Effects of graphics on brain

I got a weird one... or maybe not.

I've noticed recently that when I play Doom I/II for more than a few minutes, I feel somewhat ill. I don't when I play Doom 3. I'm wondering if the graphics of Doom I/II can be having an effect on me. I have a bright 28" screen. Doom 3 is much darker (annoyingly so, sometimes). I also wonder whether it's not just brightness, but maybe the fact that Doom 3 is much less pixelated in appearance. Could graphics have an effect on a player's brain a la Snow Crash?

Or have I been smoking too much fuckin' weed? Which would be something, because I don't. :-P

Sometimes the fast motion and fake 3d perspective give me a headache. But this usually happens when I've been staring at a computer screen for too long anyway.

Doom is also a lot faster paced than Doom 3; especially with always run on. So you might have motion sickness.

Both possible. Glad it's not just me! LOL!

You know, Doom is the earliest FPS I can play without feeling motion sickness. Wolfenstein makes me ill.

I suspect it's just the relentless bobbing motion that makes most people sick, not the supposed "realism" or quick pace of the game.

I sometimes get nauseous while watching demos, but never while playing the game myself. I used to get the same feeling while watching other people play Blood and Duke3D back when my friends actually played those games...

Doom doesn't do it to me, but Wolf3D certainly does -- only at low framerates, though (e.g. demos, eeeck).

Story time!

I once convinced an old friend of mine back when I was in middle school to play a deathmatch game with me in doom (plutonia to be exact.) It was a couple of computers in separate rooms and Doom 95.

Anyway we got the thing going and only a few minutes in, I noticed that his marine was no longer moving. I went into the other room and there I found him, his face in a puddle of his own vomit on the keyboard. I actually had to shake him on the shoulder a bit since he wasn't moving at all.

Guess I should've warned him. I had forgotten that he sometimes would get motion sickness even from the more modern games he played. Its safe to say he probably won't touch doom again.

Technician said:

You know, Doom is the earliest FPS I can play without feeling motion sickness. Wolfenstein makes me ill.

I agree with this too the point of making me ill only when I play it for more than an hour. The bright colors start giving me a headache then.

I never had this problem recently or before. I don't know if I got used to it, or if it's that I play on full resolution on Skulltag (Software Rendered Mode) which clears up somewhat the graphics, but I always play pixelated games like Flight Simulator 5.x and no illness.

lupinx-Kassman said:

Anyway we got the thing going and only a few minutes in, I noticed that his marine was no longer moving. I went into the other room and there I found him, his face in a puddle of his own vomit on the keyboard. I actually had to shake him on the shoulder a bit since he wasn't moving at all.

That's a bit disturbing. Doesn't he have epilepsy for passing out like that?

I get this kind of sickness when I play Doom 3 mulitplayer for even just a short time. There's something about it that just makes me feel completely *blergh!*

Same goes for Quake 4 multiplayer (but that game was sh*t in every possible respect) and I get it for the Quake 3 multiplayer too, but only after I've been playing it for a very long time.


I have never gotten sick so far playing Unreal Tournament 3 multiplayer. I haven't played anything else in multiplayer, but it is these games that tend to make me sick.

Doom does it, but only if I've been at my computer for, like, 3 to 4 hours at a time, so it's also a combination of not eating and drinking that makes me nauseous I think! :P

Oh god responded to wrong thread, apologizin'

I don't get sick when i play Doom, but after 3 hours or so, I get one of those horrible eyeball headaches, and have to stop for a while.

Well, I for one don't have any form of motion sickness during any of the games described thus far.

If anything made me feel like hurling chunks, it was Turok Evolution. What a horrible game.

I've never had a problem with motion sickness, Doom or otherwise. It never really occurred to me until I read the thread.

If Doom's graphics give you headaches it may be a good idea to investigate which aspect is responsible.

So, what screen resolution do you use?
Software or hardware rendering engine?
Limited to 35 fps, vertical refresh rate or unlimited?
If hardware rendering, which texture filtering options?

So if you can narrow it down to one of these points, maybe you get something more comfortable by changing settings or using a source port allowing other settings than you use.


I can say that I definitely can't play with Chocolate Doom because the low resolution, 35 Hz image feels extremely uncomfortable to me. It's not that I immediately feel it but I can't do this more than a few minutes.

So, what screen resolution do you use?
...

Also: fullscreen or windowed mode? Sometimes I play in window and it feels totally different.

Although I have no problems, my settings are:

640x480
Hardware Renderer
35 fps
No texture filtering
Full screen

This is fascinating to me. I never imagined people got motion sickness from computer games. I never even get headaches, unless I'm so focused on a game that I, heh, don't bother eating...

A TWENTY EIGHT inches TV? Maybe if you play the game from 100 feet away, it will look better. I mean, Chocolate on a 13 or 14 inches monitor already looks weird...

The only physical symptoms I've experienced as a result of spending too long in front of my screen are short-term blepharospasms. Could never imagine experiencing motion sickness and the like.

your monitor is too big.

This has never happened to me, but I know someone who says his eyes feel weird every time he plays a 2.5D game, but whenever he plays a full 3D game it's fine. Maybe it's the contrast between 2D sprites and 3D environment?

It happens to me when I play Wolfenstein 3D, and sometimes Duke Nukem 3D but not Doom.

While I certainly don't feel even the least bit queasy when playing computer games, my brother has the unimaginably irritating tendency to swerve out of the way of oncoming projectiles, or lean far back in his chair when back-peddling from an enemy. I have to make sure I clear the area of valuables before he sits down. It's a real safety hazard!

I usually don't have this problem. However, I noticed that I felt somewhat dizzy when moving around quickly in 40oz's industrial episode and sometimes in Fallout 3. This must be related to a lack of contrast in conjunction with fast movement/looking speed. Or just OD'd on brownness.

I don't see how the bad perspective correction could even have an impact unless you're freelooking.

If you're suffering from motion sickness, maybe you should visit a doctor and get some medicine for that.