FPS and motion sickness

[Baldric]

Does anyone else here suffer from the same affliction?  Usually if I am in outdoor areas of games I am fine.  The tunnels and indoor areas would make me want to hurl after five minutes of playing though.  Lately I can't play any FPS without getting sick.  Short of taking dramamine to play Joint Operations does anyone have any suggestions?

[eldaec]

Not on FPSs, but if I have to go first person in an RPG (usually because of dumb low ceilings in a dungeon or something), then straight away.

[Stephen Zepp]

Does anyone else here suffer from the same affliction?  Usually if I am in outdoor areas of games I am fine.  The tunnels and indoor areas would make me want to hurl after five minutes of playing though.  Lately I can't play any FPS without getting sick.  Short of taking dramamine to play Joint Operations does anyone have any suggestions?

This is going to sound like a wierd question to ask, but do you tend to move your head often (shifting your head left/right instead of shifting your eyes, etc) when you play FPS games?

Motion sickness actually comes in a couple of "flavors", but since a few are stress related, the one that would probably apply to you is a disconnect in the processing of internal physical sensors of the body (gravity awareness, tactile movement indicators--muscles contracting/expanding, bones shifting in joints, etc, and the inner ear) and the visual indicators given by your eyes. The brain can sense dichotomies in the two sets of input, and since one is very autonomic and one is higher function, it can have trouble associating the two.

One of the primary ways that your body detects motion is the flow of fluid through your semi-circular canals in your inner ear. Head movements obviously cause the sensors in the ear to detect motion, since the fluid in the canals isn't going to accelerate at the same rate as your head will, your body perceives that you are "moving", even though it's actually just your head that is moving. If this is coupled with high visual indicators of motion, the body will have trouble trying to balance the two wildly different movement indications.

Anyway, sorry for the essay (I was a pilot in a former life, and they made us study this type of thing in depth), but try carefully watching if you move your head, or your body a lot, and see if you can keep your head more still. This may help, but each person's actual sickness inducing motion dichotomies are different, so it may or may not work...

[Jayce]

My entirely unscientific theory is that DIMS (DooM-induced motion sickness, as it used to be called in a more innocent age) is caused when the physics of the game you are playing don't synch up with what "feels right".

Sorry that doesn't give you anything to try, except maybe play a different game that uses a different engine and see if it helps!

[Rodent]

Doom caused me to have motion sickness once after a 9 hour co-op run at a lan ( The caffine and lack of food had nothing to do with it I tells ya ). In more modern games only HL2 makes me feel quesy, I can only play for about 30 minutes before I start sweating on my forehead and feel like I'm about to hurl. It's really annoying since I want to complete HL2 but I probably never will, it's just not worth to suffering for.

[ajax34i]

My sister has the problem, and I don't.  In order for her to not get sick while watching the screen, I'd have to make sure I walk very slowly and turn the sideways sensitivity of the mouse to almost 0.  Might have something to do with the fact that your eyes are staring forward and watching the screen while you move your mouse to turn about.  

A lot of people blink when they turn their head to look at something else, or don't process the "blur" of the motion.  Like if I look at the monitor and someone opens the door behind me and I turn to look, I don't actually remember seeing the windows or the wall as they pass through my field of view; one moment I'm seeing what I type here, the next my brain's registering the door and the person there.

On the computer, however, you stare (more or less) forward and everything scrolls by.  When you turn fast in a FPS, everything is displayed in a blur; visual overload, in a way.  Not to mention that some engines overdo it with the field of view angle (fisheye deformation).  Eve is a prime example, where a planet in the center of the screen is a sphere, but you move it to a corner of the screen and it's an egg.

[penfold]

If i can turn off viewbob, and my framerate is at least 20+ i usually avoid motion sickness in fps games.

If viewbob's forced on i get it regardless, COD runs 100fps + on my new system and yet i still get it playing.  Its something to do with the edges of the screen bobbing up and down in my peripheral field of view whilst the crosshair/centre of screen stays level, and transisitioning from an outdoor area to an indoor area increases the effect.

3rd person games can give me it with rapidly swinging camera.

[voodoolily]

I get dizzy when I watch the boyfriend play, but if I'm behind the wheel it doesn't seem to be an issue. Huh.

[schild]

I can't sit passenger seat for a long time in a car without getting sick. I can't play Cold Fear without getting sick. I can't play the LithTech engine (the one used in Shogo) without getting sick.

All 3 situations piss me off.

[SuperPopTart]

I cannot play UT2k4 for a long time because of the flashiness as well as the motion. It is either too fast or too slow for me. I've not yet figured it out. Also, for a LONG time, UTGOTY was too much for me and somehow I got used to it.


But what happens normally is my face starts to feel funny and my eyes start to almost cross, turning inwards. Tunnel vision, maybe.

I should also say that I get panic attacks when playing certain games. Any board that has tunnels, or is TOO wide open can send me into a massive panic attack. Isn't THAT fun :P

[Daydreamer]

Curious Unscientific Survey:

Those of you complaining for motion sickness in games, when did you get your first game system/game-quality PC and how often did you play in your local arcades back in the day?

[SuperPopTart]

My very first game-induced panic attack, motion sickness was running through Neriak as a level 1 Dark Elf WAY back when.

[Daydreamer]

But how long have you been playing video games as a whole? 10 years? 15?  Given the reactions and ages of a few of my friends to Halo, I'm wondering if its a natural reaction unless you build up mental resistance to it as a kid.

[SuperPopTart]

Well.. at that point? Maybe 10 years or so? A bit less. And you can build up a tolerance for it. I had to keep playing and I darkened the screen/wore sunglasses while I played.

I actually still do wear sunglasses when I play games sometimes to get rid of my headaches/stop the motion sickness and panic attacks.

And it works.

[Trippy]

Does anyone else here suffer from the same affliction?  Usually if I am in outdoor areas of games I am fine.  The tunnels and indoor areas would make me want to hurl after five minutes of playing though.  Lately I can't play any FPS without getting sick.  Short of taking dramamine to play Joint Operations does anyone have any suggestions?

Did you get a bigger monitor recently? If so try sitting back farther from the screen. One thing that tricks your mind into thinking you are moving when you really aren't is if "the scene" is moving in your peripheral vision. There's an attraction at Disneyland (or used to be -- haven't been there in like 15 years) which is basically just a large circular room that you stand in with a screen that goes all the way around it and they project a composited 360 view of an area onto the screen. When the "camera" moves around in the area your body feels like it's moving (and people will shift their weight to try and compenstate) cause your mind is tricked into thinking the world is moving cause your peripheral vision picks up the motion. You can also sometimes get this sensation from watching things on a really large movie screen like in an IMAX theater.

The driving/not driving thing is basically an issue making sure all your "motion sensors" (the things Stephen Zepp talked about in his post) are in agreement. For example if you are reading a book in the backseat of a car, your eyes are telling you that nothing is moving while your body is feeling the movement of the car and this can cause motion sickness in some people (it's the same thing with flying in an airplane or being in a rocking boat). For some people it's enough just to stop reading and look out the window. For others, though, they have to sit in the front passenger seat since that gives them a better view of things so their eyes and body are in better agreement. For some even that's not enough and they actually need to "be in control" so to speak and drive the car so that they can anticipate the motions of the car better.

My sister has the problem, and I don't.  In order for her to not get sick while watching the screen, I'd have to make sure I walk very slowly and turn the sideways sensitivity of the mouse to almost 0.  Might have something to do with the fact that your eyes are staring forward and watching the screen while you move your mouse to turn about.

Does your sister have this problem if she's playing the game (i.e. she's controlling the character that's moving)? If not then she's one of those people that needs to be in control of their movements to keep them from getting motion sickness.

I don't get motion sickness normally playing games but the beta of The Matrix Online was giving me a headache and very slight motion sickness because the movement controls in that game weren't very precise -- your character would keep moving or turning even after you let go of the controls. That coupled with the constant rubber-banding in the game was messing me up because I was never looking at what I thought I should be looking at in the game.

[Rodent]

Curious Unscientific Survey:

Those of you complaining for motion sickness in games, when did you get your first game system/game-quality PC and how often did you play in your local arcades back in the day?

Well, like I said, it's just one game ( HL2 ). I started my gaming career with a C64 moved onto a Amiga 500/286/NES. Arcades I played whenever I was close to one... Pac-Man on the ferry to Copenhagen and Outrun while waiting for friends at the videostore. Ah thoose were the days.

[Alkiera]

My spouse has this effect very, very badly.  Can't watch me play any 3-d game for very long, can only play CoH in third person with the camera backed out very far, and only in outdoor areas.  She gets all queasy and has to turn away.

We've called this illness 'polygon poisoning' for as long as I can recall.

Alkiera

[Tebonas]

I play computer games since I was about 7 or 8, and now I'm 30. The first game I got motion sick from was (I think) Deus Ex, until I turned off the head titling. Since then, head titling kills me and I get sick after a few hours.

[Tale]

If a game has a "head bob" effect active, I get motion sickness almost instantly. I'm fine if I switch off head bob.

Curious Unscientific Survey:

Those of you complaining for motion sickness in games, when did you get your first game system/game-quality PC and how often did you play in your local arcades back in the day?

I'm 35 and had a pong machine with the paddles back in the 1970s. As a teenager I was a Commodore 64 game addict (favourites were Elite, which is wireframe 3D, and Paradroid, 2D horizontal and vertical scroller). Briefly had an Amiga, then played SSI D&D games on a green-screen XT, then spent nights in a student newspaper office playing Ultima Underworld and Wolfenstein 3D, then bought my own PC around the time of Doom. Very rarely went to arcades to play games - never had the pocket money or an arcade nearby.

I used to catch a ferry to work across the mouth of a harbour where you sometimes hit big swell. After a few weeks I developed an immunity to seasickness (got my "sea legs"). I don't remember ever having trouble with videogame motion sickness during that time. But you lose that if you're not regularly using boats.

[Megrim]

Another thing that might help, is that i've noticed, often people who get motion sickness also have a tendency to overfocus on their cosshairs - moving their eyes more or less along the lines of the crosshair's movements. Consequently, as the crosshairs' movement in fps games is often hideously rapid (Q3), the effect of constantly having to re-focus one's eyes will jarr with the "stable" environment of the game.

Try to think of the two as separate parts: moving is part of one hand, while the "pointing" is part of the other. I guess this is where playing a lot of Mechwarrior or flight sims might help - you are often moving in one direction while shooting and looking in another.

 - meg

[Bunk]

Only game that ever gave me this issue was my brief venture in to Meridian 59 (sorry Psycho).

I have a friend though who can't play shooters at all. He gets the same issue watching movies that feature the popular new "jerky cam". He almost hurled at the Bourne Supremecy.

[voodoolily]

Well.. at that point? Maybe 10 years or so? A bit less. And you can build up a tolerance for it. I had to keep playing and I darkened the screen/wore sunglasses while I played.

I actually still do wear sunglasses when I play games sometimes to get rid of my headaches/stop the motion sickness and panic attacks.

And it works.

What do you use to stop the voices? The horrible voices that won't rest until you kill again.


I have never played an FPS on a PC, only on the console. Funny, the only thing close to a panicky feeling I've ever gotten from a game has been from FPSs, but it's mostly limited to sweaty palms, racing pulse and the like. Adverse reactions some of you have may be related to sitting so goddamned close to the screen (another reason I prefer console games).

[Mr_PeaCH]

In my experience, only one PC game ever gave me motion sickness and it was one of my kids games, some LEGO abomination.  It had zero production value and was the shoddiest, jerkiest piece of crap I've ever seen.

Console games on the other hand get me almost every time.  I can't put my finger on what the difference is.  Even the smoothest, most gorgeous, outdoorsy First-Person perspectives make me queasy.  Realistic or cartoony; doesn't matter.  Leave me with a real bad head ache as well.

I do know that, as I have gotten older, I'm much much more succeptible to all sorts of motion-sickness than I used to be.  I used to be able to take on every vomit comet in the amusement park.  But just recently, past few years, I find myself sitting out after one or two rides on pretty tame coasters and I actually got sea sick for the first time last year; something that had never happened to me before.

[Warryyr]

Actually, this problem reared it's ugly head not long ago with a pre-Combat Upgrade change to Star Wars Galaxies called "snappy movement."

It may be a result of simulator sickness, or a form of it:

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.10/feat/

http://www.loonygames.com/content/1.2/feat/

For those who are curious, "snappy movement" was a change that the SWG Devs made, that they claimed was to help improve gameplay once the CU goes Live.  Whereas before, your character would go from standing to running in a somewhat gradual fashion, and you'd take about 3 steps to slow down, the "snappy movement" was very abrupt.  You'd go from standing still to a full run in half of a step of your character, and you'd stop on a dime.  It was rather unpleasant, and was just too unrealistic for my tastes - though it didn't make me sick.  Apparently it might be the "unrealistic" thing that makes people feel ill - they expect their character and it's surroundings to behave somewhat realistically.  When running full force starts and stop instantaneously, the stuff around you might be messing with your head. 

The Devs finally threw in some adjustments of a couple steps to slow down from full run, and more of a "warm up" to a full run, and I guess people were happier with it.

The most ridiculous thing was that this change was made due to the CU, but then we got into the CU Beta server for the first few days - and guess what.  No snappy movement!  They put it in later.  Funny how it was so important to throw in due to the CU, yet wasn't even on the server when Beta opened.  I also don't see any real advantage to it with the CU, really.  Either someone's in range to attack, or not - and you saving 1/2 of a step to start running does nothing when someone else has that same 1/2 step advantage, too.

[Arnold]

I can't sit passenger seat for a long time in a car without getting sick. I can't play Cold Fear without getting sick. I can't play the LithTech engine (the one used in Shogo) without getting sick.

All 3 situations piss me off.

I have played many FPS games and the only one to ever make me sick, and it did so every time I played it for 20-30 minutes, was Shogo.

[Arnold]

But how long have you been playing video games as a whole? 10 years? 15?  Given the reactions and ages of a few of my friends to Halo, I'm wondering if its a natural reaction unless you build up mental resistance to it as a kid.

I had been playing video games for about 20 years when Shogo made me sick.  That was the first time I ever got sick from a video game.

[Yegolev]

I have never gotten sick from playing any game.  Not Descent, DOOM, UU... never played Shogo.  Headbob or not, doesn't matter.  I don't get sick in cars or on rides.  Not Spiderman in Universal Orlando, not even Mission: Space in EPCOT.  No seasickness, either, but it's not like I spend a lot of time on the water.  Little bit on lakes, but once took the ferry from John O' Groats to Orkney.  No problems.

Do I win?

[Viin]

If you haven't played HalfLife2 or Shogo I don't think you win anything but a l4m3r tag.

[Yegolev]

If you haven't played HalfLife2 or Shogo I don't think you win anything but a l4m3r tag.

Shogo?  I was told it was ass.  Oh, well... too late for that one.

[Nebu]

If you haven't played HalfLife2 or Shogo I don't think you win anything but a l4m3r tag.

Apparently i r teh l4m3r.

As for nausea, there are a number of different causes and each is treated quite differently.  The standard cause of motion sickness is initiated by stimulation of the labyrinthine mechanism of the ear (as stated above) which sends a signal to the CTZ.  This is usually treated with antihistamines (i.e. Dramamine) or anticholinergics.  It may also be possible that in some people a biochemically induced nausea develops due to a combinaiton of both anxiety and stress.  This type of nausea is treated very differently. 

My personal suggestion would be to add a bit more distance between you and the monitor such that you occasionally pick things up in your peripheral vision.  This has helped a few people I've known with this issue.  Especially if a window was one of those "things".

My 2 cents.

[Rodent]

Shogo kicked alot of ass... But I say that about 98% of the games sporting mechs.

[Stephen Zepp]

Interesting aside as to how they combatted persistent air sickness in student pilots in the Air Force (this is not a joke):

A student was required to be able to fly three rides in a row without any airsickness whatsoever prior to being allowed to solo, without medication. For the worst cases, they literally would strap them to a chair that was motorized, and spin them around the chair's axis so fast that they would puke, and repeat this in 15 minute sessions 3 times a day for a week.

If, by the time the week's "training" was over the student was able to fly without air sickness, they were allowed to progress in the program. If they could not, they washed out of pilot training, never to return again.

Fortunately, I never had to go through that, but I had a couple of students that did--and I've never seen a more unhappy person in my life than someone that just returned from one of those sessions. They weren't even allowed to drive for like 45 minutes after they got out, it was that bad.

[Alkiera]

Interesting aside as to how they combatted persistent air sickness in student pilots in the Air Force (this is not a joke):

A student was required to be able to fly three rides in a row without any airsickness whatsoever prior to being allowed to solo, without medication.

By 'rides', do you mean normal tooling around in a plane, dogfighting maneuvers, or stuff like the Vomit Comet(of NASA fame?), or the lesser thing the Air Force inflicted on civies, Touch-n-Go's?

Alkiera

[lamaros]

I never got sick playing games until recently, when playing SS2 again made me ill. Never happened when I played the game originaly, so I assume it was to do with some video/refresh rate thing I fail to understand.

[Jayce]

I had a friend who got sick from running around an Everquest city (dwarf city, wherever that was).

After a while of being lost there, I started to as well.  It was just too confining and being lost didn't help.