Motion Sickness

Littlenose

Littlenose

Littlenose

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Joined
27 May 2008
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Petersfield, Hampshire
I'm struggling with VR motion sickness in titles such as HL Alyx, Subnautica.
I find within 20 mins I feel a bit queezy, and it knocks me sideways for 2-3 days.
I quickly got used to all the flight sims I've tried (IL2, DCS, MSFS2020), and Moss doesn't cause me any issues. It just seems to be the first person movement that gets me.
Does anyone have any tips for geting past this ?
 
Littlenose said:
I'm struggling with VR motion sickness in titles such as HL Alyx, Subnautica.
I find within 20 mins I feel a bit queezy, and it knocks me sideways for 2-3 days.
I quickly got used to all the flight sims I've tried (IL2, DCS, MSFS2020), and Moss doesn't cause me any issues. It just seems to be the first person movement that gets me.
Does anyone have any tips for geting past this ?
Click to expand...

Fan on you, ginger before you start. Try swinging your arms as you walk, and even walking on the spot.

It's really weird that you can do sims and not first person though.
 
Unseul said:
Fan on you, ginger before you start. Try swinging your arms as you walk, and even walking on the spot.

It's really weird that you can do sims and not first person though.
Click to expand...

You've made me think of a couple of other points that may be super important:
  • car sims are ok for me too
  • You mention swinging arms... I do all my VR sitting
Maybe it's using the thumbsticks for movement that's killing me?
 
Yes I agree and do try to stop at the first sign. But it seems to kick in hard a little while after stopping.

To be honest, I've avoided it all together by not playing those games for 6 months or more... but I feel I'm missing out on something that I know I would enjoy.
 
Maybe try limiting yourself to short vr spells to build up a tolerance, stop playing before you feel queasy, do 10 mins then stop even if u feel fine, and slowly over a period of weeks add a minute or 2 on here and there.
 
Littlenose said:
You've made me think of a couple of other points that may be super important:
  • car sims are ok for me too
  • You mention swinging arms... I do all my VR sitting
Maybe it's using the thumbsticks for movement that's killing me?
Click to expand...

Different games also have different effects I've found. Smooth turning in some is fine for me, others I have to use quick turn (I normally just use it by default now). High refresh rate seems to help a lot. Maybe try things with teleport movement at first?

And try standing.
 
Tykey said:
Maybe try limiting yourself to short vr spells to build up a tolerance, stop playing before you feel queasy, do 10 mins then stop even if u feel fine, and slowly over a period of weeks add a minute or 2 on here and there.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the suggestion, I think I'll try this too... set an alarm for 10 mins and stop no matter how I feel :)
 
For Half-Life: Alyx, have you tried the teleport option? I get motion sickness too but have never had it in HL: A when using teleport.

Ignore. Just noticed you said you had tried teleport. You must suffer quite badly for it to happen with that ...
 
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Infidelus said:
For Half-Life: Alyx, have you tried the teleport option? I get motion sickness too but have never had it in HL: A when using teleport.

Ignore. Just noticed you said you had tried teleport. You must suffer quite badly for it to happen with that ...
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Yep, I think I do suffer badly compared to most. I'm particularly intrigued by the fact that flight sims don't cause this, despite doing some crazy high G, inverted flight stuff at times.


ssmacc said:
As other have said, don't "fight it"...stop until it's gone and then have another go...you'll get your "VR Legs" it can just take a while...
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It's the way it takes me days to recover that is the problem here.
I'm going to try what Tykey said and stop before there's any signs of sickness. See how that goes.
 
Littlenose said:
It's the way it takes me days to recover that is the problem here.
I'm going to try what Tykey said and stop before there's any signs of sickness. See how that goes.
Click to expand...

Sorry, you won't change anything if you stop before you even start to get sick. It's about training your mind not to get sick.

If you take days to recover, you are leaving the headset on for too long after you start to feel queasy. The trick is that the second you feel the sickness coming on, stop. You might not even feel nauseous, but you can feel it coming. That's when you stop. Stop completely, don't take the time to close the game or anything. Just take the headset off and go away and do something else until the feeling that you are getting nauseous goes away.

Different games can cause different reactions in people. And if you are particularly susceptible to motion sickness, you might need to train yourself in for new games depending on the motion involved.
 
That makes sense too.
I think other than maybe taking longer to get my VR legs, I can't lose anything by trying by starting with short timed sessions that get incrementally longer each session with the proviso of stopping as soon as I feel anything untoward.
 
Melmac's advice is sound - that strategy worked for me.


Interestingly, since getting the quest 3 I can do full motion running etc when I couldn't before. I think there is something to be said about clarity / fps / focus with better performance.

Might be worth looking at the frames your getting with alyx etc to make sure there's no drops or skipping.
 
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Also even if you have strong VR legs like I do, you can be caught out.
I added a speed boost perk in Dungeons of Eternity, and it made me feel ill. It was weeks before I could stomach smooth movement again.
 
First, I'm sorry to hear you were out for weeks after getting the motion sickness.
On the upside for me personally it's the first time I've seen someone else mention that the feeling lasted a good while, just knowing I'm not alone with that helps.
 
Littlenose said:
You've made me think of a couple of other points that may be super important:
  • car sims are ok for me too
  • You mention swinging arms... I do all my VR sitting
Maybe it's using the thumbsticks for movement that's killing me?
Click to expand...

If you are sitting, turn on snap turning. Makes a huge difference. I think Subnautica needs a mod to add this iirc.
 
some tips..
- yes use a fan to give your body position
- use room scale VR to turn physically rather than joystick turns
- keep framerates at 90fps (preferably without ASW, motion reprojection etc) <--- by far the most important imho especially when in first person
- move slowly
- when you walk in game move your legs IRL
- avoid ladders and cutscenes (close your eyes)
- take lots of breaks and build up to longer sessions, follow what Melmac said above

motion sickness is basically triggered when your brain thinks something is wrong and wants to protect you from poisoning or infection by making you sick... you have to train your body that VR is ok
 
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