VR, low FPS and headache

[Ian Skippy]

I know that low FPS is a big no-no in VR, but I always thought it was about motion sickness. I've been messing about in VR and I am pretty much immume to VR-induced motion sickness or nausea. So I'd crank the settings and have some fun, even though I could clearly see it wasn't overly smooth. When I noticed my settings were much higher than what people with similar or better rigs use, someone here pointed out I may just have a really low FPS as a result. After I played for a few days the 3.3 beta dropped, and since then I have headaches, and playing either 3.2 or 3.3b makes it worse.

I just did a quick check and apparantly my framerate around planets and stations was around 25-35. So I am wondering, is low FPS an issue in VR for more than just motion sickness/nausea? I've lowered the settings a lot so its now 60 min at the most intense areas, but I cant properly test it until my headache is gone. So does anyone have any experience with what prolonged low-FPS in VR can result in?

 

[Gortron]

Interesting; I’ve gotten a headache a couple of times while in VR but it never occurred to me that might be the cause. I can get quite motion sick at 45 FPS so I’m a bit of a 90 FPS snob.

I find going lower than 45 FPS makes me lose the sense of ‘presence’ but the last time I had that in ED for a sustained period was on my 970.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Absolutely likely.

Motion sickness is just the most immediate symptom but anything vision relates often also causes headaches.
Not just low fps but just a hair wrong IPD for instance can cause it.

A lasting headache is often also seen as a sign it might be time to update or see an optician if you use or might start needing glasses.

 

[Gortron]

Absolutely likely.

Motion sickness is just the most immediate symptom but anything vision relates often also causes headaches.
Not just low fps but just a hair wrong IPD for instance can cause it.

A lasting headache is often also seen as a sign it might be time to update or see an optician if you use or might start needing glasses.

I’ve certainly had headaches caused poor vision before. Also because of a positive change in eyesight. I recently started getting headaches and last trip to the opticians showed that my short sightedness is reversing into longsightedness (apparently because I’m getting old!).

When you consider what’s happening in VR and how blurry it is it makes sense it could cause headaches.

 

[ghoder]

I know that low FPS is a big no-no in VR, but I always thought it was about motion sickness.[...]

So I am wondering, is low FPS an issue in VR for more than just motion sickness/nausea?

I have been playing Elite for about two years exclusively in VR and of course have encountered some adverse effects but so far no headaches. In general, I immediately stop playing as soon as I feel a hint of uncomfortableness.

Well, let's recapitualte some of my experiences in VR. First, I do not get motion sick when exploring or in combat but it occurs mostly in the SRV. This is not related to the framerate but I suppose it is rather a result of the mismatch between strong visual movement cues and the signals from the vestibular organ. This may cause nausea. For instance, the visual cues suggest strong up and down, left and right movements, rotations and what not but actually I am sitting still in one place and this is captured by the vestibular system. But in the srv the headset signals a totally different situation. I think the effect is similar to sea sickness and some people get sick when reading a book on a bus, etc. I tend to stop playing immediately when I am feeling to start uncomfortable. The result is that I am avoiding the SRV because it is not a pleasent experience in VR for me. Mountain climbing with the associated tumbling down a slope and so on is very uncomfortable in VR.

Now, low frame rate also seems to have an effect. When the headset images do not follow my head movements fluently I feel an impluse to move the head back to the position that matches the visual cues. This is certainly not a fluent experience. Again, this seems to be a mismatch between what the brain expects so see and what is actually delivered by the headset.

The same counts for the different mismatches between the right and left eye channels in the current patch. I suspect that the brain tries to make sense out of the scene, possibly involving autonomous endeavors to adjust the focus. This is a very uncomfortable experience and this is why I stopped playing the beta for now after documenting some of the bugs.

After all, I am thinking that using more abstract graphics in VR may be an idea worth testing. Not for Elite though, but in general. Some modern wireframe graphics with decent game play could go a long way. The reason why I think so is that, first, more abstract graphics do not need so many computational ressources allowing for a decent frame rate. Second, if the game is more abstract with simple cues, the brain may not be so easily tricked into the appearance that it is expereincing something in real life, maybe reducing the adverse effects. But this is just a speculation. I have not tried any abstract VR games yet.

By the way, I find that abstract graphics (think contemporary wireframe) is a genre of its own with a special aesthetic and VR could lend itself very well to that look and feel.