Originally Posted By: Dignan
Seriously, I got through about two minutes and thirty seconds of that video, and immediately after posting that edit, I went to lay down on a couch for 15 minutes before we had to leave for dinner. For the entire 15 minute car ride I felt awful. It wasn't until I sat down at the restaurant that I started feeling okay.


That was an extremely shakycam video shot with an unnaturally wide-angle lens. That might not translate to video games. I wouldn't use that as a litmus test.

I've found the following variables contribute to motion sickness:

- Field of view (FOV) from narrow to wide-angle.

- Size of video image on the screen (small window versus full screen and everywhere in between). I once played at a LAN party next to a guy who ran Quake in a 1" x 1" window on his screen to combat motion sickness. He played Rocket Arena quite well that way, handed me my ass repeatedly.

- Corollary to size of video image: distance from the screen (how much of your field of view fills the screen).

- Frame rate of the video.

- Motion blur of the video.

- The types of motion contained in the video (does the view shake or bob? Are the rotations slow and steady or quick? Is the motion damped or smoothed out ala steadycam or the video game equivalent of steadycam?)

- The way the video game translates your input into motion (for example I can play Portal nonstop, but can only get through 1 or 2 levels of Quantum Conundrum before having to stop).

I've found that messing with those variables can help. The problem is that I don't know which direction they need to be messed with, up or down, in each case, because different people have different reactions. And also some of them are not adjustable by you.
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Tony Fabris