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Anyone else feeling physically sick from the Witness?

chubigans

y'all should be ashamed
I tried out the Witness this afternoon and enjoyed it, but felt oddly queasy afterwards. Chopped it up to what I had for lunch, until a lot of people in the official Witness thread mentioned the same thing- nausea, dizzyness, etc.

It's weird because I never get sick with games, so this is kind of crazy to me. Since there's a ton of activity in the OT about puzzle solutions I thought I'd break it out into a new thread and ask...has anyone gotten a little queasy from the Witness? Some are saying its the FOV, the lack of a center cursor, etc. Gonna try it again tomorrow on an empty stomach. :p

edit: on PS4 here.

edit2: using Remote Play on Vita using Standard Quality video settings (to force the game to 30fps) has done the trick for me, played for many hours with no problems. That's my workaround solution till a patch comes on.
 

Qwark

Member
Oh, that doesn't bode well. I get mild motion sickness from certain first person games... I was really looking forward to this one too.
 

MattyG

Banned
Yup. It happened during my first session and I thought it was a fluke, but it got me again after I'd just recovered. I'm done for the night. (PS4)
 

Tagyhag

Member
If you're playing on the PC and the game has a low FOV that'd do it.

Happens to me as well. I had to configure the Talos Principle to max FOV, no headbobbing, and a cursor in the middle.
 
I hope you're excited for Witness VR!

Im downloading the game now. How will I know if it will affect me? Sounds strange that people experience this
 

Syder

Member
I noticed instantly that something was off with this game. At first I thought it was mild screen tearing that my eyes were perceiving in a weird way or a fluctuating frame rate but I guess it must be FOV.
 

Weetrick

Member
I didn't realize that FOV was even a thing until I bought a PC this gen. Now it's the first thing I mess with on any first person game. That said, The Witness on PS4 isn't bothering me so far (1 hour in).
 
I had a mild case of this after playing for about an hour, less an acute nausea and more a feeling of wanting to lie down. I guess I would describe it as a slight headache? And then I realized the last game that really made me feel that way was Singularity. So yeah, my money's on motion sickness due to low FOV.

I'm on PC, by the way.

EDIT: That Steam community post also says the default vertical FOV is 54. I don't mess around with FOV enough to know for sure, but that does seem low.
 

champloo

Member
I played for two hours last night and didn't feel ill, but it got to my wife who was watching as soon as I started the tutorial section.
So we turned on the light in the room, tuned down the brightness setting on the game, I also made her sit farther from the TV. She felt much better then. I guess you just have to immerse less into the game somehow..
 

Mash83

Member
Uh oh. I get motion sickness from certain games, farcry 3, mirrors edge. I'm still going to give this a shot.
 

blamite

Member
I'll find out tonight, I guess!

The only game that's done that to me in the past was the XBLA port of Marathon 2, and that was after hearing about other people getting motion sickness and going into the game expecting c it, so who knows.

I think the solution they came up with for Marathon was to add head bobbing. Does The Witness have that? Would adding it make a difference?
 

kirbster

Member
This happened to me with Half life 2 and a few other games. Widening the fov always fixes it for me.

Whoa, that's weird. The only games that have ever me feel a bit sick are Half-Life 2, and now The Witness. I honestly thought I was just feeling a bit under the weather today, but it seems that it's not a coincidence at all...
 

newsguy

Member
I never get motion sickness in games. I'm on the brink of vomiting after about 4 hours of the witness. I feel like crap
 
Haven't played the witness yet, but I felt pretty rough every time I'd spend any time playing Antichamber. Kinda weary on this if people are having similar experiences.
 

Mik2121

Member
Been playing FPS games since I can remember, never ever got sick even after playing games that many people say makes them sick (Mirror's Edge, Half Life, Far Cry, etc..). After 2 hours playing The Witness, I felt like puking and had to stop the game and lay on my bed.

I really wanna go back to playing it, but the whole nausea thing worries me.

Edit: PS4 here as well.


I can play other FPS games like Destiny or COD for hours on end and don't get sick at all, but I can't exactly point out what's the issue with The Witness. Is the FOV that narrow? I thought it was the whole rotating the camera being stupidly slow and the lack of deadzone.
 

Kitbash

Member
I had to stop playing the PC version after an hour because it was making me ill. The only other time I've had motion sickness was after spending several hours running through clunky Oculus Rift DK1 demos.

It doesn't help that The Witness doesn't use any sort of deadzone on the controller. Lots of unexpected sideways movement caused by a thumb resting ever-so-slightly on the stick.
 
I feel a tiny bit nauseous, but more than anything, I feel like the game is killing my eyes ;__;

Oh PS4 too.

EDIT: I should note I'm only about 45 minutes in.
 

breakfuss

Member
It's always a toss up for me. Most games don't bother me but a few have. Could not even finish Blood Dragon or Unfinished Swan. Those two absolutely wrecked me. Hopefully The Witness isn't one of them when I finally get around to it.
 
I played The Witness for about four or five hours on PS4 last night, and didn't experience any motion sickness. I played mostly with the lights off until around midway, when I started needing to take notes. Seems fine to me.
 

mattp

Member
might as well chime in here and say the gb quicklook gt me feeling pretty bad, too
i avoid most first person games because of this, but i was hoping the witness would be fine
theyre gonna patch in a reticle, so maybe thatll help
 

Karak

Member
Sadly it slammed me bad. Something that hasn't happened in a long damn time. Well it slammed the entire group I played with but they had already been warned and I guess forgot to tell me. Out of the 20 so odd people who have it(in our lan group) 14 can't play it without doing so in short bursts. Thats going to be very interesting to discuss later on. Seems to be far higher percentage than most games I can remember.
 

Mik2121

Member
might as well chime in here and say the gb quicklook gt me feeling pretty bad, too
i avoid most first person games because of this, but i was hoping the witness would be fine
theyre gonna patch in a reticle, so maybe thatll help

Oh... the reticle thing kind of makes sense. Wonder if that's it? Hopefully they fix it because this game is a lot of fun to wander around in.
 

mattp

Member
im honestly going to stick a dot to my tv tomorrow and see if it makes a difference haha

im sure the ps4 patch will take at least a few days. probably more
 

Jarsonot

Member
My wife almost immediately felt sick, didn't affect me at all. I'd never heard about the FOV affecting this - thanks thread!
 

Mik2121

Member
im honestly going to stick a dot to my tv tomorrow and see if it makes a difference haha

im sure the ps4 patch will take at least a few days. probably more

Let me know how it goes. I wouldn't mind doing the same when I get home.
 

tuxfool

Banned
I had problems. I was one of those people in the OT talking about this. I increased the FOV and now I'm feeling much better.
 

Mexen

Member
Wolfenstein and Far Cry 2... Hell even Unfinished Swan did me in. What do they all have in common? Yeah... Gonna pick The Witness soon but I sure hope I can stomach it.
 

NewDust

Member
griddy.gif

I can see this happening sometimes and it wrecks my brain
 

bluexy

Member
I'm not prone to motion sickness at all, but my head did spin a bit while playing The Witness today. At the time I just chalked it up to too much coffee.

Now that I'm thinking about it and still playing the game, I think it's a combination of two things: 1, the FOV, and 2, the animation of going between normal view and puzzle focus that makes the camera pull in towards the puzzle screen.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
That sucks. I hope a slider is patched in for fov.

I got motion sickness one time and that was with The Darkness 2. It was so weird how motion sickness kicked in for that. I've never had motion sickness before that, and I've done a ton of relatively motion sickness inducing things.
 

Weetrick

Member
My wife came home from work and sat down to watch me play. She instantly said it gave her a headache. Oh well. I feel like I need a rest after 2 hours myself, contrary to my previous post here.
 
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