Oculus Rift motion sickness concerns

The Oculus Rift virtual reality gaming headset may present First-Person-Shooter (FPS) designers with motion sickness issues, unless the technology is changed, according to developer on the game Elite Dangerous.

Speaking to TrustedReviews, Elite Dangerous Designer Tom Kewell said that unless FPS players will continue struggling to adjust to the experience of playing with the headset is the Oculus Rift remains at its current levels as a dev-kit.

“Unless the technology for Oculus changes, anyone developing a first person shooter game for the Oculus Rift is going to have to have a bit of a think about how they’re going to solve the [motion sickness] issue,” Kewell said to TrustedReviews. “If you’re playing the game where the fiction is that you’re static in a cockpit, you’ve got a much easier task in that regard. It just doesn’t seem to affect people as much.”

“There’s an experience where if you’re sat down with a controller, and that’s the context of the game, it makes sense to your inner eye. The experience you’re getting from your eyes isn’t too dissimilar to the experience that you’re expecting via the context of the game.”

Elite Dangerous is a sci-fi open-world game in which players pilot a space fighter in zero-gravity dogfights. The Oculus Rift gives players the impression they're sitting in the ship's cockpit. For this reason, Kewell said that some player input could induce vertigo.

“To be honest, if you’re pulling a rather stomach churning manoeuvre in a ship, then a little bit of motion sickness from that almost enhances the experience," Kewell told TrustedReviews. "Not entirely sure we want people throwing up on the cockpit or anything though.”