Half-Life 2 Causes Nausea, Looks Good in Doom Engine 131
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."
I wish there were "control" pictures also. (Score:2, Interesting)
My nausea experience (Score:4, Interesting)
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... (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Re:Wide scale problem (Score:5, Interesting)
Heights? (Score:1, Interesting)
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.
I don't think so (Score:5, Interesting)
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
Re:Wide scale problem (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Tunnel Vision (Score:2, Interesting)
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!
Re:I just want to see how Doom ... (Score:3, Interesting)
And again, "outdoor" maps are just regular maps with a skybox to the engine, nothing special.
Windowed Mode! (Score:2, Interesting)
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.