Motion sickness accessibility in video games • Hacker News Board

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#51

Post by foxyv » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 5:14 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #23

foxyv wrote: post #3

The one thing that will universally get me in a video game is head bob mixed with weapon sway. My brain will nope the heck out of those games almost instantly. I will happily ride the worst roller coasters, boats, busses, and cars I can find and get zero motion sickness. One minute playing Call of Duty? Done. FOV helps with some games, but the bob is always what gets me. I would love the option to turn stuff like tha…

> head bob mixed with weapon sway That's the only thing that ever bothered me in a game displayed on a monitor, when combined with underpowered hardware for said game and thus low fps. Fortunately the game had the option to turn off bobbing/swaying so I could keep playing it until i upgraded the video card. I'm also one of the unfortunates that can't stand more than like 30 min in a VR headset sadly.

Yeah, frame drops hurt my brain a little. What's funny is that I'm totally fine in VR after using it for a few months for flight sims. Although, after the initial novelty wears off I just prefer head tracking and a flat screen now.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#52

Post by Triphibian » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 5:21 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27

roywiggins wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a moment in Firewatch (first person) where the character ducks under a tree or a fence or something and that's the moment I turned it off, because the camera lurches downward. Incredibly unpleasant. Also unplayable was Superliminal though that's not a huge surprise, considering the mechanic of the game. Outer Wilds was also a real tricky one.

That sounds like a repeated animation when you exit the tower and duck under the platform (I played it recently); a main issue I have with that game is that at that point it takes over your control without any real reason other than adding in a custom flavour animation / transition of sorts. But first person games should avoid that imo, motion sickness aside. Outer Wilds I can definitely imagine, its warped perspecti…

There's an animation in Sea of Thieves when you're digging for treasure that kills me. It is this huge up and down swing of the camera.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#53

Post by Triphibian » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 5:23 PM UTC

legitster wrote: post #21

I don't normally get motion sick in games, but I actually have the worst time with 2D card games the most. And these games are the ones developers will bother least with any comfort settings! I recently had this experience with Wildfrost - a decent game but I find it migraine inducing on big screens - big flat colors, lots of wiggly animations, poor scaling, all combined with the need to do lots of reading. My eyes f…

I turned off a ton of the effects in Balatro. That helped. Some games don't give you half the options you should. I guess this push towards accessibility across the board would help here.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#54

Post by recursivecaveat » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 6:12 PM UTC

jezzamon wrote: post #37

ziml77 wrote: post #20

Narrow FoV ruins me. Even after all these years, Far Cry 2 on PC was one of the worst video game experiences ever for me because it had FoV tuned for couch gaming. IIRC I was able to somewhat fix it with a console command to adjust the FoV, but actions like sprinting which forced the FoV to something even narrower than default would undo that. And for me motion sickness isn't felt in my stomach, it's in my head. The…

Interesting, I thought having a too large FOV would result in motion sickness. Which is why when running you might reduce it, to compensate for the faster movement. I guess to clarify, you're mostly talking about PC gaming where you're sitting close to the screen, or is this something you also experience with console games? In VR, one method of reducing motion sickness is covering the edges of the screen during movem…

I'm the same way: low FoV gives me terrible headaches, like I'm walking around with binoculars strapped to my face. I can go up to 180° very comfortably in minecraft on the other hand. I think the main reason is that the lower the FoV, the faster the image moves when you rotate. If you imagine a comically small 10° for illustration, you will go through 9 full screen wipes if you turn 90°, but if you have 180° of FoV it is only a single ½ wipe.

Higher FoV just inherently feels less disorientating to me as well, being able to see all your surroundings makes the virtual space feel more cohesive and real, instead of a series of disconnected whirling imagery.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#55

Post by nottorp » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 6:39 PM UTC

foxyv wrote: post #51

nottorp wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> head bob mixed with weapon sway That's the only thing that ever bothered me in a game displayed on a monitor, when combined with underpowered hardware for said game and thus low fps. Fortunately the game had the option to turn off bobbing/swaying so I could keep playing it until i upgraded the video card. I'm also one of the unfortunates that can't stand more than like 30 min in a VR headset sadly.

Yeah, frame drops hurt my brain a little. What's funny is that I'm totally fine in VR after using it for a few months for flight sims. Although, after the initial novelty wears off I just prefer head tracking and a flat screen now.

Hmm I haven't tried any flight sims. I guess those would be much easier on the brain because they don't really simulate your head moving but an enclosure you're sitting in moving.

I also hear VR is great for Euro Truck Simulator. Which simulates the same thing, vehicle driving.

Maybe I'll even try one day, but the only PC option left on the market requires a Facebook (or Meta, I don't care how they call it so don't correct me) account doesn't it?

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#56

Post by nottorp » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 6:58 PM UTC

wlesieutre wrote: post #41

nottorp wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa! Where's that! Why do they have to advertise the latest Product Green or whatever skin and countless emoji and not useful features like this one!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga22EthUCjA You can add it to control center, either as its own toggle or via accessibility shortcuts menu

Found it and set it to "automatic" for now.

It wasn't there last time i went into accessibility to enable reduce motion. That one not because it gave me motion sickness but because the background parallax scrolling is pointless and annoying.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#57

Post by foxyv » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 7:43 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #55

foxyv wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, frame drops hurt my brain a little. What's funny is that I'm totally fine in VR after using it for a few months for flight sims. Although, after the initial novelty wears off I just prefer head tracking and a flat screen now.

Hmm I haven't tried any flight sims. I guess those would be much easier on the brain because they don't really simulate your head moving but an enclosure you're sitting in moving. I also hear VR is great for Euro Truck Simulator. Which simulates the same thing, vehicle driving. Maybe I'll even try one day, but the only PC option left on the market requires a Facebook (or Meta, I don't care how they call it so don't c…

When you first use VR for flight sims it is WILD. When you roll the plane you actually feel it in your vestibular system. Eventually you learn that it's not real and you don't get that vertigo feeling anymore but until then it's exhausting.

You only need Facebook for Oculus products. The rest mostly use SteamVR. I originally used an HP Reverb G2 but it was discontinued and now I'm looking into a PiMax Crystal. I hear the Valve Index is also pretty good. But VR is just so dang expensive.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#58

Post by wlesieutre » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 8:09 PM UTC

nottorp wrote: post #56

wlesieutre wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga22EthUCjA You can add it to control center, either as its own toggle or via accessibility shortcuts menu

Found it and set it to "automatic" for now. It wasn't there last time i went into accessibility to enable reduce motion. That one not because it gave me motion sickness but because the background parallax scrolling is pointless and annoying.

It's new in iOS 18, sometime last fall

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#59

Post by mystified5016 » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 8:17 PM UTC

donatj wrote: post #10

Probably a decade ago at this point, a friend got the first publicly available Oculus Rift development kit. We all wanted to try it, so a bunch of us gathered in his attic to give it a go. We were playing this tech demo where you would swing around on ropes to get between flying islands. Every single person who tried it got sick, except for myself. I played it longer than anyone else and did not have an issue. I have…

With a lazy eye, the brain tends to just outright ignore the conflicting signals and you end up only seeing out of one eye.

My guess is that the IPD was the primary problem for everyone else. That's real easy to get wrong and it can cause massive eye strain as your brain tries to force your eyes to focus on an image that is geometrically impossible to focus. In your case, you probably ended up just using one eye and your brain filled in the missing data. That way you sidestep the focusing problem.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#60

Post by roywiggins » Tue, Feb 04, 2025, 8:45 PM UTC

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #27

roywiggins wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a moment in Firewatch (first person) where the character ducks under a tree or a fence or something and that's the moment I turned it off, because the camera lurches downward. Incredibly unpleasant. Also unplayable was Superliminal though that's not a huge surprise, considering the mechanic of the game. Outer Wilds was also a real tricky one.

That sounds like a repeated animation when you exit the tower and duck under the platform (I played it recently); a main issue I have with that game is that at that point it takes over your control without any real reason other than adding in a custom flavour animation / transition of sorts. But first person games should avoid that imo, motion sickness aside. Outer Wilds I can definitely imagine, its warped perspecti…

Yeah for Outer Wilds I don't know if there's anything to be done- it's just what the game is. Firewatch on the other hand could just... not do that, and it would be the same game.