Motion Sickness Remedies for Games? 146
MagikSlinger asks: "A friend of mine gave me Silent Hill 3 for Christmas (yeah, I know it's old), and I finally got around to playing it. Within 2 minutes, I had to stop and step away from the computer: intense nausea and pressure right behind the eyeballs. I got really, really motion sick playing the game. Does anyone have home remedies, set-ups, video options to make it bearable?"
field of vision (Score:2)
Flunarizine (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Flunarizine (Score:2)
Real solution... (Score:2)
For those of you pissing on this guy as needing to "g
The real problem, and the TWO possible cures (Score:2)
So you can cure the visual motion sickness in two ways:
1. Make the game feel LESS realistic. Increasing FOV or backing away from the monitor makes you feel more like looking at pictures/movies than
Change the FOV (Score:5, Informative)
Also, try taking Dramamine about an hour before you begin playing. Seriously.
--Best of luck!
Re:Change the FOV (Score:5, Informative)
Ginger (Score:2)
Re:Change the FOV (Score:1, Insightful)
So the only way to take up 120 degrees of vision is to get it filling up your field of vision, either with a projector or 24 monitor setup [plastk.net].
Re:Change the FOV (Score:4, Interesting)
And try to play for session no longer than when you feel you could start getting sick. It seemed that positive playing experience (i.e. not being sick ) was more encouraging for my body and after a while my bearable session time could increase. ( I had that problem with HL2 and I could barely survive 5-10 min in the beginning. At the end I could bear 1 hour session without problem. )
It seems for that also help to try different setting. I can't give you precise advise but check the refresh rate and your screen resolution. For LCD try to adjust the resolution, I have more problem with mine LCD than with some friend's ( mine is older and has a sligthly worse response time ) and generally much more trouble with LCD than with CRT ( but I never tried the brand new LCD with 8ms response time )
I'm more quickly sick in more agressive light conditions, and using a lower brithness/contrast for games ( to avoid the eye burning white an LCD can produce ) helped a lot.
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
Usually you can change it with a command in the console (of quake/doom/UT/etc) such as "/set_fov 120". Sometimes you have to manually edit a config file.
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
I'm currently sitting 70cm from my 35cm (width) monitor screen - this gives me a true FOV of just 28 degrees!
FYI: Measure the distance between your eyes and the screen - measure the screen width and set the FOV to 2*arctan(screen_width/(2*eye_
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
Black - I recently purchased this and within several minutes I had a headache and felt very nauseous. I attribute part of this to the slow controls...you can't move around the screen anywhere NEAR as quickly as with a mouse on a PC, which really helps with the motion sickness for me. I'm returning this because the game itself is boring after you get past the eye candy.
Golden Eye - The only levels I could play were the Library and any outdoor leve
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
Re:Change the FOV (Score:2)
After 5 minutes I was uncomfortable, after 15 I was ill by every definition, and once I tried to play as long as I could -- after 30 minutes I was just a quivering mass on the floor. Couldn't see straight, couldnt stand, was throwing up, dizzy, the works. I could never play q2 again and not get sick -- but i've never had any problem with any other game.
So I wonder if we ha
OK... (Score:5, Informative)
I often get motion sickness when I play 3D games, but usually it takes at least an hour of continuous play for that. A couple of minutes is VERY RARE.
To see how bad your condition is, try going to the theater and watch a movie (yes, the theater). If you end up with nausea and headaches, you DO need to see an optometrist.
Second, try not to move the point of view very often. When you do that, you might get migraines. This happened a lot hwne I played Prince of Persia for the first time.
Also, you might try using the 2D controls instead of the default 3D ones (to see if the camera is easier on you), and please, DO NOT RUN OR TURN AROUND LIKE CRAZY! A couple of 360 degrees turns on a 3D game is enough to leave you on the ground.
Try to take it easy, click on the map often (triangle) to see where you're going. If you get tired, press pause and close your eyes.
Try also adjusting your monitor to deliver a smaller view area.
Blink often, and if you get the least bit dizzy, press pause and look elsewhere. Do not stare at the screen so much.
A strategy I use is to close your eyes or look elsewhere when the camera is doing a quick pan. Remember that there's a button to adjust the point of view to first person.
If all of this fails, give up on the game and stick with your old games. It's not worth it. Finally, if you got money and good lawyers, try suing Sony for not putting warning labels on these games
I'm amazed that you can play any games at all! (Score:1)
Everyday travelling sickness? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Everyday travelling sickness? (Score:2)
Re:Everyday travelling sickness? (Score:2)
Re:Everyday travelling sickness? (Score:2)
Movies aren't too bad if it's dark out, and I can always type and do bits of w
Re:Everyday travelling sickness? (Score:2)
Barley Sugar
I make sure I have some for any long car trip or plane flight.
In some strange joke, as a sufferer of sever motion sickness all my life, I was raised on one of the great scenic coastal drives in Australia. I used to get motion sick going to school everyday. I am expert at targetted vomiting, either through car windows or into the gutter from a moving car...
Re:OK... (Score:2)
The front line is not a place for sick people!
Re:OK... (Score:2)
That sounds like the culprit here. "Pressure right behind the eyeballs" is a clearly migrainous symptom. I bet the person in this story sometimes gets headaches that make him want to sit quietly and do nothing.
I don't know about Silent Hill 3, but I have chronic migraine and Silent Hill 4: The Room was a horrible experience. It is loaded with flickery, jumpy, grainy visual effects that light up every motio
OH YES I FORGOT! (Score:2)
Play another genre of games ... (Score:2)
In my case, the only thing I found that really worked was to play another sort of game, one that didn't have me spinning around like a mad-man, at least for a while. RTS games worked nicely, for example, since they're usually played from a top-down perspective, or older RPGs like Baldur's Gate II. (NWN might be OK too, but it's more 3D th
Best Advice Evar. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Best Advice Evar. (Score:2)
Ginger (Score:4, Insightful)
After a few minutes play I am sick , 30 minutes I start to vomit and need to lie down for a few hours.
There are things that work such as motion sickness tablets.
However if you intend to play a lot I suggest taking ginger, it actually does work and wont slow your reflexes.
Another thing is "head bob" if the game has an adjustable head bob (like F.E.A.R does) try different settings, I get the sickest, very quickly, in games wich have no head bob at all.
Re:Ginger (Score:2)
Curiously, since moving to LCD i get it much worse. One thing i have found is that my eyes need something not moving to make me feel less sick. In racing games i always race chase-cam, Ghost Recon I play in 3rd person, in flight sims i fly with the cockpit view. I find b
Re:Ginger (Score:2)
Re:Ginger (Score:2)
Re:Ginger (Score:1)
Re:Head-bob makes me sick (Score:1)
I have a correct eyeglass prescription, but I have that Gastro-reflux problem and take the old purple pill for it.
I never went so far as to try Dramamine. For seasickness they say the prescription patches work really well, but I doubt you could
Re:Head-bob makes me sick (Score:1)
Try driving afterwards (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Try driving afterwards (Score:2)
Re:Try driving afterwards (Score:1)
I've never had the video game racing thing happen, I think because no matter how real the game, it's nothing close to reality. I suppose if the game were to take place in a surround video system, where the field
Re:Try driving afterwards (Score:2)
There's nothing like feeling your body being thrown to one side or the other of your harness.
Sure, a great driving game with force-feedback steering wheel "feels" the same as driving
Re:Try driving afterwards (Score:2)
Ginger and Light (Score:4, Insightful)
Dramamine does really work, but if Dramamine makes you too sleepy, some people get good results from eating candied ginger, or drinking a real ginger beer/ale with a high ginger content. (If you live too far out in the suburban wasteland to find a good craft ginger beer, you can homebrew it with basic brewing equipment -- but don't go to too much trouble, unless you've verified that ginger actually helps you, first.)
Also, make sure that you play in a well-lit room (yeah, I know, it's a horror game, but playing a dark room will make your head hurt).
Sea-band (Score:4, Informative)
Again, I've never used them, just passing along info that might help. They could be total quackery for all I know.
Different people have different reactions to games. There's been a lot of writing trying to explain what causes motion sickness. Personally, I get motion sick of I haven't played fast-action 3D games in a while. After I play for a bit, I can go for hours without getting the reaction. But, if I don't play those types of games for a few months I find myself back at square one.
Some insight,
Just have to build up some resistance (Score:1)
Same here. To the questioner, while pressure behind the eyeballs sounds like a scary medical issue you might want to get checked out even if you give up on the game, I too was extremely queasy starting off. You just have to build up some resistance. It's been months now, but I could play for an hour or better and only feel slightly something if I hadn't eaten anything yet that day. Even at my peak resistance, watchin
Re:Sea-band (Score:5, Funny)
She also swore at me lots, but that's another story
Re:Sea-band (Score:2)
It's a simple accupressure band that has a small knot-like area that fits over the inside of your wrist, about 1" up from your hand.
An easy way to see if it will work for you is to have someone else play the game while you s
Re:Sea-band (Score:1)
An Alternative... (Score:1, Insightful)
Seriously, headaches, carpal tunnel, eye strain, etc. aren't worth it for serious work, physical damage is completely unacceptable for play.
Play a different game.
Re:An Alternative... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:An Alternative... (Score:1)
I value gameplay much more than some graphics.
Re:An Alternative... (Score:2)
Bah, lamer!
In the good old days, you wiggled a joystick to a monochrome intercourse simulator until your wrist got sore. Nowadays, the intercourse simulators don't get developed anymore, and you aren't supposed to receive physical injuries either?
Pfft, the wussy years of 2000!
Re:An Alternative... (Score:2)
I played console video games on the Atari 2600, the NES, the Sega Genesis, and of course computer games from those eras...and then when smooth-motion FPS games came out, and other games adopted the same type of motion, I couldn't play anymore - so I didn't.
If I really feel like playing a game, I find a telnet BBS and play some Land Of Devastation, or I play somethi
Rather hurt myself at play... (Score:3, Insightful)
You say that as if, somehow, play is less important than work. If I'm going to risk damaging myself, I'd much rather take the risk at play than at work. As the old russian proverb says; "The church is near, but the roads are icy. The pub is far, but I will walk carefully."
Afterall, people take larger risks for the sake of "play" than work all the time. Recreation
Third person perspective (Score:3, Interesting)
home remedy (Score:1)
Re:home remedy (Score:2)
Ideas (Score:1)
Re:Ideas (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Ideas (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Ideas (Score:2)
My wife came in the house after work and turned the lights on and she said I looked stricken with horror when I looked at her.
Resident Evil 4 however takes the cake so far for me. With my PLII system bringing evilness from all-around and the sheer *lack* of sound when most of the bad guys approach
Re:Ideas (Score:1)
Remedies (Score:3, Interesting)
From what I've read, the problem occurs when your brain receives movement signals from you eyes while your inner ear tells your brain that you're sitting still. I've heard that the higher the frame rate, the more intense the nausea and that if you lower the frame rate a bit (for exampe, by turning up the resolution, setting the antialiasing and anisotropic filtering higher, etc.) it can help minimize the sickness.
Over time though, you'll probably develop a tolerance for it like I did.
Re:Remedies (Score:2)
Another thing it could be is... (Score:4, Interesting)
In this one instance GLARE is your friend (Score:4, Interesting)
Refresh Rate (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Refresh Rate (Score:2)
Re:Refresh Rate (Score:1)
Within 2 minutes, I had to stop and step away from the computer
Silent Hill 3 for PC review [ign.com].
btw, your usename and UID seem a bit weirdly familiar...
Lighting. (Score:2)
A bright monitor in a dark room already produces significant eyestrain; combined with 3D motion on the screen, it can quickly cause motion sickness. It's a good idea to have the wall behind (or the surfaces around) your monitor softly lit, both to reduce the contrast and to give you points of reference.
Re:Lighting. (Score:1)
You're definitely not alone! (Score:2)
Other than that, on any game that gives you trouble, pause frequently and look away from the screen, that helps quite a bit.
Personal experience (Score:2)
Sometimes i'd play for a few minutes and then feel so sick that i'd need to lie down, and I wouldn't feel well again for hours.
Other times I could play for hours and feel fine the whole time. Actually, one time I played for about 12 hours on and off at a lan meet without incident, obviously not against bots though.
I never pinned down what the difference was. Same game, same computer, same
Re:Personal experience (Score:2)
I am _very_ sensitive to flicker caused by low refresh rates, and in fact if I need to do something on someone elses computer that's the first thing i fix. It doesn't make me feel sick though, just irritated
It's Just The Game (Score:2)
A few minutes in front of any FPS and I'm experiencing the same symptoms. I've worked out why. It's the shit way they manage the perspective in the game. Things don't move like they should in the distance and really close up. I haven't seen a game that I can play for more than 1/2 hour or so...
You probably won't be able to play any FPS at all.
Ginger has official MythBusters support :-) (Score:5, Informative)
So there you have it.
Interesting effects... (Score:2)
Ginger (Score:1)
http://www.healthcastle.com/ginger.shtml [healthcastle.com]
Google around for some suggested doses. I've heard as little as a pill or two before, to as much as 5 for the entire day before. Course, being it's a "spice" (if you've ever eaten sushi, they always give you a pile) doses can be liberal. experiment and fi
Me tooo (Score:1)
1. The more you play the more desensitized you get. But, you have to deal with feeling sick to get used to it.
2. The running around looking for stuff or being lost is much worse. I
Re:Me tooo (Score:2)
The quality of the background also makes a difference. Paying attention to the fact that things at a distance should
Screen size (Score:2)
Bad programming. (Score:2)
The first one I ever noticed was Duke Nukem 3D and to this day, playing that game gives me motion sickness even though I can play countless other games on the same day and not feel sick at all.
Americas Army motion sickness (Score:1)
I get it too (Score:1)
It's normal. (Score:2)
If you are prone to motion sickness, this is normal despite what other replies have claimed. I forget the exact number, but something like 20%
Re:It's normal. (Score:2)
Personally, I found a great way to prevent getting sick -- don't play the game. It's not like it's something you're really into (since you can't do it). If I was blind, I wouldn't visit many art museums and stand in front of the paintings. There are a wide variety of games and entertainment out there other than FPSes... many don't even need a computer or console.
--
Evan
Re:It's normal. (Score:2)
Michal Jordan had ba
Re:It's normal. (Score:2)
Otherwise, you're getting really upset and obsessed over something you haven't really done much of anyway (since you get sick moments into doing it). You might as well pine over not being royalty or not being a twi
Question has already been asked and answered on /. (Score:1)
But the comments here are also insightful.
Me too (Score:1)
When I bump up the resolution to 1920x1080 with quality settings set to max, I get dizzy easily. I guess its the realism factor of getting 70+ FPS in this res.
When I take the resolution down to 1280x1024 and lower the quality to its lowest setting, I don't get sick as much because I can see the pixelation and artifacts that make this picture look lousy.
Try a lower resolution and quality setting in your game, make it actually look bad an
Play Through It (Score:1)
The things that work for me... (Score:2)
The mode in many FPS games where the picture bobs up and down as you move (to simulate each footfall). Set it so that as much as possible you glide rather than bob when you move.
2) reduce fish-eye effect
Some FPS games have a wierd fish-eye effect... as you rotate, things moving towards the edge of the screen gets unrealistically large and even may warp/wrap. try adjusting field-of-view/perspective if the game supports it.
Many games have more settings hidden away in config
Cause of Motion Sickness (Score:2)
Do you feel ill when you spin around in a circle until you're dizzy? Same problem.
I have this very issue. I have trouble travelling in cars unless I can look out the front window. Staring at things ahead of me in th
Simulator Sickness (Score:4, Informative)
Simulator sickness is something that has been known about for many, many years, and has had a lot of study put behind it. While people were experiencing similar motion sickness issues with the advent of very large movie screens and "wraparound" 360 degree panorama movies in the 1950's and 1960's, it wasn't until fairly realistic flight-simulator systems were being developed in the late-1960's and 1970's that the issue started being widely studied, because now pilots training on large motion-platform simulators and such started to become more common, and they were experiencing such issues (not good PR for the simulator company - many times the builder of the plane!).
What has been learned is enlightening, and there is a lot of research on the issue (and a large resurgence in interes of the phenomena happened in the 1990's when virtual reality system users experienced simular issues). The main problem is two-fold: as you approach (or attain) full-immersion in a simulated world, you need to make the inputs to your brain (eyes and inner-ear are most important) as synced up as possible. Any deviation from this is likely to cause motion-sickness. Thus, if you are in a fully-immersive environment where you are driving or flying, your real-world cockpit needs to move (or at least feel) as real as the real thing would, and more importantly, those movements cannot be out of sync of the motion "on screen" (whether that screen is in front of/wrapped around you, or as an HMD). If you are in a standup/walkaround VR simulation, you need to be able to match the movement on the screens of the HMD with the movement you are making in real life (3D tracking). If it is out of sync (mainly head movement) - say you turn your head, and the turning of the scene lags by a few milliseconds, you may (most likely will) experience motion sickness. In large motion-platform simulators (like flight simulators), the same issue is at play, but this time with the movement of the cockpit relative to the screen movement.
So, what is the solution to your problems? Many other issues can come into play: refresh rate of the scene is important, of course, but so is the refresh rate of the display, which others have noted. I have read comments here that lowering the resolution/effects can help - these may be pychological remedies (make it more cartoony looking to break the immersion factor more?), but if they work, who cares (I have never seen a study on this, but it is an interesting idea, and makes sense from a simulation perspective). Basically, if you are trying to fully immerse yourself into the game, you can't do it halfway - either take it as fully as you possibly can (full-immersion HMD with full 3D tracking of body - ie, $25,000 will get you there), or stop trying to do this: turn on or at least brighten the room lights so that the screen isn't the only thing your eyes and peripheral vision rest on. Move back from the screen so you can see the edges and stuff around the screen. You might try standing and moving as you play (or move more while sitting). Maybe try a recliner that rocks so you can move more. Play on a smaller screen rather than a large big-screen projection TV.
Yes, I know, none of these suggestions are great - but doing these things will help. Also be aware, as others have noted here, that there is a certain portion of the population who are prone to general motion sickness (sometimes these poor individuals get nauseous just sitting up in bed in the morning). Not much can be done (except to stop playing the games) to help these people. I will note though, that one person posted here about this saying that people who get nauseous while reading a book in a moving vehicle are prone isn't completely correct - it may indicate they might be prone, but I can te
another "me too"... blair witch was really bad (Score:2)
In my teens I tried to play DOOM... and noticed, after about 5 minutes, that I was definitely feeling ill. The next day I decided I would try again, and just ignore the feeling and keep playing... I got to about 10 minutes and I was nearly passed out on the floor feeling so, so sick... so much for that.
Many of my friends are gamers so they get real
Metroid Prime (Score:2)
Re:Is this a dupe? (Score:2)
Re:Is this a dupe? (Score:1)
Re:Is this a dupe? (Score:2)
Umm, yeah right... "s1ashdot.org" resolves to 0.0.0.0, I can see how you could download a virus from that.
Try replacing the "1" (one) with "l" (El) and you'll get to the zooomr article. *shakes head*
Re:Motion Sickness & VR (Score:2)