Weird

[Camalot]

I used to have this when i went from a mega drive to a ps1.

Haven't had it since this week (also on a new 8800gt) playing through timeshift has given me bad heads. Played through the witcher and cod4 to but dont think thats made me ill.

 

[HangTime]

Can someone explain this Field of View thing and how changing it helps with motion sickness?

The problem is that some games use a very low FOV by default, often around 75-80 degrees, for example HL2. This zooms your view in and makes it appear as if things are moving around a lot in front of you, without giving a wide 'overview' of the surrounding area.

This causes motion sickness because your eyes are telling you one thing (rapid movement) and your ears/balance are telling you another (you are sat fairly still in a chair). The brain assumes that the cause of this discrepancy is intoxication of some kind and thus induces sickness to try and rid your body of the toxins.

Higher FOVs tend to much more forgiving because effectively it slows down the speed at which your view is changing. 'Landmarks' stay in your view for longer and in general it makes your eyes think that your position is relatively more static. I think this is probably why the hoverboat level on HL2 caused people problems, you are speeding along and fixed points pass you by to the sides staying in view for much less time than they do with a more standard FOV (say 90-110).

 

[Chevens]

Yup HL2 made both me and my GF feel extremely ill, maybe on the back of game box's a puke factor should now be listed as well?

 

[manveruppd]

Yeah, the hoverboat bit in HL2 was the only time I ever felt carsick while sitting in a desk chair! But only the final bit with the helicopter, as there were loads of ramps and bumps that I drove over, launching the boat into the air.

Although I remember once setting the FOV in Quake 3 to 180 degrees for a laugh, that was pretty disoriening too! Though it was more "trippy" than "nauseous"