self or grounding...