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Motion sickness accessibility in video games

madelinemiller.dev

91–98 of 98 posts

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#91
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…

fov is 99% of motion sickness for me too. thanks to all the games that allow fov adjustment, even if it is indirectly like in a config file.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#92
post #42

Does anyone else have a backwards brain when it comes to traditional games vs VR? Spyro the Dragon, Half Life 2, Psychonauts, Portal, etc all make me insta-hurl. Meanwhile flying around a space station at a million miles per hour in 50FPS VR, smashing into surfaces and flipping around like an olympic gymnast.... totally fine.

Possibly me too. I haven't had a lot of VR experience, but what I have had was, remarkably, pretty fine ( > 30 mins each time).

I've made a huge list of games that I've played over the years with notes on whether or not they make me motion sick.

Spyro the Dragon was my first ever video game, and I played that series for years. Came back to it a few years ago and I could only last about 20 minutes before feeling sick for the rest of the day.

The Airboat scene in HL2 made me motion sick at the time, but the whole game does now.

These days it's very hit and miss, and new 3D games are something of a risk. E.g:

- NieR:Automata (motion blur off), fine. NieR:Replicant (motion blur off), 20 mins tops.

- Portal 2, Overwatch, Control, Talos Principle(s), default settings, fine.

- Bioshock, back then and now, 20 mins tops.

- Spyro Remastered, default settings, insta puke, less than 20 mins. Super Mario Odyssey, fine. BoTW/ToTK, fine.

- Spyro un-remastered, I can watch on stream (lounge room TV) for ~15 mins before feeling ill. 1 hour if I'm watching it on an iPad.

- Oblivion c2009, fine. Skyrim c2013, couldn't last 10 minutes.

The list goes on. I watch all these sorts of threads with enormous interest so I can figure out exactly how to enjoy 3D video games again without a literally sickening trial-and-error experiment.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#93
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…

Overwatch has a weird default perspective that took me a while to adjust to. I wonder if changing from the default (103 degree) FoV would have helped? Though reduced FoV means that you won't see as much on screen without looking around.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#94
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 almost ruined Dusk for me. I learned then that those two „features” are no go for me. After turning them off I could play just fine and fully enjoy this fantastic game.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#95
post #62
post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Oh right. Valve Index. I forgot there are some non Occulus products still in the market. But I also remembered why i stopped looking. Everyone thinks you want those motion controllers and want to clear a space in front of the pc/tv to dance around. I just want to sit in my chair and command my spaceship/giant mech/truck. I don't want the fancy controllers and I especially don't want to rearrange my house around a VR…

The newer VR headsets with eye tracking are a lot more forgiving graphics card wise. My 4060 handles VR just fine. Most games I play are sitting down as well. I'm not a huge fan of walking around blindfolded!

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#96

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…

I was completely stunned that Outer Wilds didn't trigger motion sickness for me. Given my inconsistent history with so many other games, it makes me think that motion/simulation sickness must be a truly multi-variate accessibility problem where different specifics affect different people to different degrees.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#97

Talos Principle was especially bad in terms of inducing motion sickness! I normally do not get motion sickness, but even with the motion sickness reduction settings turned on, I could not play it for more than 15-20 mins at a time.

Sorry to be that person, but "did you try..." changing the perspective to 3rd person?

I found the same thing with the Talos Principle (and II) but once I shifted to 3rd Person perspective, I found it completely playable.

Re: Motion sickness accessibility in video games

#98

When I was a teenager, I really wanted to play Halo with my dad. I thought he would love it but he refused to even look at it, claiming that it would make him nauseous. I just didn't get it, we played Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil with no issue, why was this any different? I told him it was in his head or that these newer games would cause less nausea since they looked and performed better. I couldn't convince him…

> [1]: Never even touched Overwatch or PUBG

I don't want push you into nausea (know that feeling for myself), but if you're interested in trying it, I found that Overwatch was one of the few modern FPSes that didn't cause any motion sickness for me at all (with default settings). No idea why.

> [3]: The Witness

I am very sad I will never be able to complete The Witness. It's bearable - not debilitating nausea - but very unpleasant.

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