don't games sometimes make you sick?

CyberGhost

i wanna know if it's only with me, sometimes when i play UT for half an hour or so, and when quit playing i feel sick! i feel dizzy and i feel like vomitting after about 15 mins i feel normal again, does anyone else has/had such feelings after the game?

Sarky

Motion sickness. It just happens some people. You could try adjusting video settings, or try a screen filter, but there's a chance you may be stuck with it.

Does it happen when you play lots of FPS games, or just one or two?

Cake Fiend

Some people seem to get dizzy spells from 3D games, best talk to your GP to see if it's unhealthy for you.

CyberGhost

yea it happens with 3D games only, i can play Tekken for hours without problems, but once i start UT, i feel bad, during the game i feel normal, but after....

i think i'll have to stop playing UT

red_ice

this relates to the tech boards.... how?

oeNeo

You care.... why?

CyberGhost

honestly i didn't know where this belongs, so as it has something to do with monitor and GFX-C, i decided to post it here

longword

Experiment with the monitor/video card vertical refresh rate, and the ambient lighting.

Captain Trips

I suppose you are one of the people those warnings in the packages are warning to take a 15minute break every hour of playing. If you really do get nauseous, etc., you might be susceptible to photosensitive epilepsy (fast moving, bright lights/colours).

What about Pokemon? Ever watched it? It did the same thing on the 60Hz sets they used in Japan. Try going for a 100Hz setting on a CRT, or at least a TFT which would not flicker at all.

Mad Mike

You know you are Computer Games Junkie when you keep a bucket beside the screen so you can go ahead and hurl without having to stop playing.

Seriously though I sometimes suffer from the same symptoms. Sometime really badly - If I get a headache from playing CGs it generally won't go away for hours and tablets etc. don't help.

Things I have noticed:
The type of screen is a big factor. Flicker, glare and reflections on the screen are a killer. Using a good flat screen display with appropriate brightness level helps. Using an LCD screen is even better - I never get headaches from using my laptop. I have found those add on anti glare filers to be useless (the cheap ones anyway) they have higher levels of glare than my monitor. It may lso help to enable vertical sync as this should reduce flicker somewhat although it could disimprove your framerate and make the picture more jerky.

The type of game is also an issue - Games of the original Quake generation with smudgy graphics, a limited tonal range and lots of indoor scenes (corridors especially) are the worst. I find that more recent games with higher detail graphics, farther view distance and brighter bolder colours to be much easier to handle.

Another really simple tip - tilt you monitor downwards a bit so that when you look at it the only reflections you see are of the (hopefully dark) table. I was amazed at how much of an improvement this makes.

Winters

I remember nearly a year ago, i found the old origional Doom3D on floppy. Gave it a go and after about 20minutes of playing i felt really dizzy and sick. I had to stop and lie on the ground for like an hour before i felt better.

Watching pixles as big as your fist isint good

Ryo Hazuki

The elevator shaft in the Renton Hotel in Deus Ex...

The flashing light makes me feel strange, might be a mild epilepsy.

CyberGhost

"What about Pokemon? Ever watched it? It did the same thing on the 60Hz sets they used in Japan"

i remember it was on the news, it really hurt kids there, but i haven't watched it

"If I get a headache from playing CGs it generally won't go away for hours and tablets etc. don't help"

very correct, and the pain itself isn't like a normal headache, it's worse, it doesn't hurt much, you just feel dizzy, and very uncomfortable

enable vertical sync? how to? is that in GFX card options? cause i couldn't find it

i have Dell 1504 15" Ultrasharp display 75Hz max, pretty nice monitor i must say, i'll try to play with monitor's brightness as you suggested guys

well thanks for the tips guys! i try to play with monitor and vid card, hopefully i'll come to something, if not bye bye UT:(

Captain Trips

Usually it's an option in games, but the best way is to select in the video card advanced options in Display Options. It's under the D3D settings or something, but it's definitely there. Weird that there were so many responses; I wouldn't have expected more than 1% of the *general* population to have such complaints.

Mad Mike

Step by step instructions fo setting vertical sync (vsync) on my radeon. Nvidia cards are probably similar:

Right click on blank desktop
Select properties on menu that comes up
choose the settings tab
choose advanced
select Direct3D Tab
change "wait for vertical sync" to always on
Hit apply
Select OpenGL Tab
change "wait for vertical sync" to always on
hit apply
keep hitting OK till you get back to the desktop

Apologies if I amtelling you stuff you already know.

As far as I know the problem with vertical refresh is that if a game updates the screen in its graphics memory at a different rate than the monitor refreshes its display (85 Hz in you case) the two refresh rates will interfere with each other (eg you end up refreshing the display when only half a screen is drawn and you can end up with a really low frequency flicker (the difference between the two frequencies I believe). If you set vertical sync then it will only update the screen at 85Hz so this problem goes away. A problem arises however if you computer and graphics card isn't fast enough to update the screen at 85Hz - Having Vsync on means that it can only update the screen 85 times a second. If you miss an update you have to wait for the next one. This means you are locked to integer divisors of 85Hz eg 42.5Hz, 28.3Hz, 21.25Hz, 17Hz. You could pretty quickly find yourself getting into the jerkovision region.

SantaHoe

You could try altering the in-game field of view for UT.
A higher FOV may help... or not, something to try anyway.
While playing a match - bring up the console by pressing tab, then enter FOV 110, that'll raise the field of view above the default 90 degrees... feels like you've zoomed out... again, it might help - might not.
Maybe you're sitting too close to the monitor aswell?

CyberGhost

thanks for the advices guys i'll try em, hope they work, btw lowering the brightness helped a little