Nausea during games

[Druga Runda]

What is the cause, and solution...


it's not for me, but my wife would sometimes like to try playing somethinng, and 5 minutes after start she gets the "sick feeling" and has to stop. Pretty much with every 3D game.

Is there any way to help stop that feeling?

and to mention that she has astigmatism (I think it is called that way in English) - does it have to do anything with it.

Just trying to get some info/idea about that condition.

 

[Frank]

It's like being sea-sick in reverse. Your eyes see motion your inner ears don't feel.

 

[nutball]

Is she prone to motion sickness?

 

[Zaphod]

Things to try that might help reduce simulator sickness:

1. If the game has an adjustable FOV, set it wider.
2. If the game has selectable crosshairs, choose a bigger one.
3. If the game can toggle head/body wobble/bob, turn it off.
4. Try playing with headphones and experiment with 3D sound settings on/off.
5. Adjust settings to eliminate mouse lag.
6. Move away from the screen/use a smaller monitor.
7. Limit your own head/upper body movement while playing.
8. Drink water, not coffee. Dehydration brings it on much quicker.
9. Get used to it. (Some people do.)
10. Take a pill.

 

[Druga Runda]

no she is not prone to motion sickness, but 3D sickness gets her very quickly...

and Zaphod - thanks for the tips

 

[Frank]

A joint or some space-cake often helps and makes it much more immersive. Although it will quite likely make it worse if it the first time she uses hashish or weed.

 

[Killer-Kris]

no she is not prone to motion sickness, but 3D sickness gets her very quickly...

and Zaphod - thanks for the tips

Zaphods suggestions all sound good since many of them help my wife. So when you say that "Pretty much with every 3D game." which games in particular? Because the one thing that helped my wife the most was playing games that are "outdoors", which is probably the same idea as the fov setting except it's only tricking your mind into believing it can see a wider field of view.

Another thing that Zaphod didn't suggest but that I've seen make a big difference is try and get the frame rate up. I think people who easily get motion sick tend to be especially sensitive to <60FPS for some reason.

 

[mito]

The day after I drank several beers I woke up OK. Hangover was under control, as usual. Then I loaded "Will Rock". After playing some minutes I was sick. My stomach wasn't OK.

In the past I've played many games the day after drinking alot and this had never happened before.

The game was immediately deleted.

 

[sytaylor]

Never had motion sickness of any kind, the closest thing is that thing in the IMAX cinema's where you feel like you're moving. Even then, I quite liked as apposed to disliked. I often shoot round tight corners in my car giving passengers motion sickness, but I quite enjoy the sensation.

 

[Basic]

I had a friend who got really bad motion sickness when playing 3D games. And with him it was as Killer-Kris said, low framerate is the worst part.

 

[Guden Oden]

They say that ensuring the environment around the monitor is well-lit is also helpful, though I wouldn't know... I can get carsick, but I've never become gamesick.

 

[L233]

I'm also getting motion sick from 3D games though I got used to it to some degree. I first noticed that when I barfed all over my desk after 10 minutes of playing Wolfenstein3D. Before that I had played Commanche and Wing Commander 2 without any problems.

Zaphod's suggestions are basically correct. Especially the head bopping is a big one for me and I am getting seriously pissed when some games don't offer the option to switch it off. A very restricted FoV is also extremely detrimental.

My observations:

1. Low FOV = bad
2. Level design with lots of narrow corridors = bad
3. head bopping and swaying when walking = bad
4. wacky FOV distortion effects = bad
5. too close to the ground = bad
6. no sky (i.e. indoors) = potentially bad
7. dark and gloomy indoor levels = bad
8. fast movement = bad
9. gameplay that requires lots of changes of your viewport = bad
10. gameplay that requires you to get close to walls often = bad
11. laggy respone to control input = bad
12. fishbowl effect that some 3D-engines display = bad


One of the worst case scenarious for me was Thief II. It had pretty much all of 1-12, except 4 and 8. You had to search every dark corner to find stuff. The game was dark. The levels had tons and tons of narrow passages, there was EXTREME head bopping and swaying and most of it was indorrs.

I couldn't stand to play it longer than 15 minutes. Ugh.

I have zero problems with games that are outdoors or have wide indoor structures. I pulled 48-hour sessions in WoW and EQ and had no problems at all.

Low framerates aren't much of a problem for me... they give me headaches but don't make me motions sick except for when they lagged response to mouse input.

 

[Druga Runda]

excellent, lists above are great , I will test with her to see what makes it better...

one of the strongest nausea inducers is fast turning around, while just going straight it doesn't seem so bad.

 

[Unknown Soldier]

My brother owns a PS2 and has played fps games on the PS2 without any problems. Whenever I try to get him to play a FPS game (e.g Quake) on my PC .. he gets sick.

Go figure.

US