Motionsickness

[Spike88]

My Fiancé was interested in trying Half life 1. So I installed it on her computer, taught her how to put on god mode, and let her play.

She plays for about 10 minutes and then complains about a headache. For about a week she plays off and on and usually quits playing due to headaches.
I changed the resolution from 1024x786 to 800x600 and she said it was a little better but she still ended up getting headaches.
Experimenting I had her watch me play Half Life 2 on the ps3 and she said she could feel the headache coming on within 5 minutes.

She can play non-first-person games fine. But she suffers from frequent headaches if she reads, plays anything, or uses the computer for too long.
She's going to see an eyedoctor because her glasses are atleast two years old.

Now the whole point of this topic is to ask, is she doomed from ever playing an FPS game due to motion sickness or do you guys think its just because her glasses are old and she needs new ones?

[antikristuseke]

I would bet that the headaches are due to over straining of the eyes due to needing new glasses, but I am no expert.

[Ubergeek87]

The headaches could be caused by a few things that I can think of:
Simulator Sickness, which would really suck because there's no one cure for it that I've seen. Her old glasses, new ones should at the very least help while reading. If she's playing on a CRT monitor make sure the refresh rate is set to at least 75Hz. She might also have a bad habit she doesn't notice while playing, personally, I clench my teeth and occasionally forget to blink which gives me headaches.

[Spike88]

Her screen is a laptop screen. I'd assume LCD.

I don't know if she has any bad habits while playing.

I guess we have to wait until she gets her new glasses to find out.

[kiwi_2005]

I get motion sickness with certain games, just crept up on me few years back with no warnings - I get nauseated and dizzy where if i keep playing that game I know im either going to throw up or black out.

[Oberon]

Perhaps adjusting the refresh rate might help, could be that her eyes are picking up the flickering subconsciously.

[Spike88]

Perhaps adjusting the refresh rate might help, could be that her eyes are picking up the flickering subconsciously.
I'll try this.

[SteamWake]

This is not uncommon and has been a malody since the first first person shooters (DOOM).

It has to do with subconsiously not disconnecting the motion on the screen from the motion in ... well.. reality.

The average person usually overcomes this disconnect after some time, others never do. I myself became a bit queasy while playing COD and some other highly realistic FPS at first. But nowadays this type of game doesent bother me.

Hell Ive heard reports of people becoming seasick while play Silent Hunter :haha:

But uhhh yea bumping up the refresh rate may help some.

Here this may be of some help

http://gamedame.wordpress.com/2007/10/01/how-to-prevent-motion-sickness-from-halo-3/

[Schroeder]

I think in in HL 1 I turned to software rendering rather than hardware rendering. The hardware rendering of older games often gave me headaches and motion sickness. maybe she should try to play it on software mode.:hmm2:

[Dowly]

This is not uncommon and has been a malody since the first first person shooters (DOOM).

Blasphemy! Everyone knows Wolfenstein 3D came first! :O:

[Spike88]

I get headaches when I play for over 6 hours and then stop. The best way to cure my headache is to play some more. :haha:


I'll show her the link steamwake posted and get her to try it out.

[NeonSamurai]

Headaches and motion sickness are two different things though and it doesn't sound like she is getting motion sickness (no nausea for one thing).

The cause is probably eyestrain, and if glasses don't fix it, try having her play in a lit room. A bright monitor against darkness is very hard on the eyes as it confuses the eyes focusing, causing the eyes to rapidly shift focus triggering eyestrain and headaches.

Playing games and watching tv in total darkness is something we all do and shouldn't as it is very bad for our eyes.

[Spike88]

We went to see Paranormal Activity the whole movie is from a Camera's perspective. At certain points the camera would be hand held as the characters walked, this would bring on her headaches too. She still needs to see a eye doctor for new glasses, but atleast we know its not just videogames.

[Onkel Neal]

My Fiancé was interested in trying Half life 1. So I installed it on her computer, taught her how to put on god mode, and let her play.

She plays for about 10 minutes and then complains about a headache. For about a week she plays off and on and usually quits playing due to headaches.
I changed the resolution from 1024x786 to 800x600 and she said it was a little better but she still ended up getting headaches.
Experimenting I had her watch me play Half Life 2 on the ps3 and she said she could feel the headache coming on within 5 minutes.

She can play non-first-person games fine. But she suffers from frequent headaches if she reads, plays anything, or uses the computer for too long.
She's going to see an eyedoctor because her glasses are atleast two years old.

Now the whole point of this topic is to ask, is she doomed from ever playing an FPS game due to motion sickness or do you guys think its just because her glasses are old and she needs new ones?

I get the exact same thing from some games, like Half-life2 and BioShock--motion sickness. After 45 minutes I get so queasy I wanna barf. I have to quit and lay in the couch for a while.

After a long time I can get used to it and it doesn't bother me quite as much, but I still don't enjoy the sensation. I limit myself to 30 minutes and then I take a break.

Some games like Battlefield 1942 do not bother me at all, I wonder what the difference is? :hmmm:

[Robsoie]

Headaches and motion sickness are two different things though and it doesn't sound like she is getting motion sickness (no nausea for one thing).

The cause is probably eyestrain, and if glasses don't fix it, try having her play in a lit room. A bright monitor against darkness is very hard on the eyes as it confuses the eyes focusing, causing the eyes to rapidly shift focus triggering eyestrain and headaches.

Playing games and watching tv in total darkness is something we all do and shouldn't as it is very bad for our eyes.
Yes, indeed motion sickness and headaches are not the same at all.
Motion sickness include some disorientation and nausea, not headaches.

Eyes problems, glasses not adapted, lack of light in the room, monitor too near from the user, flashing lights and colors, bad field of view (game constantly zoomed in or out) etc... can be responsible of the headaches.

Often a problem that can lead into motion sickness is the hardcoded head bobbing added to most fps games, that is creating a problem that do not exist in reality because the eyes with the brain can compensate for it, but can't compensate easily for something that goes on a monitor, especially when you are not used to it.

A bit in the same way for people not used to boats and that are going through a bad weather, they begin to have nausea, because the brain can't compensate easily for the movements of the boats, one need to take a boat often for the effect to disappear as the brain learn how to adjust.

So turning off head bobbing, either in options, or by some console command can often do wonders for people wanting to throw up after playing a fps.

One of the worst head bobbing ever was in the original Doom, many people wanted to throw up after playing for the first time, unfortunately it was not possible to turn off the head bobbing in that old game.
But fortunately with some modern remake like the Doomsday engine (http://www.dengine.net/), it became possible through console commands.

[Spike88]

I get the exact same thing from some games, like Half-life2 and BioShock--motion sickness. After 45 minutes I get so queasy I wanna barf. I have to quit and lay in the couch for a while.

After a long time I can get used to it and it doesn't bother me quite as much, but I still don't enjoy the sensation. I limit myself to 30 minutes and then I take a break.

Some games like Battlefield 1942 do not bother me at all, I wonder what the difference is? :hmmm:

Sometimes the difference is how much they show on screen. Some games give you more peripheral vision which can lead to motion sickness. When Mirrors Edge was in testing they gave a wider range of vision than what it has now, and it lead to a lot of the testers getting motion sickness. They dropped back how much you can see and it remedied the problem.