You’re absolutely right that is a major problem. The biggest reason is the mismatch between what your inner ear says (we are not moving) and what your eyes tell you (we are moving). I get nauseous really easily in VR.
That said I just bought a steam frame and have had pretty good luck because of how I’m using it. It’s completely wireless and I have a large space I can use it in. So I’ve been playing things that don’t require fast movement and where you have a space to explore / move around in. This allows me to physically walk around the real room while exploring in VR. It’s made a huge difference but not everyone has the luxury of a big empty room they can use for that. I just mention this in case anyone else was like me and wants to do VR but gets nauseous easily.
I’ve found an acid test for susceptibility to VR sickness. Driving in VR.
Most brains know what it feels like to be in a car, in control or otherwise. Feed in only the visuals of “being in a car” and watch the face turn green in tandem with the brain’s ancient “we’ve eaten poison!” subroutine kicking in.
In Elite: Dangerous, I can pirouette a Vulture round an asteroid field -permaboosting with flight assist off- shooting other ships all day long. Drop an SRV onto a moon and drive 100 metres, pass me the sick bucket.
I put this down to having plenty sensory memory of “car” but none of “high velocity space fighter”.
I have the reverse issue - i have absolutely no problems with my eyes saying something’s moving and my inner ear says i am stationary as in VR, but put me in the back seat of a car without the option to focus a far away point with my eyes and i get travel sick in a few minutes (some driving styles exacerbate the problem - aggressive stop and go in city traffic makes me puke in about 15 minutes with no way to avoid it - when an acquaintance of mine drove me home i actually made him stop after about 10 minutes so i could empty my stomach into the gutter).
You’re absolutely right that is a major problem. The biggest reason is the mismatch between what your inner ear says (we are not moving) and what your eyes tell you (we are moving). I get nauseous really easily in VR.
That said I just bought a steam frame and have had pretty good luck because of how I’m using it. It’s completely wireless and I have a large space I can use it in. So I’ve been playing things that don’t require fast movement and where you have a space to explore / move around in. This allows me to physically walk around the real room while exploring in VR. It’s made a huge difference but not everyone has the luxury of a big empty room they can use for that. I just mention this in case anyone else was like me and wants to do VR but gets nauseous easily.
I’ve found an acid test for susceptibility to VR sickness. Driving in VR.
Most brains know what it feels like to be in a car, in control or otherwise. Feed in only the visuals of “being in a car” and watch the face turn green in tandem with the brain’s ancient “we’ve eaten poison!” subroutine kicking in.
In Elite: Dangerous, I can pirouette a Vulture round an asteroid field -permaboosting with flight assist off- shooting other ships all day long. Drop an SRV onto a moon and drive 100 metres, pass me the sick bucket.
I put this down to having plenty sensory memory of “car” but none of “high velocity space fighter”.
I have the reverse issue - i have absolutely no problems with my eyes saying something’s moving and my inner ear says i am stationary as in VR, but put me in the back seat of a car without the option to focus a far away point with my eyes and i get travel sick in a few minutes (some driving styles exacerbate the problem - aggressive stop and go in city traffic makes me puke in about 15 minutes with no way to avoid it - when an acquaintance of mine drove me home i actually made him stop after about 10 minutes so i could empty my stomach into the gutter).