Adventure Gamers - Forums

Simon_ASA - 29 June 2017 06:01 AM

Oh yes I see, and according to your description I must suffer not of motion sickness but simulation sickness like you. There are games where I’m terribly sick even after leaving the pc, such as Obduction, Haven Moon, The Witness.

I’m not that fussy about whether it’s called “motion sickness” or “simulation sickness” but on some forums there’s always some smartmouth that comes out of the woodwork to say “How do you get motion sickness when you’re not moving. Bwahahaha!” So I usually just call it “simulation sickness.” Then I have to explain what “simulation sickness” is for the sake of those who’ve never heard it called that. Simulation sickness does have actual differences from the sickness from actual motion because of how long it lasts after removing yourself from the stimulus.

Simon_ASA - 29 June 2017 06:01 AM

I read a theory once, saying that in real life when we look around we always see our nose (a very small part of it, very blurry), even if we are not careful to it anymore, and it always gives us a static position, a kind of landmark. On the screen on the contrary, we see that our nose (and so our head) is static in the real world, while the camera is moving a lot around. So the body reacts to this, is lost, and it’s difficult to adapt, which could eventually cause the sickness.

That’s an interesting theory. I have no idea if there’s anything to it. I don’t pay much attention to my nose, but there might be something subconscious going on. I actually see two noses—one on the left and one on the right, and both are transparent. If I close one eye, the nose that the open eye sees becomes solid and I also see part of my brow and cheek—not really a triangle. I expect people will see different things depending on the shape of their face.

dumbeur - 29 June 2017 08:17 AM

Could the same effect be achieved with something subtle in the bottom centre of the screen?  Like a discrete black triangle at the edge of the screen.

Should be easy to test (hell, you could even do a hardware hack and literally paste it to your monitor )

But we already see our nose. Even if the gamer is able to tweak the game settings to duplicate the nose (and whatever nearby face parts) he sees in real life, there would be two sets, one inside the monitor and one outside. That’s not what we grew up seeing. I’m not saying it wouldn’t help, but as you said, you’d need to test. I suspect the problems occur because of something we’re actively focussing on rather than something in the periphery of our vision, and the more we focus, the more we’ll be susceptible to what’s “unnatural” or “off kilter” about what we’re focussing on.

dumbeur - 29 June 2017 08:17 AM

Both I and my brother have had this on rare occasions where the size of the screen relative to our proximity to it was overwhelming.  Not sure if that helps narrow down the cause.

I get sick more quickly with widescreen than with non-widescreen. You’d think that adjusting the picture on the widescreen monitor to be in a 4:3 aspect ratio with bars on the sides might help, but it doesn’t. I think it’s because of the distance from my eyes—the black bars on the sides of the monitor screen are on the same plane as the image, while with a monitor that isn’t widescreen I see around the edges of the monitor.

Sometimes when they adjust older non-widescreen games to work with widescreen monitors, they chop off the top or bottom of the image and zoom in. That may explain why there’s a problem—that it’s due to the zooming in rather than the aspect ratio. It may explain why there are GOG reissues of games that I can’t play on my new computer due to motion/simulation sickness, where I can still play the original versions on my old Win98 computer with a CRT and little or no motion/simulation sickness.

It’s not just a matter of screen size or shape though. For example I got terribly sick with the 3D “Maze Game” in this old Nancy Drew game

Fast forward to just past 2 minutes in to see the “Maze Game.” I’d be curious to know if anyone else has problems with it. Even on a 17” CRT, with the “Maze Game” taking up only part of the screen, that “Maze Game” gave me some of the worst motion/simulation sickness I’ve ever had.

Anyway, if I were making a 3D game, I’d see if there were some way to have an option for a zoomed-out view (might not be possible in close quarters unless you’re able to make the ceiling and tops of walls transparent), and controls for adjusting distance from the ground (or at least offering something higher than the character, certainly higher than grass-height view). I’d also make sure panning speed was adjustable, and not tied to processor speed.

My understanding is that the sickness is caused by discrepancy between what your eyes are seeing, and what the inner ear is feeling with regard to motion. If what your eyes see tells you that you ARE moving, but your inner ear says you are staying still (or in the case of VR, most likely that you are moving, but in a somewhat different way than your eyes see you moving) then sickness can result depending on how well your brain copes with the conflicting input.

(In the case of motion sickness, my understanding is that it is usually the reverse of that situation, that your inner ear tells you that you are moving, while your eyes see the inside of the vehicle you are in and perceive it as stationary with respect to you, which is why, as I understand it, people are more likely to suffer as a passenger in a car than as the driver, since the driver’s focus is almost entirely on the world outside the car.)

crabapple - 29 June 2017 05:23 PM

It’s not just a matter of screen size or shape though. For example I got terribly sick with the 3D “Maze Game” in this old Nancy Drew game

Fast forward to just past 2 minutes in to see the “Maze Game.” I’d be curious to know if anyone else has problems with it. Even on a 17” CRT, with the “Maze Game” taking up only part of the screen, that “Maze Game” gave me some of the worst motion/simulation sickness I’ve ever had.

I found it very mildly uncomfortable and think if I was more immersed it’s exactly the kind of thing that would set me off.  I’m sitting ~10 foot from a 50” screen, make it take up the whole screen at half that distance I don’t think I could handle it.

@Ed:  Good definition of both phenomena from my perspective.