7 Ways to Avoid Motion Sickness in VR

  • Thread starter Jordan
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I've never tried VR but i do generally suffer from motion sickness quite badly, be it travelling seated backwards (like on a train), airtravel, being on a boat, themepark/fairground rides that either just go round and round or swing or even racing IRL on a twisty circuit with loads of elevation changes. In fact, even being a passenger in a car, especially a back seat passenger is enough to trigger it, but i always found ginger to work really well and it works really quickly too in my experience.

I've only just got a PS5 and haven't been tempted by GT7 up until this point, but reading all the reviews on here with the PSVR2 is really making me want one. I foresee a PSVR2, DD wheel and rig in my near future. Might be an expensive year for me! - but i may need to try before i buy just in case the sickness feeling is strong.
 
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Conclusion, VR2 (can be) is bad for health, lol, or not, depends on use. Enjoying the cockpit of a car I don't think it can hurt, now driving longer and more accurately, or even shooting in war games,,,, delete|
 
Jordan, this is thoughtful and informative.

Thank you for posting this

Like most everyone else, I'm getting my unit today and I'll be implementing most, if not all, of your suggestions because I am prone to motion sickness.

This is my first ever foray into VR and I'm a little nervous. You make me feel like there's hope and just taking a little stress away is a good step for me.

On a side note, will you establish one VR thread or is this the thread where everything PSVR2 related will be discussed?
 
Super helpful article. I remember when I had a oculus on my pc for a while and locking to horizon fixed that one. The tracks seemed smaller in vr. The racing was in another level of immersion with AC, and the graphics weren’t what this is! I’ll get this one day
 
Just come from a short session with @Zorz and yes, if you are not used to VR it can get very uncomfortable very quickly. I would like to add an extra two tips to this from our practice session and that is:

1. Start on a basic track that doesn't have many changes (yes, I know Grand Valley is absolutely phenomenal, but Special Stage Route X will help.
2. If not a convertable, use a stable car that does not have a lot of roll under weight shift.

The majority of the problems came from the body actually registering weight change and movement, but then not experiencing it. Strange feeling, but holy god what an experience.
 
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Stoobert
The majority of the problems came from the body actually registering weight change and movement, but then not experiencing it. Strange feeling, but holy god what an experience.
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Yes exactly, that's my main issue so far. In every corner and every time I brake it feels so extremely strange in my stomach. Over two sessions today I didn't even get 6 minutes of driving in. The last one was about 4 minutes, now ~5h ago and I'm still not feeling good again. I stopped in time so I don't feel particularly bad, but that slight uneasiness is still there.
 
timekiller001
Yes exactly, that's my main issue so far. In every corner and every time I brake it feels so extremely strange in my stomach. Over two sessions today I didn't even get 6 minutes of driving in. The last one was about 4 minutes, now ~5h ago and I'm still not feeling good again. I stopped in time so I don't feel particularly bad, but that slight uneasiness is still there.
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I don't want to push it, but I really want to get to the point of races, so I am going to take things slow, but may resort to the nausea medicine to see if that can convince me better by not feeling nauseous, because doing 3 laps around Grand Valley was phenomenal.
 
This was my main worry with VR but @Jordan comments in his review allyed them somewhat and I hoped I'd be able to cope. This thread helped greatly too.

My first VR "racing" experience was in the little Honda S500 at Grand Valley. I did 3 very slow laps that took me 13 minutes, and felt mostly fine afterwards. I made that my limit for the day, apart from a bit of VR garage stuff, and I'll have another go tomorrow.
 
I get motion sickness when playing some first-person or third-person games, and I find Gravol or similar medication effective, but it does take about half an hour before it takes effect. I tried Oculus once and I was fine surprisingly.
 
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slthree
On a side note, will you establish one VR thread or is this the thread where everything PSVR2 related will be discussed?
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The GT7 & PSVR2 thread has kind of taken over as the de-facto GT7/VR thread, but it's moving really fast and probably will for a while. I thought it would be useful to separate the discussion on motion sickness prevention into this dedicated topic for anyone who wants to share additional tips or suggestions. 👍
timekiller001
Yes exactly, that's my main issue so far. In every corner and every time I brake it feels so extremely strange in my stomach. Over two sessions today I didn't even get 6 minutes of driving in. The last one was about 4 minutes, now ~5h ago and I'm still not feeling good again. I stopped in time so I don't feel particularly bad, but that slight uneasiness is still there.
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You did the right thing stopping when you did, and it's normal to feel unsettled for quite a while. Since you had a bad reaction, I would suggest going for the "bigger guns" of ginger chews and meclizine before your next session. They are affordable and can help tremendously.
Stoobert
I don't want to push it, but I really want to get to the point of races, so I am going to take things slow, but may resort to the nausea medicine to see if that can convince me better by not feeling nauseous, because doing 3 laps around Grand Valley was phenomenal.
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Yeah, don't hesitate to take the nausea medicine, that's what it's for!

It can work wonders in helping you acclimate to VR without feeling sick.
 
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Jordan
You did the right thing stopping when you did, and it's normal to feel unsettled for quite a while. Since you had a bad reaction, I would suggest going for the "bigger guns" of ginger chews and meclizine before your next session. They are affordable and can help tremendously.
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I'll see if I can find some of these ginger chews. Unfortunately Meclizine is not sold in Germany, but I'll get some other medicine against motion sickness from the pharmacy here. I'll have them ready for the next session and then I'll try! Thank you for the tips!
 
One lap in Music Rally and my stomach was queasy and a slight headache was starting - stopped right there.

But will work at it - I thought it looked amazing, big improvement from PSVR1.

Adding I got sweaty under the vr goggles and pulse headset - going to try adding a slow quiet box fan to my rig.
 
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Simple & great tips.

The only other one I'd add, especially with the PSVR2's FOV, is make sure you dial in the view for yourself as perfectly as you can get it.

You might catch the lower resolution at the edges of your peripheral vision, but that's it. If you can catch it, you haven't centred it correctly.

Makes a huge difference. Getting the sweet spot might take a bit of time & trial and error, but it's especially important if you want to avoid motion sickness!
 
Damn. My dreams are dashed. I had hopes that they'd found a way to actually make PSVR2 not cause motion sickness. There was definitely some talk of that a couple of years back. I guess not so easy to achieve in practice. Will be following this thread with interest. I have bad memories of PSVR1 in GTS. 2 mins gameplay = 5 hours feeling like death. Admittedly I didn't follow any strategy and Jordan's tips seem very sensible. At some stage I'd like to give it another try adhering to these tips.
 
It's such a shame that VR sickness is so common because my god getting out on track for the first time was mind-blowing. I honestly think any racing fan who can't have a go at the real thing needs to experience it, it's so good.

Me and @Stoobert took 60s Mini Coopers to Grand Valley in a private lobby and the sensation when full VR kicked in leaving the pit lane was just incredible.

Braking definitely felt like the real killer though. Watching the car pitch forward from the weight transfer (which I imagine will be brilliant for understanding what the car is doing) whilst not feeling anything myself just didn't sit right at all.

I could only stomach about 10 minutes before I had to take my headset off and leave it for a while.

Just going to have to keep plugging away at it and hope my tolerance increases over time. I did a lap of the Nordschleife in the old Fiat 500 earlier this morning and driving around there is stunning. That took about 14 minutes and coming down the Dottinger coincided quite nicely with starting to feel the nausea coming on, so hopefully that's progress!

I've got a fan in my bedroom which I think I'll try on my next session later today, and I think I'll try to pick up something with ginger in on my next weekly shop. Thanks for the tips! 👍
 
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The motion sickness will go away with time. When I first got my Valve Index and played ACC, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes without having to stop. It took a good 2 weeks and gradually increasing a few minutes here and there, and now I don't experience any motion sickness at all. 3+ hour endurance races are no issue now. Your brain just has to adjust to something new.

Does GT7 have the ability to disable any type of body movement from cockpit view?
 
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I never get motion sickness in a car/ride/plane. But i got a nasty one after a few VR laps on Goodwood (i think the flattest track in GT7 lol) in the small convertible Honda.
I think that what does it for me is the way the car leans in all directions when braking, accelerating or turning. That happening visually, with no connection the what the body feels really messes up my brain.
I wanted to check if I can switch between the camera modes when using the cockpit view, but it seems they are not available at all.
I think that if we can have a setting to have the VR movement relative to the car's axis movement disabled, the nausea would disappear for many of the users experiencing it.
To explain in better, when you are braking, the car leans forward but your camera/headset stays level to the horizon currently. If the horizon would raise (equivalent of your car's front pointing downward) the brain would cope easier with it. As it is right now is like your neck is made of soft rubber and your head is not affected by elevation changes or axial movement of the car.
 
Watch Where You’re Going

That's the one that makes VR comfortable for me. Keeping my eyes locked forward as still as possible and if I do have to look to the side I use my entire head not just my eyes.
 
cjsrt4
The motion sickness will go away with time. When I first got my Valve Index and played ACC, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes without having to stop. It took a good 2 weeks and gradually increasing a few minutes here and there, and now I don't experience any motion sickness at all. 3+ hour endurance races are no issue now. Your brain just has to adjust to something new.
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I hope so. I was surprised that I felt motion sick after such a short time yesterday. I have never been motion sick from cars, planes, trains, etc. I fish occasionally and go out on quite rough seas. I figured it would be a nonissue for me with VR. I’ll just keep at it for short periods for a few weeks.
 
CMB350
I hope so. I was surprised that I felt motion sick after such a short time yesterday. I have never been motion sick from cars, planes, trains, etc. I fish occasionally and go out on quite rough seas. I figured it would be a nonissue for me with VR. I’ll just keep at it for short periods for a few weeks.
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I don't get motion sick from those either. I think it's mostly your brain freaking out because you can't see your real hand and arm movements. Like I said, it took over a week for me to get used to it. Just play in short bursts.
 
Only one game has ever made me motion sick: Unreal Tournament '99. I was running it on the best hardware it can use. I never got motion sick while playing, but after 3 minutes of watching someone else play on my rig. 🤢 🤢 🤮
 
I did another session during my lunch break today with the fan, that was a surprisingly big step up. Managed to go about 45 minutes whilst also driving much faster cars as well, so very pleased with that!

I've just been attempting some practice for Saturday's Nations round and was able to do 19 laps in a row and come away still feeling relatively good, so definitely heading in the right direction and should be good to attempt it in VR! Now I just need to learn how to handle having other cars around me so I can race cleanly this way. :lol:
 
I get motion sick in a car really easily, and was always worried about getting VR. Always wanted to try it, but thought I’d be throwing money in the trash can. Long story short, I bought the meta headset… and, nothing. Literally nothing. Took to it like a duck to water. No nausea, no sweating, no queasiness. The only symptom I experienced was disappointment that I hadn’t jumped in earlier.
 

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