Slashdot Mirror
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."
come for the naked robots, stay for the zombies
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...
Goo goo g'joob.
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
Monstar L
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.
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?
We all know it'd look somewhat similar to Doom 3 itself.
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)
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.
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
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.
Gee I only feel sick when I remember what I paid for my video card .....
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 =)
See this Planet Half-Life forum thread.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
Descent 1/2/3/Mercenary rock so much it's worth playing them through the nausea. Just keep a bucket beside you. Eventually you'll run out of vomit, and then you can keep playing until your brain melts out your ears and your eyes turn to red-veined yellow bricks.
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!
If the porn your looking at makes you nauseous... thats REALLY kinky.
Smoking is an expensive, slow, and unreliable method of suicide.
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.
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.
Sara
Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Indeed. Each individual HL2 "maplet" is way smaller than any given Doom 3 map. A quick lookthrough in the SDK for example: some of the maplets are like a single curve of tunnel.
And again, "outdoor" maps are just regular maps with a skybox to the engine, nothing special.
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.
"If the porn your looking at makes you nauseous... thats REALLY kinky." ... said 'UranusReallyHertz'.
"Derp de derp."
Lately I've just played Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 a lot and made other people sick instead of me. :-)
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!