About
When i first time got a full fledged VR headset (Oculus Quest 2) i thought i should be ok enough to drive and flying on VR since i've been using HMD - FPV goggles for 10 years flying my drones, long range in planes cockpit and also inside the cockpit of land based models like buggies, trucks and other on/off-roaders. Since both FPV and VR headset have similar head tracking function and visual technology i thought nothing could go wrong. The differences between them is VR headset goggles have bigger almost no boundary field of view (FOV) while FPV headset have much narrower FOV windows. So VR headset with its bigger field of view give more immersive viewingexperience almost feeling you're standing in a different world. I've been doing lots of sports activities in VR having no issues with motion sickness, nausea or dizziness since most of my activities involve full body movement like playing table tennis, stationary shootings, fishing, golf and some puzzle games which involve lots of hand movement. All of these VR activities has less walking movement moving from one place to another, only staying at one spot. It was not until i've decided to get into first person shooter (lots of forward movement), cockpit flight or driving simulator in VR i got hit by deep motion sickness; nauseating and dizziness really bad. I was puzzled why i got such VR sickness when other VR games with lots of movement such as sports i was fine with it. Plus since in real world i've been using FPV headset to fly my drones, planes and driving my car and trucks at high speed i never got nauseated nor dizzy at all. It took me almost weeks but definitely less than one month for me to get adapted to VR driving and flying, the nauseating and dizziness started to disappear. It takes time for my brain to adapt and learn. Throughout my findings now i know why the reason i ended up such VR motion sickness which causes many first time VR user to ditch and abandoned their attempt to experience and enjoy VR technology. Below are my findings and solution to such issues.
What causes motion sickness in VR
Feeling nausea and dizziness on VR happens when the brain does not get the correct information on how the body interact with the environment. For example racing and flying in VR especially when the body stay seated; the VR user's eyes see the environment around him/her move rapidly but the body does not feel the actual movement at all. The mental disconnection logic between visual movement and stationary body causes the brain to confuse why the body doesn't not sense any movement at all when the visual confirms it. Your brain started confused then began to make you feel dizzy and nauseating especially in your gut. Sea sick have the same effect too when the brain confuse the up and down motion of the wave because it never experience it for the first time. Unlike in real world where you seated in a moving car or plane the physical body at least knows its is moving while seated because it feels the gravitational force, forward momentum, vibration and inertial speed on moving vehicle. So too when you started to walk with your own feet down the path....however in VR it doesn't happen.
That's is why when VR activity involve full body movement such as sport activity like bowling, table tennis, golf or anything that uses full body movement the VR user seldom or never experience nausea and dizziness because the brain acknowledge that the visual movement is synchronized with physical body movement...the logic is correct. If the body remain stationary like sitting idle in a car or plane that doesn't not move (on your chair) but the environment surround it moving as viewed from your eyes then your brain will get confused due to missing stimulation from other parts of the body such as G-force, vibration and momentum...so you get motion sickness!
In VR game/simulator there are two scenario you'll get nausea and dizzy:
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Walk based activity:
This includes games like first person shooter and anything that involves moving in all direction without engaging your real feet movement. This is why some VR game developer gave VR user/player the option to use 'point and jump' or 'warp' to new location rather than 'virtually run' using a joystick so that the lower torso/legs doesn't confuse the brain having been disconnected from visual movement and your own idle legs. -
Flight and driving simulator:
These are the most deepest nauseating and dizzy VR activity for any first time user. My self was mentally hurt badly by fast moving surrounding visual but torso remains idle on the seat. The brain feel disconnected between visual and the action of idles body. That's why some VR simulator developer offer narrow visual cockpit windows to minimized the amount of movement outside the cockpit to mitigated those nauseating and dizziness.
Now the only solution to solve this problem is to train the our brain on how VR works as it is. Its like train our self how to balance and ride a bicycle as i will discuss later below.
Solution how to adapt & remove motion sickness in VR
So we need to train our brain how to adapt in VR environment that involve having our body remain stationary (less movement) or seated especially in driving and flight simulator where the surrounding moves rapidly yet our physical body remain idle on one spot, this method also applies same for first person shooter with forward movement. I'm only going to discuss mostly for VR that involve sitting in the driver's cockpit or flight based vehicle. So below are list of solution to adapt:
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Narrow field of view and limit your head movement side to side
When you're driving or flying inside the cockpit/seat for the first time make sure you always look straight forward and imagine you're looking in a narrow point of view (POV). Don't move your head or look around to your side too much. The environment movement outside the vehicle move faster if you viewed on your left and right but slower if you looked directly in front. Fast movement causes motion sickness. -
Focus one part of the visible object in front
When driving 'partially' focus your concentration to one particular object in front of your windscreen or dashboard to limit movement of your eyes and head. It can be the rear mirror, windshield wiper, your top part of the steering wheels or any object in front within visual driving view. This helps to reduce 'visual complexity' so your brain can concentrate on one particular item. -
Drive slowly especially when turning
For your first run drive very slowly especially during turns and cornering to avoid over stimulating your eyes and brain with fast visual information. If you feel comfortable gradually increase the speed/throttle until you feel its enough or started to feel nauseating or dizzy. You can peek to left and right a bit if you feel comfortable with your current driving/flying speed. -
Choose vehicle with narrow window view
Vehicle with narrow window helps to visually reduce the amount of visibility of moving object outside the windows. This will help to less overwhelm our brain when it started to learn to VR. For example driving inside LAMBORGHINI HURACAN will have less VR motion sickness due to having narrow windows than open roof top MAZDA MIATA MX-5 due to high visibility viewing outside. -
Relax after each VR session before continue
For first time VR user the new visual stimulation sometimes just too much for the brain too handle. But that doesn't mean our average human brain can't handle it, it just need time to adapt and learn slowly bits by bits. For the first time make sure to take a break and relax after 5 or 15 minutes of VR session if you feel nauseating or dizzy. Then continue if you feel confortable and ready to go. Gradually increase your VR time at various interval. You'll have to repeat the cycle but don't force yourself. Different people have different amount of mental capability to learn VR. So relax and enjoy VR when you feel the time right. Most importantly make sure your brain have enough VR exposure time so it can learn how VR environment works.
If you keep on practice the above method probably you'll able to adapt it in less than a month if you train daily. For me it takes around two weeks with about 2 hours of daily exposure to be able to adapt and living with VR. Now after months have past using my VR headset is like wearing pants everyday. Can't live without it, totally satisfying and surreal experience.
*Note: It is advice not to take any over the counter medication to mitigate VR sickness because such sickness is not associated with mental injury. It is more related to your brain not familiar with such new VR environment so it needs to learn. When you take such medication or pills to solve VR sickness you'll ended up 'drugging' yourself and inhibit the ability for your brain to learn naturally. That's why some new comer never able to cope long term use of VR due to forcing their brain to adapt than naturally learn to adapt. You don't see people takes medication or pills to learn how to ride bicycle or learning new languages and etc. Unfortunately modern people sought for modern shortcuts which is sad.
So there you go, the above are the simple and 100% workable solution based on my experience overcome my motion sickness; nausea and dizziness in VR. You'll just need to learn slowly, teach your brain to adapt everyday bits by bits until you get used to it. Its like learning how to ride a bicycle again. Once you'll get over it your Virtual Reality experience will be most exciting and eye opening experience! You'll never get back to view gaming or simulator to flat monitor screen again because in VR you're living in alternate world than just viewing from a small window frame.
Videos (My experience on VR)
Summary
Trying out VR is the same analogy like learning how to ride a bicycle. If you give up learning you'll missed the big part of enjoying cycling and travelling. If you manage to ride a bicycle you'll able to travel to many new places and enjoy amazing experience that will not only give joy but also great health benefit. The Virtual Reality technology offer similar experience too but unfortunately the adaption from some new user fell short because everyone fall into deep VR motion sickness and never get back to it thinking its a permanent sickness that is impossible to over come. In simulator racing and flight community almost 70% of users never able to experience nor able to over come VR motion sickness due to lack of understanding the mechanism how to cope and adapt to such technology. Like wise said if you don't learn to adapt you never able to experience new world and ended stuck in his/her own caves.
I'm glad i manage to be patience, took my time to learn and adapt VR, now my motion sickness has gone forever. I'm able to drive, race, fly and even explore places in alternate reality world. Majority of my VR experience are mostly behind steering wheels; racing on real world track, experiencing different types of iconic cars, get to feel the engine/road vibration, bumps and the handling of every vehicles, experience how its like to be a truck driver touring all corners of European continents and also flying. Wow! throughout the year i've been living under the rocks playing games and simulator on flat screen TV thinking it was the best when i didn't realized VR technology was even at celestial level putting you right into a dream world where you can touch, feel and even interact with your digital physical body. I also watch Youtube and movies in VR too, lol! One thing for sure i never every going back to looking at flat or curve screen if i get into game or sims. The only flat screen i'm looking daily was my working notebook and smartphone, lol! VR all the way for me!! yeah!