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Motion/sim sickness - when do you feel it?

nilstastic
Explorer
I have been getting some good feedback on my game recently but I yesterday I was struck with the first "can't play, motion-sick!" review and that got me thinking about motion/sim sickness and what may cause it.

While spending the last couple of nights testing out jam entries I have only gotten sick/woozy on a couple of occasions. The first trigger has been low/choppy framerates (like the lobby in "the human body" for example) and the second one has been falling (Tightrope). From earlier experiences with HL2 i know that strafing is a big NO for me as well. My girlfriend on the other hand could not take the movement mechanics in Small and Gliding princess (press touchpad to walk), but handled both the Human body and Tightrope without any problems.

In my game we came to an argument about the elevators. I liked the elevators when they moved very slow while she want them to go as fast as possible (just to get it done?).

So, what causes you to feel motion sick?
7 REPLIES 7

KominAaa
Honored Guest
I think I have "experienced" VR legs (2 years of VR), originally prone to motion sickness but I do ok for most games now.
I never feel well in "swivel chairs" games. It's okay standing up but without headtracking I don't like it very much.
The games that work the best in my opinion are either cockpit games or games that find a way to refocus slightly the player's orientation so you face in the same general direction during the whole game.
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spinaljack
Protege
Choppy framerate and close object parallax
Also non-user rotation like in cockpits or roller-coasters

marchansenj
Honored Guest
When I first started working on Polo it caused me some trouble being so close to the ground however after a little playing I got use to it and it didn't bother me again.

The VR coaster made me nauseous but I loved it, I think it was because of all the camera movement with no actually movement, I bet it wouldn't be bad on an actually coaster.

I hope the Non-Oculus Judges are being prepped with some VR so they have some sort of VR legs before they start testing 50 apps back to back or they might need a wastebasket lol.

zacharyslayter
Honored Guest
My brother and I are pretty susceptible to motion sickness, and I have felt sick after playing many different games on VR. The main thing is, if my eyes are telling my brain that my body is moving, but my body is telling my brain that it's not moving, then motion sickness is a possibility. You can lessen the likelihood of it happening by following some rules, like not shaking the camera when the player is hit, and never disabling head tracking, even in cinematic scenes. For our project, Merlin's Challenge (http://vrjam.challengepost.com/submissions/36833-merlin-s-challenge), we wanted to create an experience that almost anyone could play, even those that are highly sensitive to motion sickness, so we made it where there is no movement in the game that doesn't match exactly what the player is doing.

In a nutshell, for certain game ideas, some people are going to feel sick. You can lessen it, but if you are moving the character around (or especially if you have them falling/flying at high speeds), you can't get rid of it completely. At least not yet.

HomerS66
Expert Protege
Usually i do feel fine in VR, i still try to avoid YAW turn with a control stick and rather turn with my body in a swivel chair or standing up. And also pitch rolls without a cockpit view is a bit uncomfortable aswell.

Only game which made me feel sick and i had to stop playing after 5 minutes was Guns and Dragons, as the view turned slower than your own, as the camera is behind the body instead of in the body.

nilstastic
Explorer
"marchansenj" wrote:
When I first started working on Polo it caused me some trouble being so close to the ground however after a little playing I got use to it and it didn't bother me again..


That's interesting. I actually removed the "getting hit by a car" - motion because it made me feel uncomfortable. But late jam (2 days before deadline) i tried it again an was like "oh, that's great!". In hindsight that might not have been a great move.

"zacharyslayter" wrote:

In a nutshell, for certain game ideas, some people are going to feel sick. You can lessen it, but if you are moving the character around (or especially if you have them falling/flying at high speeds), you can't get rid of it completely. At least not yet.


That's the problem right here.

One of the first thing everyone talked about when DK1 hit was the flying games, but after a few failed experiments people got cautious. Then the fps games failed (60 minutes of HL2.. ugh) so people got even more cautious. What we seem to end up with is a lot of god-perspective/sitting at a desk - games where your position is locked in place - all in the name of not feeling sick. And that's understandable, but i do feel that this fear of feeling a bit ill (and even worse, making someone else feel ill) might make us developers a little bit to keen on making a super-comfortable game that everyone can enjoy.

What i would like to do when (and if) i try to get my game to the store is to ease the player into the game, but also into more and more uncomfortable situations. The first 5 minutes would just be jumping in a forward motion, the next five would have jumping in all four directions and then I'd move on to logs, elevators and huge purple aliens with lasers. That way the player might go through something i did when developing the game and get used to some awkward but ultimately gratifying experiences. 😃

Thisisdanzo
Honored Guest
For me, it's non-head tracking rotation of any kind and fast movement with close objects of reference.
Galaxy Grapple - GearVR, no gamepad