Why virtual reality makes a lot of us sick, and what we can do about it.

  • Mossy Feathers (She/They)
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    441 year ago

    Some researchers did a study several years ago and found that adding a virtual nose decreased motion sickness significantly. However, I don’t think I’ve seen any developers try this. I wonder if it’d help.

    • @SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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      201 year ago

      Have they discovered a link between people with big noses and less motion sickness? Imo these are the more important questions that will drive humanity forward

      • Carighan Maconar
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        111 year ago

        You can always see your own nose BTW, your brain just usually excludes it from what you actively notice.

        • @SuckMyWang@lemmy.world
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          41 year ago

          Yes although I’m hypothesising large nose peoples brains will be doing this with a larger area hence the greater effects against motion sickness. It could lead to novel treatments for motion sickness like wearing a big nose while riding on a bus.

  • @LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Would be nice if the author had done a bit of research on the specific things that had been done in VR since he tried his DK2 to prevent nausea:

    An Oculus DK2, a PC that couldn’t quite run a rollercoaster demo at a high-enough framerate, and a slightly-too-hot office full of people watching me as I put on the headset. Before I’d completed the second loop-de-loop, it was clear that VR and I were not going to be good friends.

    The study the author quotes dates to August 2019!

    https://insidescience.org/news/cybersickness-why-people-experience-motion-sickness-during-virtual-reality

    For one, non-persistent displays have become the norm. These only show (strobe) the image for a fraction of the frame time and go black in between. Valve discovered that the full 1/90th of a second an image is displayed is enough to induce nausea if the head is moving during that time. So the Vive (and the Oculus Rift) had non-persistent displays.

    The stobing effect is so fast you don’t notice it.

    Elimination of artificial movement is another. The reason Valve focused on games with teleport movement and made a big deal of “room scale” early on was to eliminate the nausea triggers you encounter in other types of experiences.

    Valve had an early version of Half Life 2 VR during the days of the DK2, but they removed it as the artificial motion made people sick (myself included).

    For many, sims work as long as there is a frame in their field of vision to let their brains lock into that non-moving frame of reference (ex car A-pillars, roof line, dash board, outline of view screen on a ship interior, etc). Note the frame still moves when you move your head, so it’s not a static element in your field of view.

    Also it helps if your PC can render frames under the critical 11.1ms frame time (for 90Hz displays). Coincidentally, 90Hz is the minimum Valve determined is needed to experience “presence”. Many folks don’t want to turn down graphic options to get to this. It’s doable in most games even if it won’t be as detailed as it would on a flat screen. Shadows is a big offender here.

    Resolution isn’t as big of a factor in frametimes as detailed shadows and other effects. I have run games at well over 4k x 2.5k resolution per eye and been able to keep 11.1ms frame times.

    Lastly, it has been noted that any movement or vibration to the inner ear can for many stave off nausea. This includes jogging in place while having the game world move forward. For many years we’ve had a free solution that integrates into Steam VR:

    https://github.com/pottedmeat7/OpenVR-WalkInPlace

    Jog in place to make your character move forward in the direction you’re facing. Walk normally to experience 1-to-1 roomscale.

    I’ve use the above to play Skyrim VR without any nausea. Good workout too!

    For car, flight, spaceflight simulators, a tactile transducer on your chair (looks like a speaker magnet without the cone - or basically a subwoofer without the cone) can transfer the games sound vibrations directly to you and therefore your inner ear and prevent nausea.

    I’ve literally played over 1,000 hours of Elite:Dangerous this way as well as Battlezone VR and Vector 36. All games that involve tons of fast artificial movement.

    The main issue is too many people tried out VR cardboard or old DK2 demos with low and laggy framerate, persistent displays, and poorly designed VR experiences and simply write off all VR as bad and nausea inducing.

    Edit: added links and trailers to the games mentioned so folks can see the motion involved. The “study” wasn’t a proper study. It was a quote from a scientist. No data was given about what headsets or which experiences caused nausea.

  • SokathHisEyesOpen
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    241 year ago

    It’s very simple. The device needs to maintain 90fps at 90hz minimum. Anything below that can cause nausea. We’ve known this since at least 2017.

    • @Wahots@pawb.social
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      111 year ago

      I’d go so far as to say 144hz at 144 fps should be the bare minimum. And that’s not even factoring in stuff like screen door effect, latency issues, etc etc. All of which play a part.

      • SokathHisEyesOpen
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        11 year ago

        The Quest 2 has pretty much eliminated the screen door. I’ve never had any issues at 90/90, but sensitive people might. The higher the better really. I hate saying it, because I despise Facebook, but the headset is actually really good, especially if you use it through Steam Link. Comparable headsets are 2-3x as much money.

    • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 ℹ️
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      1 year ago

      I mean… it’s also the fact you can move in the game while sitting down or standing still IRL. The framerate isn’t going to affect that inner ear/brain disconnect that causes motion sickness. Get a viable, and affordable, omnidirectional treadmill out and that would be a big help.

    • @wrinkletip@feddit.nl
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      1 year ago

      It’s not that simple though. At any frame rate or frame time, you can still experience the movement disconnect. Simulating a roller coaster while sitting still will make the brain think you are moving while all other sensory perception says no, and you get nauseous.

      Same as sea, air and car sickness, and those all have pretty great FPS.

      • SokathHisEyesOpen
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        1 year ago

        That’s true, but when it drops below 90/90 you’re a lot more likely to experience motion sickness from something as simple as looking around. With the higher frame rates, the motion is perceived more naturally by the brain, and you’re a lot less likely to become nauseous. For the games more intense movement, where your perceived movement is disconnected from your actual movement, you can get used to it eventually, as long as your system is pushing enough information to your eyes. I have a top of the line gaming computer and I could only play very short sessions of Elite Dangerous when I started, since the perception is that you’re in a spaceship that’s flipping and spinning all around. After several short sessions, my brain started adapting until I could play for hours on end.

    • @LordOfTheChia@lemmy.world
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      51 year ago

      Frametimes is the specific measure.

      <11.1ms for 90Hz or <8.33ms for 120Hz

      If the game, experience, or whatever breaches that minimum frame time frequently, then you can experience nausea just from moving your head around.

      It does require some sacrifices like turning shadows down a notch or two in some game engines and choosing additional visual effects carefully. Some visual effects require additional computation passes and can add the the frame time.

      A low latency CPU (like the AMD 3D cache CPUs) or a normal mid to high end CPU with fast memory with good timings helps quite a bit.

      The GPU should be capable of pushing the pixels and shading for the target resolution. Even with a 6900xt I’ve been able to comfortably push over 4500x3000 per eye rendering (enough to get a nice anti-aliasimg effect on my Pimax 8kX at the “normal” 150 degree H.FoV) in most games.

      Surprisingly, fidelity FX can help as well (the non-temporal version).

  • BadEngineering
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    191 year ago

    Having a fan blow into your face really helps too. I cant play more than 10 or 15 minutes without one, but with I’m fine for hours.

    • @NeryK@sh.itjust.works
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      231 year ago

      Honestly even the very best VR-only games are only interesting because they are in VR.

      Half-Life: Alyx is IMO still the best of those and it can be played outside of VR thanks to mods… But in that case it’s a curiosity, not an actual good traditional game.

      HLA in VR is incredible though and I wish there were more games like it.

      • BruceTwarzen
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        161 year ago

        When i look at vr titles, i still feel like i’m buying a tech demo, not a game

        • @drekly@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Alyx absolutely broke that mould for me. it started off good but built up to incredible as it progressed. I just wish more developers would do similarly. But then this article is the reason why they don’t

          • BruceTwarzen
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            21 year ago

            Alyx was indeed great. Also i learned there that i don’t only get sick in vr, i’m also really scared for some reason

            • @drekly@lemmy.world
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              11 year ago

              Yeah alyx’s horror areas were an experience, I’m glad it didn’t have a ravenholm level

      • lorez
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        1 year ago

        I don’t have problems with VR. I sold my Quest 2 cos there are not games like Alyx, which I enjoyed a lot, and that’s a pity. I see it going the way of 3D.

  • @Glide@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    I wonder if this 40-70% demographic has actively tried to play it a couple times? My first experience with VR was incredibly disorienting, and yes, made me feel nauseated. But after playing for 2-3 hours across a handful of 15-20 minute sessions (passing it around a few friends for an evening) that just went away. Once the body uses it a bit and learns, even high-movement non-teleport movement games stop being an issue.

    I wonder if I happen to be in that upper percent, or if the numbers in question are a matter of people who tried it once in their life and felt sick. Clearly the author has put real time into trying to move past it, but that doesn’t say anything for the study he quotes the “40-70% of players are 15 minutes” numbers from.

    • @Piemanding@sh.itjust.works
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      141 year ago

      Heard somewhere that it can get worse if you try to power through the nausea and sickness. Like your body remembers that it made you sick before and wants to actively avoid going through that experience again. So if you start feeling sick, especially when you first start out, stop playing.

    • @Katana314@lemmy.world
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      71 year ago

      That’s just it; the first-time experience is so critical in every game, and often every console.

      The systems that needed users to follow 30 steps to set them up, or try them 8 times until they could avoid nausea, often failed.

      Convenience is important.

    • @ChexMax@lemmy.world
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      41 year ago

      Since you’re asking for anecdotes: my VR headset consistently made me sick following 30 min to an hour at the absolute max. I still played dozens of times for short spurts, but it never got better for me.

      • @Glide@lemmy.ca
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        11 year ago

        I kinda am, tbh. I don’t believe for a second that my experience represents everyone, but such large numbers also don’t seem to make sense to me.

    • @SPOOSER@lemmy.today
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      31 year ago

      I played VR and had a blast. It was usually the ones that were mounted to the ceiling at a mall arcades. I could play no big deal for hours. My brother in law got a vr headset for Christmas and I tried to use it and got unbelievably sick after 20 minutes of playing it.

      I played super hot, some moving zombie game, and that plank game on thw vr headsets at mall arcades with no problem moving around, twisting, and moving fast. I played a stationary puzzle game on my bil’s. I dont know what causes the sickness but it was veey bad on his unit. I womder if the suspension at the mall arcades made the difference, rather than having a free roaming headset.

  • @DrQuint@lemm.ee
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    81 year ago

    In 5 years from now, VR will be 5 years away of becoming mainstream. Just like 5 years ago.

  • BruceTwarzen
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    61 year ago

    There are definitely games that make me more suck than others. But even the “good ones” are kinda weird. Like I can’t imagine playing a vr game for an hour or so. That’s why i don’t even bother anymore

    • @cottonmon@lemmy.world
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      51 year ago

      Yeah. I can play Thrill of the Fight with no nausea after several matches. I also didn’t get sick from Vader Immortal or other games like Beat Saber or Crisis VRigade. Games where you move in-game but stay still in real life though, I feel like throwing up after a short time.

      • @Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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        41 year ago

        Especially if there’s head bob. That simulates the exact difference in your senses of vision and balance that triggers seasickness.

  • Scrubbles
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    41 year ago

    Big reason why I just never understood why Meta bet the farm on VR/metaverse. Such a stupid move, literally everyone knew that VR wasn’t ready for mainstream. The only people willing to get it were tech nerds and some gamers, and really that had nothing to do with the metaverse, it was because they could play games in it.

    Until it gets stable and doesn’t feel like I’m strapping a brick onto my face, it’s not going to happen mainstream. It also can’t just connect to a PC, average people don’t want to be strapped down to something. And I know, that’s a lot to ask, but if you want to base your entire company on VR, those are the hard realities. People want something like sunglasses, not something that feels like duct taping a laptop in front of their face

  • @dangblingus@lemmy.world
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    21 year ago

    It also doesn’t feel at all like you’re looking at something in front of you. It still feels like you’ve got 2 TV’s strapped to your head.

    I guess I’m old school and just play games with m&k or controller. DINOSAUR I am.

    • @Chailles@lemmy.world
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      101 year ago

      I disagree. I definitely feel like I’m there with everything scaled up to real size. Like I never really considered how absolutely massive Radroaches from Fallout were until playing Fallout 4 VR.

    • SokathHisEyesOpen
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      31 year ago

      It’s actually incredibly immersive now. You need to try a flagship headset, not a cell phone in a box.

    • @OrekiWoof@lemmy.ml
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      11 year ago

      Geez I thought I was the only one that thought so! VR is not immersive at all, it literally feels like looking at a screen

  • @deafboy@lemmy.world
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    11 year ago

    I’ve never felt more sick than after trying the VR for the first time. GearVR on Samsung Galaxy S6. Never happened again though, regardless of how much time I spent in.

    The main issue on this headset was that I felt like my head was really small, while turning. I think the camera was just rotating on it’s own axis, or around a sphere that was way smaller than a human head.

    • @Maalus@lemmy.world
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      161 year ago

      Phone VR isn’t really VR. It’s a poor excuse of an attempt. It’s pointless to compare gearvr to anything in the actual vr space.

      • @deafboy@lemmy.world
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        -51 year ago

        The only difference between gear and quest, is that the phone cannot be taken out of the quest, plus it has more sensors.

        • @Maalus@lemmy.world
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          51 year ago

          There is a huge difference between gearvr and any sensible VR like the Vive, Pimax or Index. I’ve tried both. Gear made me almost barf immediately. I’m playing Project Wingman with no issue on the other headsets. There is a huge technological difference.