Why virtual reality makes a lot of us sick, and what we can do about it.
It’s very simple. The device needs to maintain 90fps at 90hz minimum. Anything below that can cause nausea. We’ve known this since at least 2017.
I’d go so far as to say 144hz at 144 fps should be the bare minimum. And that’s not even factoring in stuff like screen door effect, latency issues, etc etc. All of which play a part.
The Quest 2 has pretty much eliminated the screen door. I’ve never had any issues at 90/90, but sensitive people might. The higher the better really. I hate saying it, because I despise Facebook, but the headset is actually really good, especially if you use it through Steam Link. Comparable headsets are 2-3x as much money.
I legitimately never thought twice about them because I thought you could only play shitty Facebook games with them, but you can play real games on Steam? How are the controllers?
Yup! You can use the Steam Link and play all of the Steam VR games you already own. You can either use a long USB-C cable, or WiFi 6.
For the Quest 2, the ideal setup is a dedicated (but inexpensive) router for wireless communicating with the headset. Last I looked a few specific models of semi-generic $50 routers were tested by the community.
Then you can either run your PC lan connection through that router or if you have a second Ethernet connection, use one just for that router.
Huh… This is pretty clever…
Very cool!
They are great. I have a mate who has an index and regularly has issues with controller config playing games on steam. I’ve had none with my quest 2.
Good to know. They don’t have cameras you put around the room right? How is the tracking? I worry about it losing tracking a lot when the controllers aren’t in view.
It uses inside-out tracking, but I haven’t had any issues with it. If you move your hand out of view, it knows that you did so and will just make it disappear and reappear when it moves back into view.
No base stations required. If you hold your controller behind your back you will lose tracking as it uses cameras on the headset to track it. Hasn’t really been an issue for me though.
Okay, I had to ask because my only experience is with the Vive and I was impressed with it’s tracking via the stations.
It’s not that simple though. At any frame rate or frame time, you can still experience the movement disconnect. Simulating a roller coaster while sitting still will make the brain think you are moving while all other sensory perception says no, and you get nauseous.
Same as sea, air and car sickness, and those all have pretty great FPS.
That’s true, but when it drops below 90/90 you’re a lot more likely to experience motion sickness from something as simple as looking around. With the higher frame rates, the motion is perceived more naturally by the brain, and you’re a lot less likely to become nauseous. For the games more intense movement, where your perceived movement is disconnected from your actual movement, you can get used to it eventually, as long as your system is pushing enough information to your eyes. I have a top of the line gaming computer and I could only play very short sessions of Elite Dangerous when I started, since the perception is that you’re in a spaceship that’s flipping and spinning all around. After several short sessions, my brain started adapting until I could play for hours on end.
I mean… it’s also the fact you can move in the game while sitting down or standing still IRL. The framerate isn’t going to affect that inner ear/brain disconnect that causes motion sickness. Get a viable, and affordable, omnidirectional treadmill out and that would be a big help.
Frametimes is the specific measure.
<11.1ms for 90Hz or <8.33ms for 120Hz
If the game, experience, or whatever breaches that minimum frame time frequently, then you can experience nausea just from moving your head around.
It does require some sacrifices like turning shadows down a notch or two in some game engines and choosing additional visual effects carefully. Some visual effects require additional computation passes and can add the the frame time.
A low latency CPU (like the AMD 3D cache CPUs) or a normal mid to high end CPU with fast memory with good timings helps quite a bit.
The GPU should be capable of pushing the pixels and shading for the target resolution. Even with a 6900xt I’ve been able to comfortably push over 4500x3000 per eye rendering (enough to get a nice anti-aliasimg effect on my Pimax 8kX at the “normal” 150 degree H.FoV) in most games.
Surprisingly, fidelity FX can help as well (the non-temporal version).
Some researchers did a study several years ago and found that adding a virtual nose decreased motion sickness significantly. However, I don’t think I’ve seen any developers try this. I wonder if it’d help.
adding a virtual nose decreased motion sickness significantly
Behold, the VR headset of the future!
Id love to See that. I cant even imagine how interesting some of These noses for Alien games might Look
40-70% is quite the confidence interval lol
Some to most people…
Having a fan blow into your face really helps too. I cant play more than 10 or 15 minutes without one, but with I’m fine for hours.
Which kind of fan do you use?
Only
Anybody really. Young, old, helps if they’re taller
Ahh, the ol’ Lemmy faneroo.
There are definitely games that make me more suck than others. But even the “good ones” are kinda weird. Like I can’t imagine playing a vr game for an hour or so. That’s why i don’t even bother anymore
I wonder if this 40-70% demographic has actively tried to play it a couple times? My first experience with VR was incredibly disorienting, and yes, made me feel nauseated. But after playing for 2-3 hours across a handful of 15-20 minute sessions (passing it around a few friends for an evening) that just went away. Once the body uses it a bit and learns, even high-movement non-teleport movement games stop being an issue.
I wonder if I happen to be in that upper percent, or if the numbers in question are a matter of people who tried it once in their life and felt sick. Clearly the author has put real time into trying to move past it, but that doesn’t say anything for the study he quotes the “40-70% of players are 15 minutes” numbers from.
Since you’re asking for anecdotes: my VR headset consistently made me sick following 30 min to an hour at the absolute max. I still played dozens of times for short spurts, but it never got better for me.
I kinda am, tbh. I don’t believe for a second that my experience represents everyone, but such large numbers also don’t seem to make sense to me.
Heard somewhere that it can get worse if you try to power through the nausea and sickness. Like your body remembers that it made you sick before and wants to actively avoid going through that experience again. So if you start feeling sick, especially when you first start out, stop playing.
Lol, I have better things to do with my time than training to play shovelware video games.
In 5 years from now, VR will be 5 years away of becoming mainstream. Just like 5 years ago.
LMFAO, a lot of you guys sound so fucking bitter and I don’t understand. I used a Vive years ago and it was so much fun, zero nausea the very first time I played it and I played it for hours. The tech has only gotten better and better. Stay mad. 😂
Edit: Accidentally said Rift when I actually meant the HTC Vive. It was awesome.
Big reason why I just never understood why Meta bet the farm on VR/metaverse. Such a stupid move, literally everyone knew that VR wasn’t ready for mainstream. The only people willing to get it were tech nerds and some gamers, and really that had nothing to do with the metaverse, it was because they could play games in it.
Until it gets stable and doesn’t feel like I’m strapping a brick onto my face, it’s not going to happen mainstream. It also can’t just connect to a PC, average people don’t want to be strapped down to something. And I know, that’s a lot to ask, but if you want to base your entire company on VR, those are the hard realities. People want something like sunglasses, not something that feels like duct taping a laptop in front of their face
