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Comment by shostack | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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).

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.

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.

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