New Quest User, I get terrible motion sickness

[Anonymous]

Hi,  I received my Oculus Quest from UPS about a week and a half ago.  This is my first VR headset.  Previously my VR experience was limited.  I played the Vive at West Edmonton Mall once for about 5 minutes a few years ago, and I also played those old Virtuality machines way back in 1992 (Dactyl's Nightmare).  Anyhow, I've been getting my feet wet so to speak playing games like: Beat Saber, Racoon Lagoon, Vader Immortal, and a few others.  I've been enjoying them but I've discovered that I suffer from terrible motion sickness with VR.  I hope I can somehow "get over this".

From the games I've played so far, it seems like I have no problems if a game is a 6dof game in a fixed room with no automatic movement of my own perspective by the game itself.  In other words, things can fly towards me (like in Beat Saber), or I can move my head around rapidly in the environment and have it tracked in space...that gives me no problems as long as any visual display of my own movement/perspective in VR (not other objects coming towards me) is caused by my own physical movement.  The problem is if I play a game where I press a button press or a stick movement causes my own perspective to move (smoothly forward/backward, etc).  Basically I need "teleport" options in games I've discovered.  So that I point to a location and am "there" in a limited spot that doesn't move, and then once I'm there I can control the perspective in the space with my own head and only my own movements (deeking in and out with my own head within that space is fine). 

I've discovered this is why games like Beat Saber I can play no problem and don't get sick.  You're just standing in a fixed rectangle and you can walk around and move your own head within that space, but the environment itself doesn't automatically move or shift.  Games like Racoon Lagoon, or even that ISS (International Space Station) app make me very ill.  I've had to take my headset off twice to throw up already because of it.  I had to take a break from VR a few days ago for a few days because the illness lingered for 2 days, even while I was at work. 

I really want to love VR and play it, but I'm now worried about this.  Does this happen to anyone else?  What can I do to improve the situation? 
  

[gstewart79]

I am exactly the same as you, anything that moves your perspective for you equals immediate feeling of sickness. The simple answer is that vr games in comfort mode should not do this! 

I bought drop dead : dual strike when it was on offer (a whole pound off), which I found great in comfort mode until about 20 mins in when for some unknown reason they decide that sticking you on the back of a trailer and dragging you around was a good idea. I am swithering between trying it again and risk feeling sick or just asking for a refund. 

This is where developers need to get smart and ensure comfort mode does not move your perspective or people will just ask for a refund

[Anonymous]

This is going to sound a bit silly but it worked for me and now I don't need to do it anymore...

Anyhow, when I played any game with a smooth locomotion setting what I would do is mimic "walking" by marching in place. This eliminated the motion sickness I was getting just standing there as the world moved around me. Now I can spend hours in a game like Apex or Alyx and feel quite comfortable.

[Anonymous]

I have no problem with smooth walking, however smooth turning gets me every time.

[vijilkiwi]

I'm the same.

I play 11 table tennis, Racket fury, rythm games, pistol whip, thrill of the fight etc. are all no problem, but anything with smooth movement is a major problem. Even Echo "we've solved VR sickness" Arena is awful after about ten minutes. 360 videos can be really bad too. ISS is nasty.

I haven't even bothered with Pavlov or Dead and Buried. I stay away from Sairento or Endspace.

Advice: mostly just stick with the games we've mentioned that don't move you around smoothly. With others, keep it *very* short. I've built up some resistance over the years but only if I keep the sessions short. One game that I'm ok with is Hyperdash (still in alpha, you can sidequest it) because it's mostly teleport based.

You will probably never 100% get over it, but there are ways to improve.

VR sickness is going to be a major problem for the industry going forward, mostly because no amount of high refresh rates or res or FOV or even varifocals can solve the underlying problem, which is that your vestibular system is clashing with what your eyes are telling you. Your brain therefore thinks you've been poisoned and tries to make you flush it out by spewing.

There are game design tricks that can help like teleport and moving platforms. I want to try lean-to-move but devs seem to hate it. In theory it should be better because your movement is much closer to what's happening in game.

In the end the true solution is bigger and bigger guardian areas up to arena scale, so you can eventually literally run around without problems at your local football field. It'll happen.

[Digikid1]

There is really no such thing as "VR Sickness".  It is motion sickness.  Main cause is when your brain and body are basically arguing with each other about if you're moving or not.  VR will do this until you get used to it.  All you can do is use GINGER ( not medicines as they are not as effective ) or a name brand ginger ale to ease the symptoms.

Just keep doing it a little at a time and increase until you get used to it.  That is all you can do.

[Anonymous]

Sitting is much easier than standing. Get a chair that spins(office chair). I can play for hours while sitting, but get sick within minutes of standing. I dont believe in VR legs. I have been around since CV1 and still cant stand for most games in VR.

[FelicityC]

Much like seasickness and other motion sicknesses some people are permanently victim to them and will never overcome it without Dramamine or ambien

My heart sank a little when I fell for the first time down a significant distance but other than that I am really resistant to motion sickness, 100 hours training and 400 deployed hours on an intel jet in the Air Force taught me I can go on any rollercoaster and not be concerned

probably a mix of how much balance you have (i have no balance so there is nothing for me to be sick by ha) and the latency ingame. a lot of these motion sickness problems would probably be solved by higher refresh rates (if the games can support them)

[Holiday414]

I have the same problem. Not just on the VR but also when I'm sitting in the front passenger of the car. I only play the oculus for 10-15 mins at a time. While on fb, I happen to come across an add called reliefband 2.0. I read great things about it and without side effects like the medications for nausea. It is not cheap but it is HSA eligible. I just got mine today. I am going to try it out and see how I feel especially on the ISS.

05/10-  UPDATE: Today is Day 2 having the Reliefband. I have been using it since I got it 2 days ago and have not gotten motion sickness. Even my 11 year old uses it. She gets motion sickness worse than I do. She wouldn't play Oculus without having the band on.  

[Gort1]

Yeah, what worked for me was just stopping the moment I felt nauseous and picking it up later.

[Digikid1]

FelicityC said:

Much like seasickness and other motion sicknesses some people are permanently victim to them and will never overcome it without Dramamine or ambien

Sorry but I believe you are incorrect.  You can easily overcome this with what I said before.....time and patience.  Using a Drug is not recommended.  Use Ginger or name brand Gingerale and it will do the exact same thing.