Half-Life 2 Causes Nausea, Looks Good in Doom Engine

BrookHarty writes "There is a large number of users reporting nausea while playing Half-Life 2. There is a thread on the Steam powered forums that talks about the wide spread problem. Some other sites are actively talking about the motion sickness, PlanetHalflife, 3DGPU, usenet group comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action has an active discussion, and gaming IRC network Gamesurge on channel #Halflife2." In related news from people with too much time on their hands, Jacques Chester writes "Folks discussing the visual merits of the Source and Doom 3 engines might want to look at this. The goal is to see what Half-Life levels might look like in Doom 3. An eerie result."

Finally...

It'd been ten minutes or so since the last HL2 article.

Re:Finally...

Maybe so, but I'm starting to have withdrawal symptoms from not seeing an iPod article in a while...

News? Bah!

How is this news?

FPS games have been making people sick for years. Ever since Doom exploded onto the scene, this has been an issue for some people. Of course, it's worse in some games than others - Descent is a perfect example - and I haven't heard about wide-scale problems in a huge release such as HL2 before.

Remember, kiddies: Playing HL2 can also cause epileptic seizures or carpal tunnel in addition to the nausea. Just like every other game out there can...

Re:News? Bah!

Playing HL2 can also cause epileptic seizures or carpal tunnel in addition to the nausea. Just like every other game out there can...
As can porn...but I don't really think that will stop anyone

Wide scale problem

How is this news?

FPS games have been making people sick for years. Ever since Doom exploded onto the scene, this has been an issue for some people. Of course, it's worse in some games than others - Descent is a perfect example - and I haven't heard about wide-scale problems in a huge release such as HL2 before.

This is a much more rampant problem. I noticed it too when playing and this has never been a problem for me before. I then come look and see EVERY forum has a thread about this. The problem seems to be the very low fov HL2 uses - 75. Most games use at least 85-90. This is of course changable inside the game.

Re:Wide scale problem

I was just going to point out the same thing. I have never gotten motion sick from any game I've played, and certainly not any FPS's. There have been several times when playing HL2 though that I noticed something not quite right about the FOV and that it made me a little dizzy. In some places it's really apparent and looks like you are viewing the scene through a wide angle or similar lense.

Re:Wide scale problem

I normally hate games that take place in high structures that you can fall off of. It's usually not to the point where it makes me react physically, though. Games like Quake 3 Arena with the space levels and Unreal Tournament 2004's skyscraper map have been the least of my favorites. I hate them because, unlike in real life, it's hard to tell how close to falling off and dying you are. In real life, I can easily judge by my surroundings - as well as my feet - how close to the edge I am. In these games, you have to be very careful because one short keypress could be just a bit too hard and you can misjudge and vwoop! there you go - off the structure and dead.

But with those games in the past, I never had an "oh my god" reaction to it. Half-Life 2 is the first game where it actually hit me in a more tangible way. When I was a little kid, we went to Astoria and climbed the spiral staircase inside of the Candlestick. I'm not sure how high it was, but it was probably only 80 feet - give or take. At the top, you only had a small ledge (perhaps two people-wide at best) and a rickety steel gaurdrail that seemed like it would give if you leaned on it.

I was so shaken once I was there (my first experience at being uncomfortable at great heights) that I clung to the doorway/arch and refused to go fully outside it - and couldn't wait to go back down. I didn't want to look up. I didn't want to go out and walk freely. I didn't want to lean against the rickety railing. I just wanted to go back inside and walk down and get the hell out.

A couple portions of HL2 (well, the bridge and the final level were the only two places really) made me feel those same sensations. It was uncanny and new.

A few more reasons, and a suggestion

I know, this story was not news-worthy, but I do appreciate it. I do not usually get sick while playing fully immersive games. With Half Life 2, though, it is another story.The games in which I do not get sick tend to be low geometry, high FOV, reflex shooters. This obvservation leads me to agree with the parent poster. My Half Life 2 sickness may, in part, also be due to the very low FOV. Another thing that I noticed, while playing through the video test, is that the textures are not static. You may say "wha?", but I mean from the viewer's perspective. I could see the equivalent of scanlines at tricky points of geometry on a single object. This wasn't an antialiasing artifact, mind you, this was something entirely different. As I've never seen it before, I cannot do much better in describing it. However, I feel that it might account for some of the nausia that people feel in game.

Lastly, the player's perspective feels disproportionately small compared to the environment, especially at higher resolutions. As a player, I feel as though I am swimming through an environment all to large for me. This messes with my frame of reference, especially when picking up objects (which then float several feet in front of me) and completing puzzles (in which the perspective is very misleading). My biohazard suit doesn't fit me like a glove. Not even the gloves.

If you haven't invested in Pfizer yet, now might be the time. I'm predicting a 27% spike tommorow when investors realize that several million gamers are planning on buying several cases each of Dramamine for Thanksgiving weekend.

Re:News? Bah!

Well, I'm 22 and have no problems.

I love the HL2 engine.

Also, FOV stands for field of view for those who don't know.

I work with graphics, 3D specifically, a lot both in modeling and coding so I would assume I'm immune to just about anything a computer monitor can display, well -- except goatse.cx...

I also do very well on spatial relationship or mechanical tests. You know, tests on gears and such.

Just looking at the game engine itself I've noticed that the shadows and lighting in general is botched. It all seems to be from the same angles, or at least: the wrong angle(s). Obviously it's no Doom 3 engine-wise when comparing light or shadow realism. I haven't seen much testing yet to determine how Half-Life 2 does shadows. Seems because people can't recognize the fault consciously, they must do it unconsciously =)

I wish there were "control" pictures also.

But even without something to compare to, I think the Doom3 pictures look cool. Ironically, I was thinking about trying FPS games again(I've never gotten into them before), but the pictures on the back of the HL2 box looked pretty unrealistic from a graphics standpoint. Now I'm thinking this Doom3 with HL2 textures looks cool, even though there are complaints that the textures are pixellated? What's the best looking game out there, then?

I just want to see how Doom ...

Handles the huge outdoor maps from HL2.
I think this is where the Doom engine completely falls on its face.

Re:I just want to see how Doom ...

Are HL2's maps really that huge though? Like on the outdoor maps you'll hit a loading screen pretty quickly, and the maps look larger than they really are because of a "3d skybox", a low polygon model that's enlarged to 16 times (or something) and placed around the map. All those hills and buildings around in the distance look great but you can't actually reach them.

I can report nausea as far back as Doom 1

When I first played the game, I experienced nausea. Same for Quake and a few others. The main thing that worked to alleviate the nausea was being in a room cool enough to keep me comfortable. That was the ONLY thing to offset nausea for me.

So if I experienced nausea as far back as Doom 1, does that make me cooler, or just more weaker when it comes to FPS playing?

Ofcourse

We all know it'd look somewhat similar to Doom 3 itself [suomenkivivalmiste.fi].

Re:Ofcourse

MY ISP is going to kill me but.

D3 vs HL2 vs Farcry vs World [ironwolve.com]

My nausea experience

I don't have too much to say on this topic, except for the fact that I can only play HL2 for about an hour or so before having to stop from motion sickness. A good 30 or 40 minute break and I'm all good to go.

The strange thing is that I have never experienced this in all my years of gaming. From Wolfenstein to Doom, Quake, Unreal, and the original HL and CS, I have never had any motion sickness problems. I have heard reports that it's to do with the narrow FOV, but I'm still unsure how to change that (anyone?) and other people say it has to do with jitters in the gfx, but from what I can see it's running silky smooth.

Anyway, this does at least make me feel better, that I'm not the only one with the problem. Any suggestions would be helpful (anything is better than the post on the steampowered forums: "Grow some balls and stop getting sick from playing video games" great advice.. thanks)

It is news when it happens this much...

I've already seen the posts (This isnt anything new!) posts start, so since I submitted the story I'll respond.

The problem is more people are reporting sickness from this game than the past. I started feeling sick myself, and my friends also reported it. I'm an active gamer, and play in Cyber leagues, local gaming events, and lan parties. Not a n00b in the gaming department in any stretch. I've played almost every FPS since wolfenstien 3d.

What is strange, is CounterStrike Source isnt making people sick, but Half-Life 2 is. The theory so far is Half-Life 2 is so visually perfect to the real world, that its starting to trick peoples mind causing nausea.

Really, don't mod these guys +insightful, its not the normal level of people getting motion sickness. It's lots more. Do a google search, its everywhere.

BTW, I still play, just have only doing 1 hour at a time. About 2 hours and I also start feeling the same as other posts. I only posted when I saw the steam forums, planet half life forums, usenet groups and even people on IRC, way too many people saying the same thing.

whatever, DOOM made me sick, QUAKE too ..

.. even Spectre VR.

virtual reality is not all its cracked up to be .. its good to go outside, i rarely ever barf up lunch out there ...

Heights?

I haven't yet read the article, so I'm not sure what they mean by "motion sickness". The only motion is you running/walking, you in a swamp boat and you in a dune buggy. Not a big deal and no different than any other game out there. I mean, really - even graphically, those sections (though great) are no more realistic than most of today's modern console based racing games.

However, if they're talking about motion sickness from the heights- I will concur. It is natural to fear great heights and most people do - this game takes advantage of that. Near the beginning, there is a part of HL2 wher eyou have to cross a large iron bridge, but you have to do it *under* the bridge, using the steel girders and broken mesh catwalks. The birds as they fly around, the sounds, the wind, the shaking of the structure and the realistic portrayal of height literally had my palms sweating and my vision narrowing. In fact, I eventually had to stop playing the bridge level and ask my younger brother to get past it for me, because it bothered me so much.

Unfortunately, heights play a large part in this game. ARGH. Still, I can't see it being enough to make you feel outright nasuea.

DIMS Cures?

I've suffered from DIMS for years. Does anyone out there have any good tips or ideas for curing (or reducing) the problem of motion sickness? With all the upcomming games that I'm worried will cause it that I want to play (Halo 2, Metroid Prime 2, HL2, Doom 3, etc), I'd love to know.

I don't think so

I don't think that it's motion sickness or other such stuff in the game. I think it's the graphics.

And no, I'm not kidding or being sarcastic at all. When I play the game, I often get nausious looking at the overly-realistic monsters (such as those nasty things on the ceiling). Last night it got so bad that I literally had to quit the game and lie down. Playing Half-Life 2 doesn't make me sick cause of motion sickness; I don't get motion sick- it's the graphics.

- dshaw

My HL2 nausea relieved by changing FOV.

FOV == field of view. HL2's default was 75 degrees, which is like walking around with blinders. I upped to to 90 with good results. Add

+default_fov 90

to the end of your command line in your HL2 shortcut. Of course, YMMV.

Feeling Sick?

Gee I only feel sick when I remember what I paid for my video card .....

that's nothing...

Have you looked at the colour scheme of this site yet?

Bill Van Buren @ Valve about FOV...

See this Planet Half-Life forum thread [forumplanet.com].

who knew

Who knew that HL2 would cause unintentional bulimia. Will reports of weight loss be next? ;)

Tunnel Vision

I'm reading all these posts on steampowered and here and, well.. all over the place, and I started wondering why I am not getting nausiated also.

Then it occured to me. Since I have tunnel vision (around 18 degrees), I'm USED to the narrow FOV. Go figure... a disability coming in quite handy!

Nausea and what do do about it.

Nausea is not just limited to Half-Life 2, I have been playing Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, another Source engine game, and after playing that game for a while I feel a little nauseous. In VtM:B if one is in first person before entering combat, entering combat causes the camera to enter into third person, that may be what is causing my nausea. Then again, maybe the low fov in first person on VtM:B may be causing it too.

When I played No One Lives Forever 2 a while ago, which is another low fov game, and which gave me nausea too initially. After playing the game a while I just got used to the motion of the game and I no longer had any nausea when I played to NOLF2.

In doing some research on this post, one article suggested that no to do the activity that causes the nausea on an empty stomach. The article also suggested that it may help to eat a small, low-fat meal before the activity.

Slashdot strikes again

"The Steam Forums are temporarily offline", anyone got a cache?

Diddy Kong Racing makes me sick

Any game with a hovercraft mode is guarenteed to make me motion sick.

Beyond Good and Evil has been making a good attempt at it also.

I remeber getting woozy playing Descent years ago, could be one reason I don't play FPS much.

Windowed Mode!

I also had nausea issues playing HL2 -- I've had it to lesser degrees with other FPSes, like Doom 3, Quake 2/3, and Max Payne 1/2. HL2 is much nastier, though; after the first hour, I really thought I was gonna hurl.

So is there a solution? Here's mine: don't play in full screen mode. I run 1280x1024, so I'm currently playing it at 1024x768, and it helps a lot. Seeing it in a window seems to do the trick.

Bad thing?

Doom3 managed to scare the shit out of me at many occations and I loved every minute of it.

It seams HL2 has the ability to scare the shit out of people's mind's and bodies. That's twice as scary imo and all the more exhilerating because of it.

Hyper-real

I emailed the second picture in that set of HL2/Doom3 screenshots to my wife and asked her: "What do you think this is?" She called me up and said, "A picture of a basement hallway." I asked if by picture she might mean a photograph, and she said, "Sure." When I told her that the picture was from a 3D rendering engine, she was surprised. She thought it was real. That's some damn impressive technology.

Just wondering

When some bright person while develop a tool that will allow you to convert the maps automatically between HL2 and D3 and vice versa.

If you own both, I see no issues with such a gizmo.

FPS and nausea...

I agree with the general direction of these posts, except I've always gotten sick when playing first person shooters (except Wolfenstein 3-D, for relatively obvious reasons). It's strange because I don't get carsick. However, if I'm watching video taken from a moving car, I do get carsick. The same with any movie that resembles the Blair Witch Project... that's why I didn't think that movie was very good. But I digress.

Lately I've just played Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 a lot and made other people sick instead of me. :-)

could it be due to CRT? No problem w/ my LCD

I've played the latest games FarCry, Doom3, Half-Life 2 all at 1600x1200 @ 60Hz on my 21.3" LCD via DVI and never had any issues. Maybe it's the CRT. I remember when I used to have a 21" CRT and GTA:VC was locked @ 60Hz. I would have a headache after an hour or so of playing due to the flickering. But I can play Half-Life 2 for hours w/o any headaches, other than the rest of the family complaining that they haven't seen me in a few days. :-)

Wow, those cross-engine pics...

It's remarkable how good the HL2 levels look in the Doom 3 engine, and how awful the Doom 3 levels look in the Source engine. Of course, you have lighting and bump-mapping to consider, but even so, the artists behind HL2 did a damn fine work with the much more limited engine (graphically).

Not that the Doom 3 crew didn't, i just think they had things easier :)

peripheral vision?

I haven't played these games so can't say for sure. But a similar problem happened to people in a planetarium that ran a demo (racing down a highway) meant for an ordinary screen. Apparently you get sick when you have lots of stuff racing on the sides of your peripheral vision (and presumably not locked to your body spatial sense, otherwise you would get sick just running).

A well lit room is good but possibly the game itself is fundamentally the culprit.

Poisoning?

My idea of motion sickness is that the brain thinks it has been poisoned, and so tries to barf the poison out.

I was only motion sick once in a computer game ages ago, and thought it was because the graphics had unnatural colors to them. Greenish/teal that is. You also had the option to make your character bob up and down like you do when walking, but increasing or reducing the bobbing did nothing to reduce the nausea.

I also didn't get accustomed to the game. In fact, I felt like a got sicker much quicker later on. Maybe I just noticed the symptoms earlier, I don't know.

So maybe if you play with color filters you could reduce the nausea.

Mother of All Nausea

It's odd that thus far noone has mentioned the unquestioned king of upset stomach and dizzy headache FPSs (Turok). I've played FPS since Wolf and very rarely get nauseous but every Turok title does it. http://firstpersonshooters.org/ (soon to be down)

Re:Steam Questions

Yes, you can even play both copies at the same time using the same account.

The only limit comes in when you try to play the same multiplayer game with the same account at the same time. Currently.