Motion sickness in certain FPS games: How do I deal with it?

[godhandiscen]

I have some sort of selective motion sickness that I get with only certain FPS games. I never bothered because I either disliked the game to the point it wasnt worth dealing with motion sickness, or I learned to play the game in 30 minute intervals and then go outside or do something else before playing the game again:

Currently the titles that give me motion sickness are:
Marathon 1, 2, and Infinity (I would vomit every now and then, but still finished them)
Return to Castle Wolfenstein (see above)
Quake (see above)
Quake 2 (not worth the motion sickness)
I took a long break from fps games here....
Halo (played it so much that I eventually got over the motion sickness in SP, but never felt it in MP)
Half Life (not worth the motion sickness)
Half Life 2 (Didn't like it enough to put up with motion sickness)
Unreal
Unreal 2
FEAR (this is the reason why I made this thread)

FPS games that don't give me motion sickness:
Halo 1 (played it enough to get over the motion sickness)
Halo 2
Halo 3
Half Life Episode 2 (very strange imo)
UT 2k3/2k4
UT3
Battlefield 1/2
Frontlines
Crysis
Fallen Empire
etc (almost any multiplayer FPS doesn't give me motion sickness)

So I never really worried about motion sickness because I never got it with any title that I really like, but I love FEAR, and I still cannot play it for more than 30 minutes at a time. My last attempt to finish the game got me close to the ending, but a roommate deleted my save file when he tried to borrow it. Now, I am playing it again because I want to finish it before Project Origin, but the motion sickness is killing me. Is there any kind of medication for this?

[bdouble]

If on PC you might have the option to increase the Field of View. I even get sick sometimes when the FoV is 60 but 90 I'm good. If not then there are a few other things to do. First is have another light source in the room. Makes it so your eyes are processing more stuff and not just focused on the screen. Another would be to sit farther away if your at like a computer monitor.

[Black-Wind]

How do I deal with the motion sickness FPS give me?

Simple. . . I don't play them.

Seems like the Wii+Wiimote set up helps me which is why I might start playing them on the Wii at some point.

[btkadams]

If on PC you might have the option to increase the Field of View. I even get sick sometimes when the FoV is 60 but 90 I'm good. If not then there are a few other things to do. First is have another light source in the room. Makes it so your eyes are processing more stuff and not just focused on the screen. Another would be to sit farther away if your at like a computer monitor.

THIS and try Dramamine. its a seasickness pill and will make it so you dont get motion sickness for 12 hours. you can pop em like candy cuz the people who work on cruise ships pop 2 a day for 6 months straight so i wouldnt worry about it lol.

[godhandiscen]

THIS and try Dramamine. its a seasickness pill and will make it so you dont get motion sickness for 12 hours. you can pop em like candy cuz the people who work on cruise ships pop 2 a day for 6 months straight so i wouldnt worry about it lol.

I'll look into that pill. Any side effects?

From wikipedia:
"A common sometimes frightening hallucination is of insects and spiders. Hallucinations are more frequent and unpleasent in a setting with little or no light. Inexperienced users of deliriants are likely to panic."

Beats having to vomit imo.

[t0va]

i've never had any side effects....it's over-the-counter.

[godhandiscen]

i've never had any side effects....it's over-the-counter.

Nice, can I pick it up anywhere? How much does it cost?

[btkadams]

Nice, can I pick it up anywhere? How much does it cost?

walmart has it im fairly sure. dont know the price though. its definitely affordable.

[Kingpen]

Interesting, I never have too many bad experiences with what you are describing except for Half Life 2. Had to get rid of the Orange Box because of this.


I love FEAR /Fear Files and think they are some of the most action packed and rewarding to play FPS games on the 360 since the A.I. is so good in them.

Halo, Unreal, Call of Duty, Rainbow 6, I can play all of them with getting sick like I did on Half Life 2

[Mr Jared]

Luck you, I just so happened to be skimming Sky Mall this weekend-

http://www.skymall.com/shopping/deta...674293&c=10645

Hurr Hurr ;o

[bdouble]

Oh yeah totally forgot about the drugs. That works as well.

Interesting, I never have too many bad experiences with what you are describing except for Half Life 2. Had to get rid of the Orange Box because of this. I love FEAR /Fear Files and think they are some of the most action packed and rewarding to play FPS games on the 360 since the A.I. is so good in them. Halo, Unreal, Call of Duty, Rainbow 6, I can play all of them with getting sick like I did on Half Life 2

Yeah HL2 has this problem. For some reason Valve make their games run with a 60 fov or maybe less. TF2 on PC was set at really low for me and made me get sick but once I change the FOV to 90 I'm good to go.

[t0va]

games I get motion sickness on:

marathon 1 (though if i sit far away i don't get it)
half life 1 (only on lcd. crt i'm fine.)

other than that I've never gotten any motion sickness.

[KernelPanic]

My g/f suffers from this a lot. She can't play some games very long (if at all).

For example, we play MMOs a lot together.

- She couldn't play Guild Wars for more than 5 minutes.
-WoW was fine, she can play all day if she wants
- LOTRO was bad .. she had to play in 1st person all the time. Unless she plays a hobbit.
- We play Age of Conan now and it's mostly fine, until we run into a hilly area going up and down. Then she's done for the night. Mounts are a no no it seems :( (gotta be 1st person).

It seems to have something to do with weird head bobbing some devs/game engines put in.

It's worse if she's down with a cold, sinuses etc.

Some people can 'get used' to a certain game after a while, she can't.

It's pretty frustrating, there's a fairly big list of games she can never play.

I'm tempted to get Mirror's Edge, but if she watches me play it I know she'll get sick, so I might have to pass on it or play when she's away.

Dramamine seems mildly effective for her. So I'd recommend that for anyone. See how it works.

[slider]

Isn't there some weird thing like if you put a frame around your tv - a few feet in front - and play looking through that your motion sickness is alleviated? I may have made that up but it sounds kind of familiar.

It's a problem I sometimes suffer with. Ugh.

[Zedsdeadbaby]

The best thing you can try to do would be to:

1. Try and use a controller in place of mouse and keyboard whenever you can and if you don't mind, as the reduced aiming/turning sensitivity can help ease any motion unease.

2. If you don't want to use a controller at all, turn the mouse sensitivity to as low as you are comfortable with, so the turning and aiming motions aren't as difficult on you.

3. Disable head-bobbing if possible, as this is one of the chief culprits of instigating motion sickness - Stalker and Fear has this really bad. Some games are hard to configure, in which case you might have to look up the config file and adjust it there (such as Stalker) or it may be in the ingame menus (such as FEAR).

4. Disable lazy weapons - the effect of the weapon in your hand slightly lagging behind your actual view like in Half Life 2, Stalker and Farcry can add to motion sickness. As before, you might have to go to config files to do this.

5. Try to increase field of view in your games. Games that give motion sickness almost always have a limiting 60-75 degrees field of view, while 90 degree views tend to be less problematic. If you have a widescreen monitor or game in widescreen resolutions this isn't much of an issue *but* if you're playing widescreen with top and bottom cut off a typical 4:3 image to fit a widescreen resolution, your field of view is in fact, much lower than normal and you need to try and alleviate this. Bioshock is a prime example of this. Unpatched, its widescreen modes have a limiting field of view which was fixed eventually.

6. Lower the pacing. Action packed games have far more motion. For example, Bioshock is less problematic than Quake 3, simply because it's a slower-paced game compared to Quake 3's frantic action where you scan the same room multiple times just to watch your back. If you have serious motion sickness issues, try to avoid multiplayer games in general.

7. Try to adjust your monitor's refresh rate (higher is better). If it's a CRT, try to replace it with an LCD, which is less stressful on your eyes due to the way it refreshes the image. LCD users generally don't have issues with refresh rates.

8 . Sleep more often, look after your general health and don't play too much! Your personal wellbeing is the biggest catalyst to any issues faced during gameplay sessions.

[dysonEA]

if its an FPS that has a high frame rate, try turning down the look/turn sensitivity. COD4 was making me really sick, untill I turned down the sensitivity. Now I'm fine with it.

[godhandiscen]

Luck you, I just so happened to be skimming Sky Mall this weekend- http://www.skymall.com/shopping/deta...674293&c=10645 Hurr Hurr ;o

Hey thanks, I'll look into this too.

3. Disable head-bobbing if possible, as this is one of the chief culprits of instigating motion sickness - Stalker and Fear has this really bad. Some games are hard to configure, in which case you might have to look up the config file and adjust it there (such as Stalker) or it may be in the ingame menus (such as FEAR).

I'll look this up now.

Also, yeah, my sensibility is really low.

[Grayman]

Quake (see above)
Quake 2 (not worth the motion sickness)

/fov 102 or 110 if you are using a 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't know the math to figure out 16:9 so if you are playing on that and completely stumped set the value really high and lower it until fishbowling doesn't bother you.

Quake

cl_bob Type: Register Default: 0.02 Description: The distance that you weapon moves up and down on the screen when running. Note: If you want your weapon to stay steady when running set this variable to 0. Most hardcore players use this setting to give them a better aim when shooting on the run. cl_bobcycle Type: Register Default: 0.6 Description: The time in seconds that it takes the weapon to move up and down on the screen. Note: If you want your weapon to stay steady when running set this variable to 0. Most hardcore players use this setting to give them a better aim when shooting on the run. cl_bobup Type: Register Default: 0.5 Description: The time in seconds that the weapon stays in the up position. Note: If you want your weapon to stay steady when running set this variable to 0. Most hardcore players use this setting to give them a better aim when shooting on the run.

Quake 2
Set these to zero

bob_pitch Type: Register Default: 0.002 Description: The amount of movment that the player's screen moves up and down while in motion. bob_roll Type: Register Default: 0.002 Description: The amount of movment that the player's screen moves left and right while in motion. bob_up Type: Register Default: 0.005 Description: The amount of time before the player's screen starts moving.

I don't know if 1 and 2 have more commands like the newer games do for damage kick.

[Alphahawk]

Isn't there some weird thing like if you put a frame around your tv - a few feet in front - and play looking through that your motion sickness is alleviated? I may have made that up but it sounds kind of familiar. It's a problem I sometimes suffer with. Ugh.

That sounds like something that might actually work. One of the causes of motion sickness is that your body feels and sees two different things, so if you can show your brain that your not actually moving it might help. I don't get motion sickness btw...

[godhandiscen]

Quake (see above) Quake 2 (not worth the motion sickness) /fov 102 or 110 if you are using a 4:3 aspect ratio. I don't know the math to figure out 16:9 so if you are playing on that and completely stumped set the value really high and lower it until fishbowling doesn't bother you. Quake Quake 2 Set these to zero I don't know if 1 and 2 have more commands like the newer games do for damage kick.

Yeah, I played Quake 1 and 2 when I used a 4:3 monitor, now I have a widescreen.

[slider]

That sounds like something that might actually work. One of the causes of motion sickness is that your body feels and sees two different things, so if you can show your brain that your not actually moving it might help. I don't get motion sickness btw...

Hmm. Interesting. I had never thought about why some people feel it. On a bobbing yacht I was told to look at the horizon. It helped. Not applicable here of course...

[Pizza Luigi]

I actually puked over my controller and lap when playing Marathon: Durandal.


I wanted the achievements...

[Botolf]

For Source games without Field Of View controls in the Video Options, try this console (`) command.

fov n (n = field of view angle, so 90 degrees would be fov 90)

[godhandiscen]

I actually puked over my controller and lap when playing Marathon: Durandal. I wanted the achievements...

Yeah, try getting yelled at by your parents for doing the same shit to countless of keyboards. I still cheerish my Marathon memories of back then.

[BakedPigeon]

THIS and try Dramamine. its a seasickness pill and will make it so you dont get motion sickness for 12 hours. you can pop em like candy cuz the people who work on cruise ships pop 2 a day for 6 months straight so i wouldnt worry about it lol.

Dont take a whole bottle of Dramamine though...... you will trip the fuck out for a few hours.

[Zedsdeadbaby]

Taking drugs (ESPECIALLY from an internet board's recommendation) should be avoided whenever possible. If you want to go down that route, you should seek expert advice beforehand.

[Concept17]

I don't get motion sickness, but it starts to hurt my eyes/head playing FPS on anything larger than 32". Perhaps your screen is part of the problem?

[Mr.City]

Dont take a whole bottle of Dramamine though...... you will trip the fuck out for a few hours.

[Greatness Gone]

You know what game is an excellent FPS to play even if you get sick from them? Bioshock. It's really slow paced, and more than likely won't make you sick.

[godhandiscen]

You know what game is an excellent FPS to play even if you get sick from them? Bioshock. It's really slow paced, and more than likely won't make you sick.

I got Motion Sickness from the demo. :(

I never join threads about it because I assume one day i'll be able to play it, but whenever I decide to give it a try, I get motion sickness.

[Bidermaier]

I have only felt motion sickness when playing the last bit of level 28 in portal. It was pretty disgusting. The PC gamer editor say that chewing ginger helps.

[Greatness Gone]

I got Motion Sickness from the demo. :(

Nevermind, then. :-/

I got some horrrrrible motion sickness from Portal. Jesus Christ, I could only play an hour a day.

[Oldschoolgamer]

I might try Dramamine then. I really want to finish HL2 and Ep1, but I can't do it because i get sick as hell. :/ I can play TF2 and Portal just fine.

[lucius]

I think some FPS with better engines cause less of this like the Halo series and Call of Duty 4, it' a weird pretty much all the COD games gave me motion sickness except COD4. If I play slower and take my time it doesn't bother me. By the way on a Kojima podcast they were talking about how Asians get this more than others which I believe, though maybe it is because they didn't grow up playing them. They even talked about how it can be a difference in the eyes.

[Concept17]

Nevermind, then. :-/ I got some horrrrrible motion sickness from Portal. Jesus Christ, I could only play an hour a day.

Good thing it only takes 2 hours to beat then eh?

[SRG01]

Play in a well lit area and try to play high-framerate games (preferably on PC so you can adjust the settings for maximum frames). The smoother the game is, the less motion sickness you'll experience.

[BakedPigeon]

I didn't even know motion sickness from games existed until a few months ago. Sucks for those that suffer from it.

[tetrisgrammaton]

just a few simple suggestions maybe they work, maybe they dont, would test them myself but really dislike the genre.

1. put a sugar packet under your tongue, or something sweet like a candy cane, when feeling dizzy. ginger is also supposed to be quite good

2. if you don't have a nice tv, place a drafting dot or something similar in the center of the screen.

[AlexM]

candied ginger, eat that the whole time you play

[Gantz]

Turn the refresh rate up. I'm not sure what the refresh rate is on TVs but I always get motion sickness playing FPSes on consoles but have no problem playing the on PCs

[Botolf]

I might try Dramamine then. I really want to finish HL2 and Ep1, but I can't do it because i get sick as hell. :/ I can play TF2 and Portal just fine.

Try fov 90 before the drugs!

[tetrisgrammaton]

I might try Dramamine then. I really want to finish HL2 and Ep1, but I can't do it because i get sick as hell. :/ I can play TF2 and Portal just fine.

its never worked for me in any situation, in fact i think it makes me more dizzy

[Danne-Danger]

I've only experienced this once, Halo 2 PC (played 1 without issues). No idea why that was, though there was something fishy with the crosshair...

[persibro]

There was an episode of MythBusters where they were testing out different remedies to motion sickness. As it turns out, ginger pills really helped lessen the effects of motion sickness!

[mm04]

Ginger pills? Damn, I may have to try that. I don't get it in 3rd person games (Gears, Uncharted, Warhawk), but in some FPS I get downright nauseous. The WORST offender is Half-Life 2. I really enjoyed the game, but I could only play it for an hour or two at a time before having to stop. Dramamine did lessen the effects somewhat, but it didn't eliminate it for me. This only happens to me on console games. It never happened to me when I played mostly PC FPS. But yeah, I sympathize with the OP.