Does Half Life 2 still cause motion sickness?

[clickynext]

I got HL2 the day it came out, but never finished it. The other day I decided to break it out again and finally get to the end, but I only played about half an hour before I remembered why I stopped in the first place. Baaad bad motion sickness; I ended up feeling crappy for the rest of the night.

So I was wondering if they fixed that in ep1 and 2, and whether there's an official fix now for the original. I remember there being something about changing the fov, but is that a complete fix?

Thanks

 

[xboxist]

Do you actually think that the problem lies with the game? Don't you think that even if it was something caused by the game, that internal testing would have caught it?

QC GUY: Hey boss, um... everyone that tests the game out gets sick.
BOSS: Ship it!

 

[JPB]

I don't know what the problem is either. Cause the same thing happens to me in that game ( and a few others ) and I know a few other people it happens to. I think the problem lies more with a certain monitor ? refresh rate? something along those lines.

 

[gorcorps]

There's been lots of talk about motion sickness in games, and it usually revolves around the field of view the game is set in. It just makes some folks sick. There's generally a console command you can use to change the fov and I don't think HL2 is an exception, so I'd go look at how to change the fov.

It's not really a 'problem' with the game, it's just some people get motion sickness with different things. There's nothing to really fix here.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

It has to do with the fact that HL2 uses like a 90 degree FOV as compared to 75 degrees FOLV. It might be the other way around. But that coupled with the very bumpy vehicle sequences. It can get people motion sick

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: gorcorps
There's been lots of talk about motion sickness in games, and it usually revolves around the field of view the game is set in. It just makes some folks sick. There's generally a console command you can use to change the fov and I don't think HL2 is an exception, so I'd go look at how to change the fov.

It's not really a 'problem' with the game, it's just some people get motion sickness with different things. There's nothing to really fix here.

Yeah original Doom,Metroid Prime(Gamcube) and Prey really make me sick when I play them but not any other games I've played. I think its just a combo of what monitor your using,certain textures in games,ect. Just bites for some since HL is a good game. I'm just glad the games that make me sick aren't any that interest me.

 

[clickynext]

Originally posted by: xboxist
Do you actually think that the problem lies with the game? Don't you think that even if it was something caused by the game, that internal testing would have caught it?

QC GUY: Hey boss, um... everyone that tests the game out gets sick.
BOSS: Ship it!

Search "half life 2 motion sickness" on google and you'll find that it's a pretty widespread problem (of course, HL2 is a pretty widespread game). It's certainly a problem with the specific game, since I don't get motion sickness from any other games I've played (CS, CS:S, Half Life 1, Bioshock, etc).

If you're suggesting that the problem lies with me, then of course it does! Motion sickness is an (arguably) genetic attribute that a very large amount of people have. In my experience, it happens when the visual movement you perceive in your eyes doesn't match with what your brain expects.

Anyway, I know that you can type in console:
sv_cheats 1
fov 90

But I remember running into problems with this, because it would pop back to 75 by itself and I'd end up sick anyway. So I never could find out whether the field of view solved the problem. I'm just wondering if there was any official word on it, or any conclusive evidence.

Thanks

 

[Coldkilla]

Want motion sickness: Play Cryis

HL2's wasn't bad at all.

 

[mooncancook]

walking and running in that game is fine, I got real motion sickness from the water-craft ride (and didn't go much further than that). One of these days I need to pick it up again and finish it since I got EP1 & 2 from the OrangeBox.

 

[blazerazor]

This used to happen to me sometimes when I was a noobie, new to the computing hobby and new to playing fps games. I'm not sure if I got 'used' to it or if upgrading to a better video card really made playing games better. (i.e. no stud-d-der-ing!) But I now realize that my eyes had learned to relax and not focus as much when crazily changing targets or directions.
Even today I have to take a break from playing sometimes cause my head just hurts after playing for a long spell, even worse after looking at a computer monitor all day at work.

 

[aka1nas]

tenshodo has it right, it's related to the FOV. IIRC CS:Source uses a 90 degree FOV and I don't get motion sickness where I sometimes can in HL2 at 75 FOV.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Whenever I've gotten motion sickness from a game it was because there was a slight but steady stuttering in the game. Reducing the settings always fixed it for me.

 

[hans030390]

I got horrible headaches when playing HL2, and would feel crappy for the rest of the day. I used to play on a CRT monitor, high refresh rate, etc.

I decided to pick up the orange box on 360 (running on a 19" computer monitor at 720p). I didn't really think about the motion sickness when I bought it, but I started playing it...and yeah, the headaches are coming back.

This really sucks.

 

[Fenixgoon]

the motion sickness is related to the FOV. there should be a thread somewhere on how to fix it, it's not hard IIRC

 

[hans030390]

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
the motion sickness is related to the FOV. there should be a thread somewhere on how to fix it, it's not hard IIRC

Can you do it on the 360? I doubt you can...grr.

 

[tdawg]

Originally posted by: hans030390

Originally posted by: Fenixgoon
the motion sickness is related to the FOV. there should be a thread somewhere on how to fix it, it's not hard IIRC

Can you do it on the 360? I doubt you can...grr.

I too had this problem. Ep1 was fine, but when I got to the water ride in HL2, it got bad quick. There were a couple of points before the boat, but the boat definitely put an end to it for me. I actually had to save and quit during the boating; when I treid to go back to it the next day, I played for maybe 5 minutes before I felt horrible and had to quit. I didn't know this was an actual problem with the game, I just thought that it was coinciding with me just not feeling well.

Who knew?

 

[RandomFool]

HL2 still makes me sick. The boat was awful, I couldn't play for more than like 20 mins without going to laydown. When I got to the go kart thing right afterwards I couldn't take it anymore and gave up. One of these days I'll go back and attempt to lower my settings, change my fov and finish it.

 

[Dethfrumbelo]

I get light headaches/dizziness from HL2, but they're tolerable. I wish I had known about the FOV solution before so I could have avoided them altogether.

 

[theprodigalrebel]

Yeah, this is a known issue. It explains why TF2 has a slider to switch FoV between 75/90. link

Is the option available in the other games in Orange Box?

 

[Kirby64]

Bah. Motion sickness must be only for certain people. My mom gets motion sickness watching me play any FPS, but none of them affect me.

 

[Dumac]

This is crazy; I never knew this was a large problem. I don't feel any effects from playing HL2 besides happiness, and I feel bad for those that get sick.

 

[Rottie]

I get headache while playing HL2 but I don't know what FOV means. I wasted my money on HL2 because I doubt I will be able to finish it but I might want to try again because I have switched to LCD monitor and see how I feel....

 

[swtethan]

I got motion sickness from HL2 after like 30 mins.

cs:s i can play all day though

 

[Stas]

there is fov command but also remember to use "default_fov"
otherwise it will reset to 75.
I would put both "fov 90" and "default_fov 90" into config file and set it to read-only. you can put it in the shortcut as well (not sure if the game will stick to it that way though).

 

[Billyzeke]

The fanboat section got to me. I changed the FOV that helped some, but I ended up taking Dramamine to get through that part of the game. Worked like a charm.