'Virtual nose' makes VR less dizzying, say boffins

A Purdue University undergraduate has picked a way to stop virtual reality inducing motion sickness: program in a virtual nose. Assistant professor David Whittinghill says “Simulator sickness is very common” and occurs because “your perceptual system does not like it when the motion of your body and your visual system are out …

[Forget It]

missing link

http://www.purdue.edu/newsroom/releases/2015/Q1/virtual-nose-may-reduce-simulator-sickness-in-video-games.html

says:

Findings showed the virtual nose allowed people using the Tuscany villa simulation to play an average of 94.2 seconds longer without feeling sick, while those playing the roller coaster game played an average of 2.2 seconds longer.

Not to be sniffed at?

[Graham Marsden]

Re: missing link

> an average of 94.2 seconds

Wow! So I get an extra minute and a half of gameplay before I have to quit or throw up?

Awesome...!!

[gregthecanuck]

Probuscisnostigation

Looks like it passed the sniff test...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Probuscisnostigation

S'not that funny....and you nose it

[boba1l0s2k9]

No hooters

As a man I don't have hooters in my field of view most of the time. I guess sometimes I have lady friends over, but I try not to stare at their hooters -- it's quite rude.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: No hooters

Ah, the age old trans-Atlantic confusion. People west of the Dinlge Peninsula : Please get back to us about the 'hooters' 'hooter' issue when you've strapped on your fanny packs.

[herman]

I would guess that adding virtual hooters to a simulation will help a lot for half the population, since the male brain will totally ignore everything else that is in view. Although except for the two pointy objects it may make the whole simulation completely pointless.

[Mr C]

they need something to make the sickness go away

Well i did some testing around with Oculus (v1) developers edition some time ago.

They are very nice and great to show off to your friends and all, but this is how far i got to using them, the v1 version was only good for demos and such.

Trying to use them for extended periods of time, "real use", without getting sick proved very hard, for me at least.

And some demos where better at making you puke your guts out than others.

Few demos have ever managed to make me get cold sweat all over and make me pull off the glasses last moment while trying to find a spot somewhere in the distance to focus on and breath in cold air to avoid using the bucket under my desk.

Now, i hear that the v2 version alleviated the sickness inducing movement by improving head tracking and using external IR sensors and such, but apparently it still caused problems (haven't tried v2)

Personally for me, i fear that the only way for these to become 'usable' is to find a way of taking motion sickness away.

I should mention i don't usually have problems with motion sickness, being able to do roller-coaster rides, reading a book while traveling, watching 3D movies, etc. But the glasses managed to get me sick just fine.

[Little Mouse]

Speaking as one of the afflicted, anything that helps is OK in my book.

I never get motion sickness in "real" life, or with 3D movies - but pretty much every fast-moving 1st-person game since Wolf3D came out has induced gut-wrenching nausea after about 30 minutes of play.

Two things really seem to make a positive difference for me 1) A frame rate so low that you can see the judder. Yes - having a crappy PC really does help, and 2) Removing all trace of "Fish-eye" by changing the FOV.

I've never tried Occulus Rift or any of those older headsets from the 80's, though I suspect I'd only last about a minute before blowing chunks.

And I just love FPS's and their ilk. Nature is cruel.

[Boothy]

Re: Speaking as one of the afflicted, anything that helps is OK in my book.

I've got an Rift DK2.

Playing an FPS, like Half Life 2, which basically has minimal HUD, so the full screen is moving about as you move in game, I lasted about 10-15 minutes before starting to feel ill :-/

But playing Elite Dangerous, where you're sat in a cockpit, which is effectively static in relation to your virtual body (although you can look around), with all the real 'movement' outside of the window, I've played for several hours, without any impact other than some minor eye strain.

My understanding is that the cockpit basically grounds you in the VR setting, and your brain is quite happy with this, as the cockpit movement, matches your real head movement, The fact that the ship is moving around in the VR environment, doesn't seem to cause an issue, unlike an FPS game.

Would be interesting to see what HL2 is like with the false nose?!

[Terry Cloth]

Cockpit frame prevents nausea?

Well then, have the virtual participant wear some armor. Say, a hockey mask? Those bars should be just as good as a cockpit, much better than a nose. (Please let me know whether this pans out. I'll limit my share to 1% of the gross.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Speaking as one of the afflicted, anything that helps is OK in my book.

Playing Ace Combat Infinity you don't feel any bit of sickness. You choose to show the entire plane on a 3rd person view, cockpit view, or just the HUD.

No nausea in any of the three, despite you are flying upside down, with bright explosions getting past your view at mach 2.0.

Perhaps it's the VR googles that cause the mess, by depriving the rest of the scene (the TV frame... right?)

[Yugguy]

Re: Speaking as one of the afflicted, anything that helps is OK in my book.

Aye, me too. Don't get real world motion sickness at all, but can't play FPS stuff for too long either.

Which does indeed suck.

[Little Mouse]

Nested VR

I'm tempted to create an in-game virtual Occulus Rift headset.

Never be tempted to put it on though - you'll never know what's real forever afterwards.

[DropBear]

Re: Nested VR

Oh, a fellow Mona Lisa fan...?

['s water music]

prior art

Drinking all the Hennessey ya got on ya shelf used to make me sick. A false schnozz sorted that out

[Patrick R]

felt like in the Concorde cockpit

They reported feeling less ill? What's the point if it becomes a no (s)thrill experience?