Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

Comment by petercooper | Hacker News Reader

For me it's funny to see this pop up now. Just this week I've been getting heavily into VR and loving what I'm seeing. Finally corners are being turned. I feel a sense of something approaching a vital "tipping point" as I felt with blogging in the early 00s and Twitter in the late 00s.

For anyone who's not yet convinced, see if you can get a go on the Samsung Gear VR. It's actually better than the Rift 2 in many ways (I've got the Gear plus both Rift kits) in that it's quicker to get going and the headset and visuals are better. Play a game called "Dreadhalls" and be prepared to be absolutely terrified and, if you have earphones in, be 99% to believing you're in the environment getting attacked by all manner of creatures. (And I should stress, playing this game in VR has been the most extreme experience I've had in a while - it's that good and has won me over on VR.)

My employees have been enjoying all the equipment in the past week or two and I've found that people's tolerance for it still varies. One person can't experience any VR without feeling sick afterwards, whereas others have no issues at all. I think increased realism, resolution and immersion will help, as well as increased exposure. But whatever the case, we live in exciting times and VR is only going to become a bigger deal over the next few years.

As someone who went from zero to puking in < 5 minutes playing Mirror's Edge, I am super worried about VR.

I have been dreaming of true VR and AR for ages, and as current tech begins to be consumer ready (and affordable) I long for the day I can fully immerse myself. But my motion sickness makes me worry that it will be a new frontier I am entirely locked out of :(

Do you happen to know of any places in the Bay Area where one can go to try these various devices and experiences for free to get a sense of this? I simply can't justify spending the money unless I know with great confidence I won't puke after short usage.

Mirrors Edge is practically guaranteed to cause nausea unless you have an iron stomach. Doesn't have native VR support and it's a first person platformer. Not to mention the fact the CV versions of the headsets coming out are going to be a LOT less likely to cause motion sickness with the higher refresh rates, better screens and improved SDKs/tracking solutions bringing down latency and hopefully eliminating any judder.

Still, I don't think we'll really be seeing games like Mirrors Edge in VR for a long time, not until we've figured out locomotion that doesn't cause sickness. Things with 1:1 movement (ie the camera never moves unless you move your head) and/or things with static elements to give you a point of reference (like a cockpit, apparently even just having a helmet in your vision giving you a point of reference helps) basically don't make me sick. But if I try to play an FPS for even 10 minutes I come away rather queasy, whereas I can play Elite: Dangerous for hours with only minor discomfort (because I am sitting in a seat in the cockpit of the ship).

FWIW I would get [motion] sick[ness] (not actually throwing up, but nauseated) from just playing Halo 1[1] on a regular TV (~32"). Could play fine in co-op/split screen though.

And while the "house on a hill"-demo that's bundled with DK2 is pretty bad wrt motion sickness -- I've logged quite a few hours in Elite: Dangerous without problems -- and have no problems with the spartan desk scene that's used for testing/setup of the DK2.

In short, I believe Oculus/Carmack's hard focus on fighting motion sickness has paid off a lot -- today's VR is nothing like the VR of the 90s.

I've yet to try the gear/paper-kit/other things thank the DK2 -- but that kit itself gives me no issues. Poor software/scene design does -- but we already have those issues with 2d (I doubt I'd be able to play Mirror's Edge -- although I haven't tried it).

[1] Ed to add: The team behind Halo 1 did a terrific job on camera motion, overall speed/paralax and scene design in fighting motion sickness. But still, at full screen, single-play I'd get uncomfortably motion sick after ~20-30 minutes. Enough that I never really played the game much in single player.

The question is, would you also puke if you were doing the Mirrors Edge jumps, rolls, swings across large vertical drops in real life?

I doubt it. Motion sickness mostly comes from a discontinuity between what you are seeing and what you are feeling. Though extreme motion even without a visual disconnect, especially wavy or circular motion, can do it to people who are sensitive.

Other people have mentioned this but Mirror's Edge is particularly bad for that. I felt similarly and basically threw it away. I do not seem to have a problem with VR as long as I'm standing up and changing direction by actually turning.. if I use a stick to rotate instead, it causes unease.

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