Why VR Makes Some People Sick
By Brian J. Lancaster (August 2020)
Website: www.laughingcoyote.net
Disclaimer: I've never tried a VR headset, nor do I care about about VR. The closest thing to virtual reality I've tried was back in 1995 when I was a kid in a Circuit City trying out a Virtual Boy -- some Mario game that was a huge leap backwards and just a huge heap of something. It made me sick, but for different reasons than why modern first-person VR makes some people sick.
I have coded an FPS, and one of the major factors to consider when trying to optimize frames per second (different FPS meaning) is the field of view (FOV). In real life, we see at a nearly 180 degree angle. Stick your hands out to the very corners of your vision, and they're almost at 180.
You play on a game console where the screen is far away from your disgusting couch, the FOV is much narrower, sometimes around 60. Resident Evil 4 was 50 degrees horizontal, which was pretty damn annoying to play on the computer where you sit close the screen. Computer games are usually around 90 to 100 degrees for both this reason, and also the higher processing power of PCs.
I guess you could say the narrow FOV made Resident Evil scarier, just like the horrible fixed cameras of its predecessors made the game scarier (but also more annoying). It's almost Silent Hill level genius, which included the scary fog to cover up the horrible view distance, all while implementing it into the plot like true designer pimps.
Personally, I like a normal PC with a normal keyboard and mouse, 90 to 100 degrees FOV. Perfect distance. My vision is terrible because of it, but at least I don't want to puke all over the keyboard.
VR has a problem. It's right up against your face. If you want to prevent people from getting sick, you're gonna have to make the FOV as high as possible to prevent that tunnel-vision nausea and it will slow the framerate down. Keep it low and your players will have to spin their actual heads around to keep from getting their asses blasted.
Again, I've never really tried modern VR, but this is my case against it. Also, I am way too f***ing poor. The third reason is I would just be using it for virtual sex and give up on real women. Checkmate, ladies.
Shameless plugs:
Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/652410/Brigand_Oaxaca/
GOG: https://www.gog.com/game/brigand_gold
Itch: https://blancaster45.itch.io/
You make an excellent point about bugs and features with Silent Hill. The design philosophies of VR games completely throw out the fundamentals of most action games, and all platformer games. You really get into a new realm with the weird peripherals and the immediate first-person perspective. You saw how the Virtual Boy with its lack of raw power and with that, accessibility, led to the games feeling bottlenecked fidelity-wise.
ReplyDeleteAt some point, maybe within the next two years, VR won't be marketed as an enthusiast-level experience to engage with. It'll be affordable and there'll be some sort of procedure for designing player controllers. As a matter of fact, it's becoming more commonplace to implement vignetting and 'sit-down' modes of play. If you ever get a chance to try an Oculus Quest experience at BestBuy, check out something like Beat Saber or Robo-Recall: Unplugged!
I'll keep it in mind but it's gonna be a looong lonely lonely time.
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