Valve: If VR makes you sick, it’s the developer’s fault

A common thought when using virtual reality (VR) headsets is brought up, is the fear nausea and with tons of headsets on the horizon, Valve's Chet Faliszek thought to bring light to issue of nausea and VR.

"The idea that VR must get you sick is [bullshit]," said Faliszek speaking at EGX. "We have people come in who don't want to do demos. In a party of ten people there will be someone who says, 'I'm gonna be sick, I'm gonna be sick, I can't do this.'

"That expectation is based on either what they've seen before or what they've heard."

According to Faliszek it's not the VR headsets that are to blame for the apparent nausea, but the developers. In-game design choices and how characters are controlled contribute to the nausea.

"As consumers and people in the community, hold developers to it," Faliszek continued. "They shouldn't be making you sick. It's no longer the hardware's fault any more. It's the developers making choices that are making you sick. Tell them that you don't want that."

This is one of the reasons why the HTC/Valve Vive VR, PlayStation VR and Oculus all use hand tracked controls for their headsets. It reduces the likelihood of users experiencing nausea – which means the remaining chances for nausea are related to in-game designs. Of course, the hand tracking devices for the headsets will probably be sold separately, but that's for another day.

 [Games Industry]