Sunday 2 August 2009

Simulation Sickness and Game Design

I've read an article about so-called "similation sickness" [link].
Having suffered the symptoms myself in the past, I see this as a design obstacle to overcome. I've learned the small-yet-significant elements that may trigger simulation sickness in a matter of seconds and other that might ease the symptoms.
The common reason given for simulation sickness is fooling the brain into thinking that the motion on the screen are in fact real. This is interpreted by the brain as hallucination, usually caused by poisoning. Furthermore, normally the brain corrects the bobing caused by moving arround and corrects vision when moving head while focusing on a single object, in a videogame it's not the case. Human brain sees tools as extension of the human body. If one body part (player character) does not behave as it should in real life then the simulation sickness is triggered. If one body part confuses the other (inner ear's labyrinth) then the effect is also present.
In order to continue the project, I will have to work arround this problem.
I read somewhere that human brain is only capable of processing 24 frames per second, while modern games use 60 frames per second.
It turns out that, according to one expert I've met at Philips Innovation Center, higher frames per seconds is actually better, because the side of your eyes see less frames per second. Lower rate equals unnatural delays in the animation and may contribute to motion sickness.

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