The recent video game thread has me considering a little problem I’ve had. Lots of good action and RPG games these days are 3D. But whenever I play many of them I get dizzy and queasy after about half an hour. I know I’m not the only person who’s experienced this. Anybody have any suggestions on how to overcome this??
Thanks for any help you can give.
Dramamine. Lots of it.
Play standing up or play really far from the TV.
Its probably due to low refresh rate- I’m assuming that you’ve got a Playstation (even though you didn’t say so). Not much you can do for it. I had the same problem with the Playstation as well as my Sega Nomad (portable Genesis), there’s not much you can do about it.
i don’t think it has to be a playstation at all.
i know a few people who get sick when they play goldeneye, and other such games on an N64.
i think it is the nature of 3D games in general.
solutions i have = none.
Sit further away.
You need more staionary objects on your peripherial vision. Also take frequent breaks.
I have a similar problem. I can’t watch other people play 3D games. Trying to watch my husband play something like Aliens Vs. Predator on the PC is an instant headache.
Chrisbar
My, such helpful people. Let’s see what we got.
Dramamine. I’d prefer not to medicate myself if I can avoid it. But who knows, maybe I’ll get real desperate. For now, I’ll pass.
It’s due to the refresh rate. Possible I guess. Not all 3D games effect me the same, but it varies from game to game, not system to system (that I can tell). I do have a Playstation.
Play standing up. Sorry. Not gonna happen. 
Play farther away. Two votes so far and the easiest to try out. I’ll give it a shot. Thanks all.
And if anyone else has any ideas please post 'em.
Well, I just overcame it by playing more. 1st time I played Golden Eye (at length) I felt dizzy for like an hour afterwards. Next time, not so bad, and so forth. Now I can be sitting inches from my monitor and play Unreal Tournament for hours at a time and feel just spiffy. Or as well as you CAN feel after playing for hours glued to your monitor.
OK, there are two potential problems- motion sickness and poor refresh rate. Motion sickness (which I assumed you weren’t talking about) can be combatted with Dramamine or sitting further away from the TV. In the specific case of Goldeneye, there’s an option to turn of the “bobbing” (or whatever it is called) when you walk, thereby reducing motion sickness. With some Playstation games and the Sega Nomad (probably also the TurboExpress) if there’s a poor refresh rate, you will feel dizzy and queasy after 20 mins+ of play. I used to get it really bad playing Sega Rally on the Saturn. I never found a cure other than quitting after 20 minutes or so- although I never tried Dramamine for it.
I used to get the same thing, Trion. I play Unreal Tournament on a PC. My bf told me once my motion sickness had something to do with relying on my mouse too much, rather than the arrow keys. Don’t know if this’ll help you (not sure how it will apply to a Playstation) but the idea was, I (or my electronic self, in the game) tend to swing around really wildly, creating a sensation of things wheeling to and fro. I’ve found that I’m just fine if I smooth it out a bit. It also diminishes based on my familiarity with a given map or board; once I know where stuff is, there’s less reason to spin around investigating every corner.
Btw, I sit way too close to my screen. I’ll ruin my eyes one of these days.
Pass on that anyway. Dramamine helps if it’s because of inner ear problems (the liquid gets swishy, like on a boat, and you get nauseous due to movement). It does not work for vision-induced motion sickness. If it does, then it’s psychological - go take a sugar pill (this is straight from my doctor).
I’ve had that problem - anything less than 100hz (yes, I know, it’s insane) gives me a headache after a while. It does not, however make me motion sick.
My biggest suggestion would be to try playing different games. I can’t play BattleZone. I get seasick. I can, however, play Heavy Gear. It’s that rocking motion of the ships that did it to me, and nothing I did could help. I don’t like Quake or etc, but that’s as much because I think they’re stupid and pointless as because they have no point and are made for 14-year-old males. grin
If you don’t have this problem on non-3d games, then refresh rate isn’t going to help you - if the refresh rate isn’t different, then the effect would be the same. Also, try playing some 3d games that don’t involve shooting - it’s possible it’s the engine of the particular games, and not the 3d that’s doing it. Try to figure out exactly what the problem is - that way, you’re not shooting in the dark when you look for a solution.
-Elthia
I suggest that you sit farther away from the tv. Since I play all my games on a small (12") television and sit reasonably far away, I’ve never had a problem with motion sickness.
But DO take breaks occasionally. Your eyes will thank you for it.
– Sylence
Turn the contrast down a little bit on the tv…Also, don’t stare at the tv constantly, they even say that in the manuals…
Elthia: I think your doctor missed the, ah, boat on this one. You can’t split motion sickness up into “visual motion sickness” and “inner ear motion sickness” because motion sickness is caused both the inner ear and the eyes. In particular, motion sickness is caused by the eyes reporting one thing to the brain while the inner ear is reporting something else.
With a video game, for instance, your eyes are reporting that you’re moving, while your inner ear is saying that you’re standing still. The resulting conflict causes motion sickness.
Turbulence on an airplane also causes crossed signals between the eye and the ear, but now it’s the inner ear that’s reporting movement. The eye, though, is saying the cabin is remaining relatively still.
If you think about it, it’s pretty unlikely that Dramamine works because it prevents the liquid in your inner ear from sloshing around. It must work because it somehow convinces your brain that this mismatch of signals is no big deal. I’d like to be more specific, but a quick Websearch suggests scientists themselves don’t know exactly how Dramamine works. See:
http://www.druginfonet.com/faq/faqmotio.htm
I work in the video game biz, where this is an occupational hazard. Most sufferers say that Dramamine helps, though one guy - a 3D programmer, ironically enough - says the drug does nothing for him. The only other avoidance tips I’ve gleaned from afflicted co-workers are to play in a properly lighted room, and take frequent breaks.
Looks like I’d be a perfect test case. Now all I need is to get someone to buy me lots of 3D games to use for testing purposes.
As far as the motion sickness theory goes, I probably won’t be trying Dramamine anytime soon. The day I need to pop pills to play a video game is the day I go outside and get some fresh air. I like my games but I can find something else to play.
As far as the games themselves I think Elthia and Rosebud were on the right track. I think some game engines are more likely to make me ill while others aren’t so bad. For example, just about any Doom type game on the PC is a killer. On the Playstation Spyro the Dragon is really bad while I can play Legacy of Cain - Soul Reaver for about an hour before it effects me. On the PC games I’m usually sitting up close to the screen. So far I’ve been avoiding the games that make me ill, but it looks like more and more 3D games are coming out. I will have to borrow a few 3D games from friends and see if sitting farther, room lighting ect. help. Heck, maybe I’ll try the Dramamine just for a scientific test.
Wumpus - You say you work in the video game business. Have you guys noticed anything in the games that causes this? Any game engine specifics or anything?
Spyro … and especially the new one, Ripto’s Rage, are the worst offenders so far for me. I actually had to go throw up trying to play it one night. Then again, I have severe vertigo anyway and can’t pass a day without my Antivert.
I’ve never had any trouble with Parasite Eve, Soul Reaver, Medal of Honor, or anything like that. Just keep checking out different games, and DEFINITELY make sure you aren’t playing “in your face” with the TV. The further away, the better.
Crash Bandicoot Warped and Ripto’s Rage (Playstation) used to give me a headache after only about 10 minutes of playing. But then I read in a gaming magazine somewhere that a good rule of thumb for how close to sit is the length of the controller cord. So now I sit much farther away, although it really screws up the traffic flow through the dining room.
“Do ya HAVE to sit THERE?”
“You can just climb over…”
First-Person shooters do that to me - it’s the damned bobbing.
Oddly, Descent is one of the few first-person-perspective games that didn’t do that to me, no matter how wildly I spun about. ::Shrug::
Like Tengu said, the bobbing is one thing that makes it worse. Bobbing is added to mimic the lurching of natural walking. Most first-person games nowadays that use it let you turn it off. Take a look in the manual.
The more extreme the movement - the more running, the more spinning around, the more jumping from high places - the worse it would be. A game that featured you calmly walking around probably wouldn’t make you feel sick as fast.
(You may want to try THIEF. It’s a first person “sneaker” instead of a shooter. Instead of running around like a maniac, you spend most of your time quietly standing still in the shadows, waiting for guards to pass by so you can strangle 'em.)
The other thing that affects it is the field-of-view. (FOV) Some games use a wide FOV that gives you a distorted, “fish eye” view of the world --the image bends around the edges as you turn your head. A really wide FOV makes me queasy, and I normally have no problem with 3D games. A few games like ASHERON’S CALL allow you to adjust the FOV (though you’ll probably have to hunt reaaal hard in the manual or online FAQs to find this option.)
Thanks Wumpus. And thanks to everyone else for their suggestions. I’ll be trying them out soon.