Comment by rubicon33 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rubicon33 | Hacker News Reader

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Similar experience here. I was an early adopter, 2012 rift backer and a major proponent of the technology. I jumped on the VR band wagon hard, and now, am shocked by my own disinterest in the space. Simply put - no game has really kept my interest. Most feel unpolished, and very limited. What you gain in VR immersion, you lose in gameplay. Either the immersion needs to be PERFECT, or the gameplay needs to be much, much better.

As I see it, there are some technical (even physiological?) hurdles, that they need to overcome.

1) "Teleport to move" is horrible, and sucks the feeling of immersion right out of the VR experience. Sadly, true "walking" with horizontal movement without accompanying angular momentum causes nausea in most people - hence teleporting as a solution. This as I understand it is a physiological system that is at odds with the VR world and while not everyone experiences it most do.

2) The resolution. It's hard to feel immersed in the world when it's so blurry. This is especially true for VR. VRs selling point IS immersion which IMO is an all-or-nothing experience. A blurry view detracts from feeling immersed in the world.

> Sadly, true "walking" with horizontal movement without accompanying angular momentum causes nausea in most people - hence teleporting as a solution. This as I understand it is a physiological system that is at odds with the VR world and while not everyone experiences it most do.

While true, it is also true that of these most people who will (at first!) experience simulator sickness, the vast majority can adapt fairly quickly and "get their VR legs".

Sadly this is never mentioned in articles.

Is this anecdotal or does research saying this exist? I know this is conventional wisdom but I've wondered about how true it actually is after seeing a few counterexamples.

As far as I know it is literally the same thing as sea-sickness.

You get over it eventually.

This is a common misconception.

No, it is NOT the same thing as sea-sickness. I do not get sea sick, never have. I also don't get car sick if I'm a passenger reading a book or something. Never have. But turning, specifically TURNING, in VR, induces nausea.

When Oculus was first released (dev) games allowed for "free walking" FPS games which invoke a specific kind of nausea that is different from roller coaster style movement. It's the reason why almost all games are teleportation based now... Because this problem as I understand it affects the majority of people, even those who don't experience the other VR nausea which IS similar to sea sickness. This turning / angular momentum nausea does not attenuate with time. It's a huge problem with VR, and one which there is no solution for currently other than the poor "teleportion" movement mechanism.

Not entirely sure about how trustworthy it was but I think I've seen some kind of a study that claimed it affects something like 30% of people. Doesn't really matter if it's majority or just 30% though, still too much to ignore and not all games are able to offer multiple locomotion options.

Also depends on where you draw the line. I've never gotten sick from VR personally but the movement can still sometimes feel weird to me.

Teleport to move" is horrible, and sucks the feeling of immersion right out of the VR experience

But consider the old 8-bit game Sentinel. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sentinel_(video_game)

Brilliant game, but that was part of the mechanics of the game. Sentinel was a very singular game. I don't think I've ever heard of anything quite like it ...

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