Hello

I released my tiny indie game, and some people complain that they have motion sickness.

I am not sure why this happens.

I received some of this feedbacks during beta testing sessions and disabled damping (camera moved a bit from player when motion is started)

I thought that issue was sorted. But, apparently it was not.

I tried to investigate this myself, and I started to think that the issue can be related to POV value.

I have a 3rd person camera, POV is 60. Entire game is indoors. Looks like increasing POV can help for motion sickness. However if I do it too much I have a distorted perspective. Anyway I am not sure if this is really the reason.

I would be grateful for any thought about this.

This is gameplay video from a random youtuber:

I heard a USC game professor say that motion sickness can be reduced by moving the pivot point forward or back (not sure which). When a player rotates the character, does the camera pivot behind the lens? How far back? Maybe the idea had to do with simulating rotating one's head. The pivot for a head rotation is behind the eyes.

Another thought: when rotating the view, is the motion at a constant speed, does it jump from 0 to X speed instantly, and slam to 0? Or is there acceleration and deceleration in the camera's rotation?

From that one video, the camera change in direction seems to be instantaneous which seems a little jarring. You may want to introduce some for of acceleration + deceleration to the camera as mentioned above.

Tom Sloper said:

Another thought: when rotating the view, is the motion at a constant speed, does it jump from 0 to X speed instantly, and slam to 0? Or is there acceleration and deceleration in the camera's rotation?

cgrant said:

From that one video, the camera change in direction seems to be instantaneous which seems a little jarring. You may want to introduce some for of acceleration + deceleration to the camera as mentioned above.

I had that effect on the beginning but then removed it because though that it could be a reason of the issue. The worst part here that it is tricky to experiment here, you never 100% sure if you are doing better or worse)

Tom Sloper said:
When a player rotates the character, does the camera pivot behind the lens? How far back? Maybe the idea had to do with simulating rotating one's head. The pivot for a head rotation is behind the eyes.

The pivot point is slightly behind the head. Thank you for this idea: I will try to move it behind the eyes, so a slightly “to the front” comparing to what I have now

How does camera control actually work in this game - is it a free-look where the user controls the camera direction, and then the character rotates to face the camera direction? Or one where the camera rotates to face the direction the character is moving in?

Guys, it is definetely the FOV of 60 degrees. It is a widely zoomed view providing big sickness when in aiming.

swiftcoder said:

How does camera control actually work in this game - is it a free-look where the user controls the camera direction, and then the character rotates to face the camera direction? Or one where the camera rotates to face the direction the character is moving in?

The first one

JohnnyCode said:

Guys, it is definetely the FOV of 60 degrees. It is a widely zoomed view providing big sickness when in aiming.

Which FOV value is better to use? I aware that recommended value is 90, but for some reason it looks just not right in my case.

These are screens with 3 different values (60-90).

When I show screen to the random people thay are saying that 60 looks the best.

I even tried (just for myself) 45 and this looks even better (subjectively).

harentius said:
I aware that recommended value is 90, but for some reason it looks just not right in my case.

90º is really, really wide. Using a pretty standard 27" monitor, you'd have to have your eyes 12" from the screen for that to look correct. At a more normal 30" away from the screen, you are right about at 45º field of view.

There are lots of online FOV calculators aimed at simulation folks, who want to setup a precise match between the real and virtual worlds. This is also why most games offer an FOV slider in the game's settings: ideal FOV varies with monitor size and the distance you sit from the monitor, so it needs to be adjustable for maximum comfort.