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Why virtual reality makes a lot of us sick, and what we can do about it.

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[-] 5BC2E7@lemmy.world 25 points 10 months ago

And you even have some vr fans just blindly claiming that all games should use gliding for movement and that having the option to teleport ruins the game even if they don’t use it. even though gliding (they call it natural locomotion) makes people sick because it’s obviously unnatural. They claim there is no need for movement systems that don’t induce motion sickness because it’s a matter of getting used to “natural locomotion” an anyone who doesn’t get better is because they are lying🙄.

[-] lloram239@feddit.de 20 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

It's a tricky issue. On one side, yes, it will make some people motion sick, but on the other side limiting a game to teleport drastically limits what you can do in the game. It means nothing of currently established monitor-based game mechanics work in VR. You essentially completely lose locomotion and environmental navigation as game mechanic and everything becomes a static gallery shooter. It also means that multiplayer completely stops functioning, as while yourself zapping around might be acceptable, having the other player just randomly switch placed is certainly not.

Modern VR has been around for 10 years and so far nobody has figured out how to make teleport gaming work. Meanwhile all the unofficial VR mods gets celebrated, since despite their locomotion issues, they actually feel like full games in VR, which the teleport games never archived.

At the end of the day, it's a far better idea to design games for the people that want to play them, then those that don't. The early focus on teleport has regressed the VR industry for years and the conclusion after 10 years is basically that it causes far more harm than good. You don't win anybody over for VR by showing them games that look far less impressive than what they are used to from a monitor.

Also worth mentioning that there are alternatives to teleport that aren't stick-locomotion. Lone Echo or Gorilla Tag have you move around with your arms and hands. This gives you smooth motion without inducing or at least drastically reducing motion sickness issues. Those mechanics still feel quite a bit underused in the modern VR landscape.

[-] RaoulDook@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

100% accurate. All the teleport-to-move games I tried just sucked. Enabling free movement is a must for good VR gaming.

It's too bad for the folks that get motion sickness, they are missing out on some rad shit.

[-] 5BC2E7@lemmy.world 2 points 10 months ago

I am not sure if you are mixing allowing teleportation with not allowing natural locomotion or if you are claiming that allowing teleportation would be limiting the game in some form. Many games support both. My comment was about people complaining that the game should not have support for teleportation (since they don’t use it).

There are plenty of multiplayer games with locomotion. The problem you describe regarding not being able to play multiplayer has been resolved in this games with different mechanics. Most of them use some form of stamina so you can’t just run away. To name an example since you claim no one has done it take a look at half life alyx.

I agree with the fact that it doesn’t work well for existing games non vr games. But I don’t want to play those games in vr…

Regarding your static gallery comment that’s not true at all. You teleport to move larger distances but you interact with your environment by moving in the room where you are playing so you can walk, dodge, crawl, etc…. Teleporting is more about repositioning your play space so you can actually walk and move around using your body.

[-] lloram239@feddit.de 0 points 10 months ago

You can't add teleportation into a game after the fact. You have to design it for teleportation from the ground up for that to work. You can only add smooth motion after the fact, since it's the superior control scheme. That's the issue, teleportation limits game design.

And yes, there are games were teleportation works well, simple single-player point&click exploration games work fine. But everything involving action and movement just takes a turn for the worse if developers are adding teleportation.

To name an example since you claim no one has done it take a look at half life alyx.

Half Life: Alyx is an example of exactly what I am talking about. It's a far worse game than Half Life 2, as being designed around teleportation turned it into a static shooting gallery.

by moving in the room where you are playing so you can walk, dodge, crawl, etc….

Developers gave up on roomscale years ago. Everything these days has to work sitting or standing in place, without walking around, as that's how the majority of peoples actually play VR. Valve tried to hype up roomscale in the early days, but as it turns out nobody really wants, and nobody has the space for making that work well anyway. Taking two steps only to hit the chaperone is no fun and constantly interrupts the flow of the game, sticking to controller based locomotion gives a much better experience.

But I don’t want to play those games in vr…

I would. And most other gamers seem to agree, as nobody wants to play mediocre VR games we have today, as can be seen by the general disinterest in VR. VR hype used to be based around it being the "next level" of gaming, futuristic scifi tech, yet the current VR games just feel like a total downgrade compared to what we can have on a monitor.

[-] 5BC2E7@lemmy.world -1 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Thanks for clarifying your position. You seem to be the type i was describing. Well except that you didn’t claim everyone can get used to it and anyone who can’t is because they are not trying. As te technology stands, making games that only a fraction of the target audience that want and can consume it is not a great idea. Instead you say that most people want what you want and ignore the statistics.
I agree with your opinion that games that cater to me are better than games that don’t.

[-] deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de 5 points 10 months ago

Although with most games, the accessibility options need to be there (even when they sometimes aren't), some games incorporate their movement mechanics into gameplay heavily. Take BONELAB for example. Great game, but simply impossible to play for some people due to the movement. Adding teleporting (or really any accessibility movement option) would simply ruin it though, as the entire game is based around physics based interactions, walking, running, jumping, climbing, etc.

[-] chakan2@lemmy.world 3 points 10 months ago

Bonelab literally made me sick for hours. I tried to power through it and that's when I realized VR wasn't for me.

It's a slick game...but oof...I just can't do it.

this post was submitted on 26 Sep 2023
626 points (96.3% liked)

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