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Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:49 pm
by flip-mode
This is a new thing for me. I'm getting nausea from first-person games. At first I thought it was just Bioshock Infinite but it applied even to old games that I've previously played without any problem. This was after not playing any games at all for about 12 months.

Tomb Raider didn't give me any trouble. So for the time being it is just first person games, I guess.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:54 pm
by auxy
flip-mode wrote:
This is a new thing for me. I'm getting nausea from first-person games.
DUN-DUN-DUNNN! You've got Motion Sickness!

Lots of things can cause this kind of motion sickness, but usually, it's the disconnect between the stationary world around you and the moving thing (as far as your perception can tell) you're looking at. Try turning off lights or removing other distractions nearby. Anything that can cause visual dissonance in your field of view, especially other moving objects that don't move in sync with what's happening on screen.

You can also try sitting closer to your monitor. I get AWFUL motion sickness while gaming if I don't
  • Sit insanely close to my display, usually well less than one meter
  • Turn off all the lights around, sometimes even other monitors
  • Close the room door
  • Wear in-ear headphones so I'm isolated from my surroundings
I don't always have to do all of these, but I usually do anyway; lots of other factors can affect your susceptibility to motion sickness too, such as diet, stress, fatigue, and even posture.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 4:59 pm
by cegras

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:00 pm
by Ryu Connor
This is an FOV problem.

This instructor/artist/developer details how FOV works and why if it is incorrectly set it causes motion sickness.

Edit: Cegras is slightly faster than me.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:07 pm
by auxy
Ryu Connor wrote:
This is an FOV problem.

This instructor/artist/developer details how FOV works and why if it is incorrectly set it causes motion sickness.

Edit: Cegras is slightly faster than me.

I thought about the FOV thing, but discarded it, since he said it was also a problem with older games, which usually had a FOV of 90 or higher.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:30 pm
by Ryu Connor
FOV of 90 isn't a complete fix. Distance to screen and screen size also both have an influence.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 5:47 pm
by auxy
Ryu Connor wrote:
FOV of 90 isn't a complete fix. Distance to screen and screen size also both have an influence.
Yah, sure. FOV doesn't make any difference for my problem, regardless.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 6:34 pm
by blitzy
I don't usually get motion sickness but I've had it before while playing a game that was running at very low FPS, I think it was natural selection.. I suppose running around as an alien climbing up walls doesn't help either. But it was fine once I got the FPS fixed up

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:04 pm
by Skullzer
A little off topic, but I went to Disney Land recently it naseus on the star tours ride lol. No problem on other rides though. I had to remove the 3d glasses and everything was fine. I've also never been to a 3d movie theater or anything, wonder if it would have the same effect.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:07 pm
by flip-mode
It's very weird that this has never been a problem for me and now it is.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:09 pm
by auxy
flip-mode wrote:
It's very weird that this has never been a problem for me and now it is.

It's not really that weird! Are you playing games on a different monitor, different computer, or in a different place than before? A lot of factors can contribute to this kind of thing. Are you more stressed out now? Are you playing while fatigued? How's your vision these days?

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 8:45 pm
by FireGryphon
I never had motion sickness from FPS games until I got an LCD screen -- now I can't play FPS games for more than 15 minutes without getting nauseous. I am convinced it has something to do with the refresh rate of the screen, or something else about the LCD screen, since my sensitivity correlates directly with getting the screen.

Not sure how this helps, other than to try a different monitor, if you can.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 10:05 pm
by Pville_Piper
I noticed some nausea when playing my GTX560ti with the game settings too high. What seems to bring it on is when you get a lot of really large swings in FPS. Plus that card had known micro stuttering issues. Use a software that trends the FPS rate such as MSI's Afterburner to see this as watching the ingame displays won't show this as accurately. I would suggest putting your settings low enough to maintain 60 fps and possibly running eith VSynch or limiting the FPS by ingame settings if it has them. If you still feel sick after doing this then frame rate is not likely to be the issue. Some people have difficulty with LCD monitors.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 6:31 am
by flip-mode
Interestingly, I just tried some 3-monitor gaming (first time! so cool!) and didn't get any nausea.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 2:23 pm
by Ryu Connor
That would fit with the FOV discussion earlier. The extra monitors provide additional peripheral feedback (many games automatically expand their FOV for triple monitor).

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sun Apr 28, 2013 2:27 pm
by Star Brood
I first experienced this while playing Portal 2. The best advice I can offer is to turn off motion blur (also improves graphics, imo), set the FOV as high as possible, and pause every now and then to just admire the scenery or re-adjust your own orientation. This will help you stay in control over the game instead of the other way around, which is the basis for motion sickness.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 7:43 am
by tanker27
I've posted about this a few times because I experience it too. To combat it I set FOV to something thats 90+ depending on the game; some games affect me more than others. I also have a fan that blows directly toward my face. If you have a multi-monitor setup you may want to turn off all other monitors except one, or at least have something else running on the other monitors.

Ryu's links are the best to help combat this issue.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Mon Apr 29, 2013 8:31 am
by flip-mode
3-monitor gaming has completely alleviated the issue. Not only that, but 3-monitor gaming is completely badass. Even if I have to turn down settings, I'd rather game with 3 monitors and turned down settings than one monitor with everything cranked. Fortunately, the GTX 660 seems completely up to the task of running Bioshock Infinite on 3 monitors with all settings cranked. I played for an hour last night and didn't feel even a hint of nausea. :P Yay!

I don't think I can ever go back to single monitor gaming now. I've never tried the 3-monitor thing before, but it is amazing from the fist glimpse. I don't even notice the bezels. I though I would, but my brain completely washes them out, no bezel correction or anything like that is needed. Thank you, brain! Problem is that my 3rd monitor is on it's way to the grave. I'm to poor for this gaming business.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:01 am
by AMD64Blondie
For me, it was Mirror's Edge that got me queasy.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 7:07 am
by flip-mode
AMD64Blondie wrote:
For me, it was Mirror's Edge that got me queasy.


See, the weird thing is that now it's not any particular game. I'm sure Mirror's Edge would sicken me at this point as well. It didn't the first time I played it, but neither did Metro 2033. But when I tried Metro 2033 the other night I got queasy. My sensitivities to field of view seem to have undergone some kind of change in my year-long break from gaming.

The unfortunate thing is that Eyefinity gaming isn't going to be possible for me on newer games. I just don't have nor can I afford the system for it.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:35 am
by Looking for Knowledge
Started for me during half-life 2. After 30 minutes I would need to go lie down on the sofa. Never finished the game. :(

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 8:51 am
by Usacomp2k3
flip-mode wrote:
The unfortunate thing is that Eyefinity gaming isn't going to be possible for me on newer games. I just don't have nor can I afford the system for it.

$360 for 3x22" 1080p monitors. Then if your GPU can't handle that, you can always feed it 1600x900 or 1280x720 and you're probably fine. (1080p ~2.1MP, 900p ~1.4MP, 720p ~.9MP...aka 3x720p isn't much more than 1080p).

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:08 am
by flip-mode
Usacomp2k3 wrote:
flip-mode wrote:
The unfortunate thing is that Eyefinity gaming isn't going to be possible for me on newer games. I just don't have nor can I afford the system for it.

$360 for 3x22" 1080p monitors. Then if your GPU can't handle that, you can always feed it 1600x900 or 1280x720 and you're probably fine. (1080p ~2.1MP, 900p ~1.4MP, 720p ~.9MP...aka 3x720p isn't much more than 1080p).

Trying to plan a trip to Germany in August. Purchases of any kind are probably off the table. Next year, though....

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Tue Apr 30, 2013 10:42 am
by sid1089
I stopped playing most FPS games some 10 years ago because of nausea.

The only games I FPSes can play now are CounterStrike and Quake 3.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Fri May 03, 2013 1:47 pm
by TheSurroundGamer
Nausea from playing FPS? You just need a setup like this:

http://i.imgur.com/nSfEs61.png

Should cure what ails ya! :D

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 4:56 pm
by tanker27
Nice shameless plug for your Youtube channel. :wink: It interesting though that you also are still rocking the i7 920 D0 like I am.

Re: Nausea from first-person games

Posted: Sat May 04, 2013 11:05 pm
by NovusBogus
I got a little bit queasy playing RAGE, I think it was the low light combined with brown-equals-quality-graphics. Being an id game probably didn't help either.