Comments on: When playing Guitar Hero, my eyes do wonky things.

Question: When playing Guitar Hero, my eyes do wonky things.

c:\awesome — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:10:36 -0800

When playing Guitar Hero, my eyes do wonky things.

When playing Guitar Gyro (or watching someone play) on a large screen TV, my eyes become wonky after focusing somewhere other than the screen. It appears as if other objects are "growing" or "breathing" after I draw my attention away from the television.

Does anyone else experience this? What is this optical illusion? I feel like I'm on heavy psychedelic drugs.

By: cabingirl

cabingirl — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:13:06 -0800

I don't know what it's called but I see it too. So does everyone else who has ever been over my house and played...they've all commented on it.

By: Diskeater

Diskeater — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:14:27 -0800

Yup, this has happened to me as well. This Wiki link offers an explanation.

Oddly, this does not happen to me after playing Rock Band.

By: Diskeater

Diskeater — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:29:05 -0800

Oh and I'm not sure what Guitar Gyro is but it sounds sexy/tasty.

By: Doctor Suarez

Doctor Suarez — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:31:54 -0800

I get that too from a 56-inch DLP screen. You're not going crazy and/or dying.

By: sanka

sanka — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:47:24 -0800

It reminds me of driving on an interstate for a long time. I think they call it velocitization. You get so used to something coming at you at a certain speed that it begins to seem normal, so you up your speed a bit. Next thing you know you look at your speedometer and you're going 90 without even knowing it.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 21:49:33 -0800

I imagine it's a similar effect to this.

You've been staring intently at an illuminated screen with a series of colored disks that are moving steadily away from you. When you pull your eyes away from the screen you get that strange effect because the sensors that detect that type of movement are fatigued from overuse.

By: robcorr

robcorr — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 04:12:52 -0800

Yeah, it happens to me, too. And I've always enjoyed these simple toys, which is basically the same thing.

By: gregvr

gregvr — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:21:24 -0800

Another example here: echalk.co.uk

By: Gortuk

Gortuk — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 05:43:50 -0800

I get this when I play Guitar Hero, but not when I play Rock Band - I think it's because the fret indicators in Rock Band are slightly translucent so there's always some kind of consistent image behind the moving parts.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:34:19 -0800

Diskeater got it-- just an ordinary motion aftereffect. It happens to me when watching scrolling movie credits.

By: jeffmik

jeffmik — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 08:04:10 -0800

I only have it for Wii - but I'm fairly certain that the "breathing" effect that you see in the menus is a feature to prevent screen burn-in.

By: phaded

phaded — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:26:16 -0800

Yep, I get this too.

By: rlef98

rlef98 — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 21:58:25 -0800

Waterfall effect, definitely

By: owtytrof

owtytrof — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 08:49:00 -0800

I've experienced this, and also get the same effect when riding the train in the seats that face backwards relative to the direction the train is traveling. When the train stops, my eyes will still try to see the scenery outside moving. That's disconcerting, whereas the Guitar Hero effect is kind of fun.