Help! I am having motion sickness while playing ESO

SerasWhip

First of all let me say don't be fooled by the headline, this is not complaining at all, game is awesome and thats why I feel so bad about not being able to play it anymore like I did before!

Well, it all started a month ago, normally I was able to play any kinds of games for 6-7 hours straight without having any kinds of problems. I was really comfortable while playing ESO as well. Then without any reason my playtime got shrinked because after a certain amount of time I was starting to feel nauseous. I didn't really care at first because there was only some slight nausea after a 3-4 hours of playtime, I was quitting the game and doing something else. But now that time period reduced to 40 minutes for me!! I don't know what to do about it.

At first I unintentionally started to swap between first and third person cameras (first person while walking around and third person while fighting) which really helped, I think. I mean this game is a huge motivation for me in my daily life and not being able to play it properly anymore makes me feel kinda sad. I had 300 hours of playtime and this *** just started to happen for no reason.

I checked the forums today and I learned that it is a common thing between gamers called Motion Sickness. It also has some other symptoms like feeling dizzy and head aches. And the reason for that, motion is detected by your eyes but no motion is sensed by the vestibular system meaning your ears. As an example, you are running in game, your eyes see that you move, but since there is no actual movement with your body, sensed by some particular organs in your ears, your brain can't decide that if you are actually moving or not. So it basically freaks out and thinks that you are hallucinating. Which also makes it think that you are somehow poisoned by a substance, as a result your brain triggers the reflex of throwing up to cleanse your body if you force yourself to play even more.

I also found some solutions for this matter but they all contain things like medicine usage or adjusting the light in the room to brighter levels (which I already do). But nothing seemed to be working for me right now and its only getting worse day by day. Maybe even ZOS can come up with some graphic adjustments for that matter if the majority of the players also experience it time to time. So my question is..

Do you also experience it? Do you have some other possible solutions for me? Looking reaaally forward to hear what you guys going to say

Nebthet78

Go in to your game settings and make sure that the Head Bob option is turned completely off. I did that and I barely have any issues any more. Only with eye strain after playing more than 6hrs ata time.

Qyrk

Also rotational speed in the Game Settings help alleviate some quick frame rotations dilemma

Runs

I have only got motion sickness from 2 games ever... One was Diablo 3, the other 2 were fine The other game was Descent back in the mid 90's.

NewBlacksmurf

Buy a better monitor after going to see a eye dr and a medical specialist who can better describe what's going on and then help you find hardware to remove these feelings where possible.

First tho, go see a real dr (no joke) because something has changed in your body it seems.

Asherons_Call

This sounds like you need to see a doctor. Like Smurf said I would start with an optometrist (eye doc)

TheShadowScout

Yes, I myself have a rather severe case of this happening every time I try to play any first person game. Fifteen, thirty minutes tops, and I have to stop or barf. I found that for me its a non-issue in third person view, so I go with that instead, and thus can play the game...
Same with reading while driving, it IS the inconsistencies between "movement seen /not felt" or "movement felt / not seen" that are the core of this particular problem... as said, as soon as I synchronize the visuals with the balance sensations... it goes away. In a car, keeping the eyes on the road, even if not driving. In a game, avoiding first person view, since that is what tricks my brain into its confusion... third person view, and it thinks I am watching someone, first person, and it wonders if I myself am moving and then gets all confused when it doesn't feel it...

Eye strain is another thing. Which happens often if you just play too much, since then it can happen that your eyes get irritated and your eye doc may tell you to use nautral eye drops (like mine did - been there, done that). Sometimes one also needs to consider glasses... with an average PC setup at least, much like reading books, the monitor is at a much closer distance then your eyes are generally comfortable focussing for a longer period of time, so anyone with nerdy glasses like me might want to consider getting reading glasses for longer gaming sessions... (console players often use a larger TV, and thus have more distance to their screen - good for their eyes!)

ContraTempo

Also, turn on smoothing.

I use a gamepad for most movement/combat, and only use the mouse/kB for menus and such. That also smooths things out. I know some people complain about slow rotational speed but I use Xpadder to map my own functions instead of using the build in gampad support, so I can adjust the rotational speed to be as fast as I want.

RinaldoGandolphi

Someone just doesn't start having motion sickness overnight nor does someone's vision go bad overnight either.

What you are describing is what us old schoolers call "micro-stutter" it's more common in SLI and CrossfireX multi-gpu set ups but it's also possible to have micro-stutter with single gpu set ups as well.

Everyone has a different tolerance level to micro-stutter. Some folks see it right away, others feel sick or get headaches but don't know why, others notice nothing at all. How much micro stutter is present and tolerance level varies from person to person. Pretty much is tiny variances in frame latency. You can 60 or 120fps or more and still have micro stutter it just may not be noticeable to you personally.

What I would do is use MSI Afterburner or Nvidia Inspectior or something similar and cap your frame rate to 1-2 fps below your monitors refresh rate and see if your symptoms improve. It won't remove micro stutter altogether, but it may reduce it below a threshold where you notice or are effected by it.

RinaldoGandolphi

Or cap your frame rate at 30 fps. Believe it or not some people are sensitive or become sensitive to higher frame rates. No ones brain is the same. Give it a shot see if it improves things for you

Acrolas

Man, if only ESO printed some sort of warning about this kind of stuff and included it somewhere convenient, like opposite the gameplay controls.

Oh. Wait.

hamgatan

I also have issues with the game in vWGT... my eyes have difficulty seeing the portals against the Planar Inhibitor because with various skills going off around me I have difficulty distinguishing between the white flare of the portals and the grey screen (combined with everyone dropping Shooting Stars etc.. contrast issues). I understand your frustration with the motion sickness.. but ZOS won't put accessibility measures in play just for a handful of players.. that's the reality.

there's some good suggestions above though that'll help you a bit. I wouldn't go as far as medication unless you really need it.

WhimsyDragon

For me this either happens when the camera is rigged in a way that isn't smooth sailing (especially common for me in first person view -- I basically don't play anything that is first person). The tips already mentioned here may help you with ESO along with third person view. The other reason it sometimes occurs for me is when my framerate stinks, usually because my system can't handle the game, so look into whether something funky is going on with yours. I'm also just sensitive in general to potential motion sickness... I'm someone who can't read on a plane, doesn't ever want to go on a cruise, and isn't going to play mobile games as a car passenger. Alas.

rotaugen454

I get it in 1st person but not in third. Assassins creed does it to me even in 3rd after an hour.

FishBreath

Try increasing Field of View. The 1st person setting you should max, and the 3rd person one should be at least 100.

Sleep

Go play Unreal Tournament for a while and come back you will find you don't feel sick any more, if you can come back.

FloppyTouch

I have this issue too, I get horrible headache after 4+ hours of playing. To help with this after every hour I get up do something like drink water use bathroom then head back into game. If I feel the headache coming on I stop playing right away and get some rest bc they are so bad.

LiquidSchwartz

R u pregnant

hrothbern

I have it also in Dungeon battles, but not roaming through the wilderness

Lifecode666

testing diffent monitors and making sure you have good fps is also something that can be looked at.

dtm_samuraib16_ESO

Runs wrote: »

I have only got motion sickness from 2 games ever... One was Diablo 3, the other 2 were fine The other game was Descent back in the mid 90's.

DUUUUH, really?
The other 2 were 2.5D games, no wonder.

CherryCake

I have that problem everytime I play on PC, so I would normally have to zoom out the character as much as I can and not run too fast ;___;...

Most definitely check with a doctor, if you had no problems before, it means something changed.

SerasWhip

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Buy a better monitor after going to see a eye dr and a medical specialist who can better describe what's going on and then help you find hardware to remove these feelings where possible.

First tho, go see a real dr (no joke) because something has changed in your body it seems.

Yeah I think I should

SerasWhip

LiquidSchwartz wrote: »

R u pregnant

this is perfect

maboleth

Do you experience something similar in real life, doing usual stuff, or only while playing ESO?

MarcoPolo

Its called vertigo try travel sickness pills works great, the ones from a GP are better than the over the counter ones but I take them regularly and now have little issues with it

SerasWhip

maboleth wrote: »

Do you experience something similar in real life, doing usual stuff, or only while playing ESO?

I also experience it in cars if I'm playing with something. I even struggle to change the music that is playing on my phone while the vehicle is moving. But that happens since my childhood. This ESO thing is new. Also started to happen with some other games as well.

Daraugh

Any first person game makes me sick and dizzy. Before I knew that, however, I played Portal for the first time during my first trimester of pregnancy. Wow.... almost three years later and I've never had the will to log back into Portal again to give it another go, it was that bad. Even though they promised me cake!

You can disable the third person to first person keybind at least, V by default on pc.

Rune_Relic

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Buy a better monitor after going to see a eye dr and a medical specialist who can better describe what's going on and then help you find hardware to remove these feelings where possible.

First tho, go see a real dr (no joke) because something has changed in your body it seems.

QFT... you should listen to this.
Are you taking regular 30 min breaks from the screen ?

Daraugh

Rune_Relic wrote: »

NewBlacksmurf wrote: »

Buy a better monitor after going to see a eye dr and a medical specialist who can better describe what's going on and then help you find hardware to remove these feelings where possible.

First tho, go see a real dr (no joke) because something has changed in your body it seems.

QFT... you should listen to this.
Are you taking regular 30 min breaks from the screen ?

Agreed, things can change quickly and if it was something that only recently started bothering you, definitely see a doctor.

Around here, it's as simple as the change in weather, it can go from 40 degrees to over 80 in a day and it can really screw with vision, give headaches and cause overheating.

maboleth

SerasWhip wrote: »

maboleth wrote: »

Do you experience something similar in real life, doing usual stuff, or only while playing ESO?

I also experience it in cars if I'm playing with something. I even struggle to change the music that is playing on my phone while the vehicle is moving. But that happens since my childhood. This ESO thing is new. Also started to happen with some other games as well.

Probably it's nothing serious, since you had such things since childhood. But that also means that you should take all precaution measures for your eyes AND motion sickness.

Check this out for eye workouts.
https://facebook.com/brightside/videos/894661853995892/

Btw, do you also have problems while flying in a plane?