VR & Motion Sickness

Being a cheapskate and broke I bought a used Oculus DK1 and I got it today, and got it running and I tried Project Cars 2 with the VR but no motion because that is not going yet as I am still waiting on the farking Royal Mail to deliver two hall sensor to the other side of the earth to me in Australia.
And I thought that Australia Post was the worse postal service on earth.

Anyhow the resolution was horrible as my monitor runs at 1920 X 1280 but the VR worked and I was feeling motion sick within minutes, probably less.
I thought that driving games and my motion sickness were not going to be a problem as I am able to drive no problemo for hours using a monitor, but I used to get sick with FPS games.
I can't even imagine how much better or more likely worse it will be with motion added to the mix.
I also have an Oculus Rift DK2 coming so the slightly better graphics might help but I doubt it.

Now I have read on here how some people say that you can train your brain for the motion and VR, but I guess you'd need half a brain to start with so I might be out of luck there too
So what do the experts say on the subject.

as far as i know the sickness comes from the difference betwin your actual real movement vs the movement you see on your vr headset... so...
1. use your sdk1 just as a monitor (no head tracking) (which kills your vr experience but no motion sickness)

2. maybe you could speed up some how your headset movement, by:
- calibrating it some how
- use a faster pc to see if it gets any better
- use less detail in graphics and resolution so randering your head movement to the screen of sdk becomes faster
- all of the above

* just as a prove of concept... try a cheapo smartphone vr game... (one that runs fast in your phone) if no motion sickness... it is not you is something in your hardware.

* i think that there are some people how always experience motion sickness no matter what... but... you... a grate skeater... i dont think so.

I will see how the DK2 with the slightly higher resolution goes.
I tried setting the resolution back the the DK1's resolution of 1280 x 1024 and that did not make much difference plus I was already feeling sick so I had to stop.
My PC is up to the job and I only recently upgraded it to an AMD Ryzen5 2600 Radeon RX 580 GPU 8MB and I run all games at high or ultra settings
VR Looked very immersive but I already had a perception of how the game runs on a monitor and that may be a factor as well.
I think Noorbeast said that you have to train your brain for sim VR ??
Also trying to do everything on a shoestring budget doesn't work so well in this case but I'm not willing or able to blow $1K on a current VR Headset.
For less money I can just buy another 2 x 32" monitors and have a triple screen display.
What to do you do

Hey, I'm newish to VR myself and only got started with CV1 so not much experience with prior units. I'm pretty sure there were some improvements made for head movement and motion sickness etc with newer models. From my experience, everyone handles VR differently, but you can certainly get better at it.

You want high frames vs eye candy, preferably above 90 frames for the smoothest experience, and keep image as sharp/clear as possible. I would also recommend trying different tittles if possible and when in game try to focus on apexes, breaking points etc rather than constantly scanning with your eyes. Be in control, don't be a passenger, there are roller coasters sims for that)

In general try different VR games to get your brain adjusted to being in that environment. Also if you start getting sick, cut the session, take 5-15min brake, rather then muscling through!

I think the motion will help to some degree as you will get some sensation of g force but you are going to have to take it slow. Like the others said you need a strong vr GPU to deliver 90fps

I think I have enough GPU power but its the resolution of the early Oculus VR's that is more at fault, see the comparison

Oculus Rift DK1 - Resolution 640 x 800 per eye Refresh Rate 60Hz
Oculus Rift DK2 - 960 x 1080 per eye Refresh Rate 75 Hz, 72 Hz, 60 Hz
CV1 -Resolution 1080 x 1200 per eye Refresh rate 90 Hz

I don't play Pcars but in Assetto Corsa there is a setting that lets you lock the onboard camera to the Car or the Horizon,

If there is a similar setting in Pcars then you could try setting it to Horizon ,,it worked wonders for the sickness when i first got VR.

I have Assetto Corsa but I don't think much of it's dynamics or I have a setting wrong but when you approach a corner and come of the throttle it brakes by itself almost and not like a real car that will free wheel until you brake minus a bit of engine braking.
The same scenario in Project Cars 2 I just us the Logitech profile for that game as I do for AC and it drives as it should and I can actually push it.
Like I said maybe I have something not set right but I am still using a Logitech profile for that particular game.
Most people rave about AC but it doesn't ring my bell yet.
I still have a lot to learn about car racing games in general.

I too feel that project cars 2 delivers great driving as when I watch the TV onboard cameras in race cars I see a lot of counter steering going on and pc2 seems to allow me to do that more than AC. Could be a wheel issue though.

@Deane Yes but find the onboard camera settings in Pcars and set it to Horizon ,,,That should help with your motion sickness.

While I've never owned the DK1, I did spend a year with the DK2, and for what it was I loved it for sim racing with a wheel/pedals/shifter cockpit & also gamepad VR games.
Once I got my CV1 though, the DK2 went up for sale, as there was no comparison between the two.
There's just no going back once using the more advanced headset, better motion sensors, and higher software compatibility.
Not to mention the real game changer...motion controllers.

By seeking out deals, a good sale, and even second hand, I've managed to accumulate the Rift, Vive and Samsung Odyssey, and regularly swap between all of them for various gaming scenarios.

I'd rate the Rift & Odyssey as the go to headsets for sim racing, and gaming in general.
The Vive is OK, has great tracking, but the SDE looks only slightly better than that of the DK2.

If I were to give one up, it would definitely be the Vive.

Always keep an eye out for a nice, barely used, inexpensive VR headset...since some people can't handle motion sickness or (Gasp! Become bored with VR ) they are out there.

When available, locking the view to the horizon is always the key to feeling comfortable in VR.
It's just the natural motion your head makes while driving a real car.
With that, your attention is directed to the outside environment, not (or it shouldn't be) focused on your cockpit.

The caveat with VR is that once you become comfortable with it and it all clicks, it becomes very difficult to go back to pancake (2D flat screen) gaming...especially cockpit-style games.
Motion Controller games are a whole other animal, and are awesome in their own right as well!

I do have a used Rift DK2 coming as that was cheap and so am I.
Until I can confirm one way or another about the motion sickness issue then there is no way that I am willing to blow a bundle of cash on a better VR headset
Here in Oz a new Rift or Vive is close to $1k and the windows mixed reality new are atill around the $500 mark which is still a lot of money for me .

I will try that with the next VR Headset that I have coming, a Rift DK2.
Having a strict budget to work with makes picking and choosing a lot harder.

What about the used market?
I picked my Rift's & Vive's up for roughly half price, so about $300 CAD each.
The Samsung Odyssey was new, but during a $100 off sale from Microsoft for $549 CAD.

I'm not up on your current market in OZ, but wouldn't the used DK1 + DK2 combined be roughly the same cost of a single used CV1?

VR has been a fairly progressive curve tech-wise, so the CV1 is quite a massive leap in quality & abilities above the other two.
Plus the software compatibility is up to date and works flawlessly.

I'm curious, how is the DK2 performing in Oculus Home these days?
I sold mine well over a year ago, and they were slowly phasing out support.
Does it still work with both the official release version and the beta of Oculus Home?

I went for the DK1 as I just wanted to see if I could handle VR and if it made me sick or not.
I did have a Lenovo Explorer VR ordered on Ebay, but that ended as scam and I got my money back.
So I bought the DK1 for AUD$100 which is roughly equal to $70USD
I then spotted the DK2 for AUD$150 which I ddon't get until this week sometime.

The new market prices for say a Windows Mixed Reality set are still retailing for $799 which is influencing the used market naturally.
A new Oculus Rift CV1 are asking around the $800 or so mark
HTC Vive are about the $900 mark and Pro version well over $1K
The Samsung HMD are also well over the $1K mark.
Buy from O/S you say !
Well that was a viable option once, but not any more thanks to the AUD$ exchange rate being so crap and then our F**#### government made the resellers overseas collect 10% GST tax
and the crazy postage costs that the yanks ask is ridiculous, sometimes the postage is more than the product.

So all I can do is save my pennies and watch the classifieds for a used set for a good price if I want to pursue VR, but that will depend on how the resolution of the DK2 behaves with my motion sickness.

Note that the DK1 only tracks rotations. It tries to simulate positional tracking so that (for example) if you tilt your head to the right it also moves the camera a bit to the right, but it's using a built-in head and neck model to do that so it may not be aligned with your actual head movements. Lateral head movements are not tracked at all.

The DK2 adds actual position tracking, which makes a big difference. It might not stop the motion sickness entirely but I suspect it will help. The DK2 also has a much better display both in terms of resolution and persistence (much less blurring).

That said, even with perfect tracking some motions can still lead to motion sickness in VR. I've spent up to 10 hours playing Minecraft (with keyboard and mouse) in a DK2 without any issue, but a few minutes of controller-stick turning in Windlands could have me feeling nauseous. I could likewise drive for hours in a DK2 but putting the car in reverse could make my stomach lurch; adding a G-seat with motion cues for surge movements [mostly] eliminated that.

Agreed!
Also, once I started using a motion platform, the added movement also made everything in VR feel far more natural.
Even while reversing.

Th CV1 takes what you said the differences are between the DK1 & DK2 to the next level.
VR just gets better with every gen, and that's a GOOD thing!

Everything gets better when you pour more money in to it, but first you need the $$$'s and there is where I am lacking.
I do all of this on a shoestring budget called a pension

Well I must say that you did one heck of a job on your motion platform, pension or not.
You could easily make some extra $ with those skills!
Have you ever taken a look at the possible demands for motion rigs in Oz that you could fill?