I'm getting motion sickness when playing FPS games

[qubit]

I've been playing fast first person shooters for the last 17 years or so and have always been fine with them. However, over the last few months they tend to give me mild motion sickness sometimes, which seems to be getting more frequent and more severe, too.

Now, I suffer from migraines and have been getting quite a few lately so they do go together somewhat, but even if I've been fine for days, I still tend to get the motion sickness. It helps a bit to sit back slightly from the monitor so that it doesn't fill my field of vision quite so much.

Ironically, I think the superfluid motion I love so much, delivered by the 120Hz refresh rate animated without dropped frames seems to be making it worse. If the backlight is strobed to get rid of motion blur it seems to be that much worse, too.

In fact, I routinely run it with the 120Hz strobed backlight even in 2D mode because of the visual enhancement it brings. Could this be the source of the problem, perhaps? I'll try to leave it off for desktop mode and see how that goes. Despite being a gamer, I don't actually get round to playing games as often as you'd think and they tend to be in short bursts, so perhaps the effect will wear off over time.

Anyone else having this problem?

 

[DinaAngel]

You should try half life 2 in 90 Fov and see if it's making u ill.

Many gets I'll when it's under 90 in Fov.
Most FPS games are in 70 fov

Valve mentions motionsickness here

https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Field_of_View

Smaller FOVs tend to exaggerate camera movement, whilst larger FOVs tend to minimise its effect on the image. Thus setting a wider FOV can sometimes help to reduce motion sickness during gameplay. If you are experiencing such problems in Half-Life 2, try changing the FOV to 90 using the command "sv_cheats 1;fov 90" in the console.


U could have a brain tumor or something. Or higher blood pressure or issue with clogging of the veins. Many things. If u really want to make sure I'd recommend a full body scan and blood tests. Can't harm to make sure right?

 

[qubit]

Thanks, I'll try out those FOV settings. It's true my health could be a bit better which might well be causing this. I don't really want to go into details about it in public, though.

 

[DinaAngel]

Oh and it can be sudden changes in your eyes and ur more sensitive to light and brightness might be too high.

I'm going to get my glasses today. I struggle with super sensitive eyes to light as my vision isn't the best. I get super tired fast and headaches. I get really fast motionsickness

 

[Schmuckley]

You need to raise the FOV.

 

[Caring1]

Can't say I get motion sickness, but I do suffer from light sensitivity, so too much time at the screen leads to migraines, I find making the room darker and having an even light in the room helps, ie no bright light on one side only.
Maybe you are experiencing motion sickness from seeing the frames refreshing, some people claim to be able to see the difference up to 60KHz, although over that I doubt it.

 

[natr0n]

Ginger in any form helps.

 

[Mindweaver]

I have a good friend that can't play any fps game, but he can play any 3rd person and 2d game. Try playing those and see if it makes you sick as well.

 

[Solaris17]

I've been playing fast first person shooters for the last 17 years or so and have always been fine with them. However, over the last few months they tend to give me mild motion sickness sometimes, which seems to be getting more frequent and more severe, too.

Now, I suffer from migraines and have been getting quite a few lately so they do go together somewhat, but even if I've been fine for days, I still tend to get the motion sickness. It helps a bit to sit back slightly from the monitor so that it doesn't fill my field of vision quite so much.

Ironically, I think the superfluid motion I love so much, delivered by the 120Hz refresh rate animated without dropped frames seems to be making it worse. If the backlight is strobed to get rid of motion blur it seems to be that much worse, too.

In fact, I routinely run it with the 120Hz strobed backlight even in 2D mode because of the visual enhancement it brings. Could this be the source of the problem, perhaps? I'll try to leave it off for desktop mode and see how that goes. Despite being a gamer, I don't actually get round to playing games as often as you'd think and they tend to be in short bursts, so perhaps the effect will wear off over time.

Anyone else having this problem?

Honestly this phenomenon happens to me as well my AOCs are not more then 60hz but one of my TVs and my inlaws TV is 144+ and I feel sick when I watch it. It gets worse as it gets darker. You are not alone in this. Also I realized I may be getting sensitive to panels in general. I work in a PC shop so im infront of monitors literally as long as im awake. I figured they were complete BS and told people they were stupid as @#$ until my company ordered a test batch of gunnars they let me have a pair and while it took a few days to get used too (I dont wear glasses or contacts so im not used to wearing glasses) I do wear them all the time now and make a point to bring them home and too work. by the end of the night its a night and day difference. my face doesn't hurt anymore (I usually look at my monitors with no ambient light) it helps with the screens and florescent. I wouldnt recommend them unless t\I thought they were legit. I after all thought people who thought yellow lenses did something were dumbasses.

That said the 2 kinds they offer yellow and bluish lenses differ in tehir degree of effectiveness. the blue clearish lenses are for people that NEED color reproduction and are not as effective at filtering light. that said as someone who has the normal yellow ones they dont change color enough for me to really care or get confused.

The only reason im saying this is once again going back to the issue it helps me feel less sick. old age? eye problems? not too sure but i do know the nausea increases with refresh rate and i know my eyes feel like their burning at the end of the night and the glasses help both (iv never really been one to turn down my brightness at different times of the day i mean really who has time for that shit?)

 

[Maban]

Things that make me nauseous or give me a headache in games:

• Low FPS. I'm looking at you consoles. I literally couldn't play Mass Effect on the 360 because the poor performance made me almost throw up.
  
• Stutter. This is the worst offender for me. VSync with under 60 FPS is a no go. I was super excited when Nvidia came out with adaptive VSync.
  
• Trying to focus on a far away object on the screen even though it's clearly a two dimensional display.
• Sitting too close, not being able to focus on the screen.
  
• Hunger, obviously.
  
• Dehydration. Mostly causes headaches but can rarely lead to nausea.
• Bright screen in dark room. Can cause headaches leading to nausea.
  
• Intestinal issues, preexisting but games make it worse.

+1 on having some ginger. I don't personally like ginger but I know it can help with nausea.

 

[LightningJR]

My brother gets dizzy from higher fps (when vsycned) I showed him 120fps/hz vsynced and he couldn't take it for long.

Like other ppl are saying try higher fov

Look away from your monitor periodically

Make sure to blink often

Move further from your screen.

Turn the brightness down

 

[XSI]

i remember quake, quake 2, unreal, unreal tournament...man those games needed time to get used to. 3D FPS was really playing tricks with me and many of my friends. and if you wanted really extreme experience= alcohol + fps for 5 min and your head is spinning.
later somehow this wasnt the case.
as OP said, playing fps for 17 years, so maybe its health related

 

[micropage7]

i have the same problem and no matter what fps it ends with spinning, cold sweat so thats why i never play fps
i prefer strategy game but if the game has zoom in/out feature it will affect me the same

but i dunno if i play racing game i just got little spinning than fps

 

[Mussels]

i also suffer the joys between migraines and gaming, a few tips

1. change your background lighting. i went LED globes because of the reduced flicker, and it helped a lot despite not being consciously noticeable.
2. adjust your monitor settings. for whatever reason adjust the 'black correction' on my sony HDTV/monitor really, really helped.
3. adjust the height of your chair/angle of your monitor. of all things, people reported a virtual nose cut down on motion sickness with all the new VR headsets - simply looking down at your screen instead of up can put it back into your peripheral vision and resolve motion sickness for some people.

 

[Aquinus]

If you don't mind me asking, how long does it take before this starts to happen? I know that I will get dizzy if I look away from a monitor after staring at it for a long period of time. Maybe it could be something as simple as not looking away from your monitor often enough? Some ergonomic best practices can go a long way to reducing strain on your eyes. I look away from the monitor at least every 30 minutes when I'm working.

as OP said, playing fps for 17 years, so maybe its health related

Can't rule that one out. Are there other situations where the same kind of things happens? It may be a question you might want to pose to your primary care physician, just to state that it's a concern.

 

[MilkyWay]

Try wacking up the fov. Mussles is right about the ambient light, with a video camcorder recording 50hz incandescant bulbs in 60hz it makes video flicker. I imagine seeing 120hz and a regular hz bulb is the same for human eyes. Tryvit without any light sources bar the monitor.

 

[RejZoR]

I never had problems until recently with floods of shitty console ports with impossibly narrow FOV. This makes my eyes bleed and head hurt after few minutes. And it's pissing me off.

I highly recommend this tool:
http://www.flawlesswidescreen.org

For games that don't have any FOV controls (nearly all). It doesn't support all of them but it supports majority and they are updating it. Hope it helps.

 

[neatfeatguy]

I've been playing fast first person shooters for the last 17 years or so and have always been fine with them. However, over the last few months they tend to give me mild motion sickness sometimes, which seems to be getting more frequent and more severe, too.

Now, I suffer from migraines and have been getting quite a few lately so they do go together somewhat, but even if I've been fine for days, I still tend to get the motion sickness. It helps a bit to sit back slightly from the monitor so that it doesn't fill my field of vision quite so much.

Ironically, I think the superfluid motion I love so much, delivered by the 120Hz refresh rate animated without dropped frames seems to be making it worse. If the backlight is strobed to get rid of motion blur it seems to be that much worse, too.

In fact, I routinely run it with the 120Hz strobed backlight even in 2D mode because of the visual enhancement it brings. Could this be the source of the problem, perhaps? I'll try to leave it off for desktop mode and see how that goes. Despite being a gamer, I don't actually get round to playing games as often as you'd think and they tend to be in short bursts, so perhaps the effect will wear off over time.

Anyone else having this problem?

If adjusting the FOV doesn't help, lock the refresh at 60fps on your monitor and see if that helps. I hear folks can sometimes have issues with higher FPS and the issues tend to be less or go away if viewing 60 FPS. Might be worth a try.

 

[adulaamin]

I experience motion sickness as well every time I play FPS games. Mine started with COD: WAW which I played quite a few years back, 5 or 6 years ago I think. I finished the game then went ahead and bought COD MW but it got worse. I wanted to buy BF4 when it was released but I tried the game first on a friends PC and I couldn't last more than 10 minutes without feeling dizzy and wanting to vomit. Even Saint's Row makes me puke after a while but not as soon as games like BF4/BF3/COD. The only games I play now are RTS and Racing games.

 

[REAYTH]

lol sissies.

 

[StartBeforeYouStop]

If you get motion sickness, just stop playing those games

 

[SetsunaFZero]

its the opposite for me since i own a 144hz monitor, low fps and shuttering make me sick. Especially the Borderlands 1 kamera, i tried adjusting FOV and other setting but i didn't work, all other FPS games are fine

 

[Liquid Cool]

I've been gaming for decades and I started having some mild motion sickness after playing Call of Duty 4 a few years ago. At the time, I thought to myself, I must be getting old...but then it happened again when playing Half Life 2. I've since moved to playing strictly on laptops so I haven't really had the issue in awhile, but it is uncomfortable...I felt a little nauseous and dizzy out of the blue when it happened. Sometimes we're worse than others...but it's been a few years since it's happened.

I thought it might be the larger Samsung 25" monitor I was gaming on. Who knows.... Just glad it doesn't happen anymore, but I also don't do long gaming marathon sessions like I did in my 20's and 30's. About an hour at a time is a marathon session nowadays....

Best,

Liquid Cool

 

[st2000]

For me helping just color contrast(going not so vivid with amd cards and more colorful with Intel HD, for nvidia I prefer more dark palette)
Also got 3 different styles of led intensivity for day/night usage(sunny, rainy and dark night)
FOV is also very important)
So just try)

 

[qubit]

Ok, so it looks like I'm not alone in this and the effect is surprisingly common.

Thanks for all the suggestions, it looks like FOV is worth adjusting where possible. Also, it might just be strobing interference with the room light. I currently use a single halogen lamp in the room which wouldn't give much 50Hz flicker, but it is there and would be clearly measurable with equipment.

If you don't mind me asking, how long does it take before this starts to happen? I know that I will get dizzy if I look away from a monitor after staring at it for a long period of time. Maybe it could be something as simple as not looking away from your monitor often enough? Some ergonomic best practices can go a long way to reducing strain on your eyes. I look away from the monitor at least every 30 minutes when I'm working.

Can't rule that one out. Are there other situations where the same kind of things happens? It may be a question you might want to pose to your primary care physician, just to state that it's a concern.

It can happen within a few seconds and very gently grow. It never gets to the point where it's really intolerable. It just becomes a general yucky feeling.

One important thing I didn't explain properly in my OP, is that if I switch my monitor from a normal backlight to a strobing backlight (it's always 120Hz and can't be changed on the Asus VG278HE) using the Strobelight beta driver hack, the picture gets that slight purple tinge to it, I can feel a sort of pressure on my eyes and that yucky feeling. However, it's always gone away after a few seconds as I accustom to it. I suspect it's that 120Hz flicker that's causing the feeling the most. Note that there's no persistence with an LED backlight, so it's quite a strong flicker even if I can't perceive it. Note that any movement in front of the monitor, such as wiggling a finger easily shows up the strobing effect as does a rapid eye movement (saccade). I have a feeling that looking at this the whole time could be the root cause of it, which is a great shame since it enhances movement on the desktop too.

Since posting this thread, I've turned off the strobing and now I'm experiencing almost no motion sickness, which really does point to the strobing as being the culprit. Just how long can one look at a flickering light? Shame though, because I can now see the motion blur in my games, so it looks like I can't win, lol. I'll try turning it on again in a few days to confirm that the sicky feeling returns.

EDIT

I've just bought a second MSI GTX 780 ti Gaming for a cheapish price (£340) and have been comparing SLI performance to a single card. This is really one for another thread, but the point is that the SLI completely breaks when I play my favourite game, Unreal Tournament 2004.

Movement, especially rotational movement with the mouse, violently microstutters, causing severe judder, even though the framerate according to Fraps is steady at 120Hz or 144Hz if locked to vsync. Unlocking vsync didn't help the stutter, but did make the framerate go up. Of course, nothing I did in the driver fixed the damned problem and this game has worked with SLI before with older NVIDIA cards and older drivers. Luckily, one card alone is powerful enough not to drop frames most of the time (120/144Hz) so I just turn SLI off. SLI works much better in other games of course, including, ironically, the ancient Unreal Tournament from 1999! I may or may not keep the second card - one for another thread.

The point I'm getting at is that looking at all this stuttering, no matter only for a few seconds at a time, for over an hour, was really making me feel queasy and I defy even the allegedly "supertough" REAYTH not to feel it. Monitor was in strobing mode when I was trying to fix this.

 

[rtwjunkie]

It seems you've gotten to the bottom of it. Unfortunately for you, it will affect your game quality. That stinks!