Post #4782398 · Elektrine

2026-09-20 18:58 UTC

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk With the exception of some very few special game scenarios such as Beat Sabre or a commercial jet simulator, where the protagonist remains at a fixed location within the game world, most scenarios require the player to move while the body's senses disagree with the virtual movements that the eyes see. This is human nature and thus this it is unfixable. For decades, the military threw unlimited funds at the problem and still failed to fix the VR motion sickness effect for their simulators. Turns out that people don't want to pay hundreds of Euros to projectile vomit in their living room, after all.

Replies (1)

@hzulla@infosec.exchange 2026-09-20 19:33

@neil@mastodon.neilzone.co.uk back in previous VR booms (like 3D cinema, it's coming back every few years), I read a few popsci and tech articles about this problem, explaining why it's unfixable. Also how game designers were trying to bypass this by building scenarios with as little player movement as possible, e.g. by using teleportation to relocate within the 3d world or by keeping the player stationary seated in a cockpit or standing at a control panel while it's only other things within the game moving around or approaching the player. People can accept a short game at a VR arcade as a novelty experience, but at home you want to play for hours if the game is good. But then, eventually vomiting is basically impossible. All of this was widely reported before the Metaverse folly was announced, so it was very very weird when the tech press simply accepted Zuck's market predictions with very little pushback at the time.

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