Motion sickness

Steve Hel · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:41

Especially when playing fast paced games like Quake, I can only last 30 minutes before wanting to spew. I’ve always been a bit of a fanny when it comes to boats or long drives also. Anyone else affected by this? Some people seem to be unaffected by these things, even if they haven’t been on a boat before let’s say. I went on the teacups with my daughter which I thought would be fine until the little devil started spinning that wheel in the middle :eek:

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Has anything worked for anyone suffering with this?

Gav_r26 · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:45

Yep, can't play first person shooter games at all. Driving games aren't too bad if I have the exterior camera. Anything that spins on the screen I'm done for!

I find sitting further away from the screen helps a bit, otherwise I just avoid them.

Mr.Cookie · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:46

Travel sickness bands work for me, the worst game ever for me was star trek voyager I'd last two minutes if that without bands!

arc@css · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:51

Fairground rides started having that effect on me in my later teenage years, though if a ride doesn't spin too much I'm nearly always fine.

I'm okay with anything else, e.g. games - just as long as the FOV is acceptable otherwise my eyes find it all a bit too much. No nausea, though.

englishpremier · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:52

When I was living on my boat I used to take Sturgeon 15mg when beating windward on a catamaran. Used to work well for me. When I had crew they'd take all kinds of stuff, and mostly just end up in a coma (deep sleep not a real coma)

Drangueos · 13 Apr 2021 at 22:53

I have really bad motion sickness on boats and most VR games, no problem with regular games on monitor.
Sometimes I get it when I'm on the back seat of a car as well and I can't read inside any vehicle.

On the rare occasion I wanna play VR I take a Sturgeron 15 and I can play.

ianh · 13 Apr 2021 at 23:05

I don't get motion sickness via games (even VR), but if I'm a passenger on anything other than something airborne (Plane/Heli/Balloon/Glider etc) then I get terrible motion sickness if I''m not the one in control so cars, coaches, trains, any boat etc all make me motion sick after 1-2hrs and my only "cure" is to be asleep for the journey.

I've genuinely been sea-sick whilst still in Port, on one of the fast Cats from Dover/Calais as it bobbed up and down in the harbour whilst we boarded yet anything airborne (except military Fast jets) no matter the violent turbulence, I'm fine with - such an oddball!

Craig R · 14 Apr 2021 at 15:25

Steve Hel said:
Especially when playing fast paced games like Quake, I can only last 30 minutes before wanting to spew. I’ve always been a bit of a fanny when it comes to boats or long drives also. Anyone else affected by this? Some people seem to be unaffected by these things, even if they haven’t been on a boat before let’s say. I went on the teacups with my daughter which I thought would be fine until the little devil started spinning that wheel in the middle .

Has anything worked for anyone suffering with this?

You need to slowly build up a tolerance. As soon as you start felling a bit wobbly, stop. Do short regular bursts, you'll gradually manage longer each time.

Start with stationary games and don't jump straight into fast paced roaming fps titles.

Ginger tablets may help, as can having a fan blowing in your face.

Ravenger · 14 Apr 2021 at 16:07

The main thing is to stop when you feel ill and come back later when you feel better. Otherwise you can train your brain to associate VR with being sick, and that's very difficult to get rid of.

jonchaz · 14 Apr 2021 at 17:29

I suffer badly from motion sickness with driving or FPS type games and the more realistic the game is visually, the worse the nausea. VR is barf city within 5 minutes so that's a no go for me. I can get away with flying/space type games and sims with a screen, just so long as the game does not move my viewpoint within the cockpit automatically for a padlock view or for simulating G forces. By contrast I read somewhere that commercial pilots can have nausea problems with aircraft sims since their brains associate the screen image with the motion they are used to in a real plane.

My motion sickness problem may have something to do with my eyes, one of which focuses differently to the other. When I bought a pair of reading glasses a few years ago I noticed that with my now corrected vision it made rectangular screens appear trapezoid. My brain has been automatically interpreting my wonky vision for my whole life and the glasses now make everything seem out of whack. The problem with this is if I walk around with the glasses on it gives me motion sickness again. They work OK though if I keep my head still while reading.