Meta Quest 3 for the fun-seeking nauseated person

June 11, 2024 8:54 PM

I got a Meta Quest 3. Please recommend fun things I can do where I move through the virtual world as I do in reality. Moving through the virtual world differently is giving me terrible motion sickness and I don't want to just basically watch tv through it (i.e. I want to DO something). I have access to squash courts (i.e. a large space with nothing to trip over or bump into). Please recommend cool things.
posted by If only I had a penguin... to Technology (10 answers total)

This doesn't speak directly to your issues of nausea but I asked a question about this recently and got some interesting answers.

At least for the fitness classes you don't move around much, but I'm not sure if that's what your looking for. I'll be watching these answers!
posted by kinsey at 3:05 AM on June 12, 2024

Response by poster: At least for the fitness classes you don't move around much, but I'm not sure if that's what your looking for. I'll be watching these answers!

I tried supernatural briefly last night and it worked well for me. Basically the "view" moves when I move, which is what I'm looking for. Also Win Reality Baseball, which I got for my son, works well. What didn't work well which I really thought I would like is the ISS game where you can float around the ISS. You move around the ISS using the controller joystick, but in reality I'm just sitting on the couch (or before that standing in a room) and that made me very very nauseated.

So yeah, moving or not moving is fine so long as the within-world movement is essentially consistent with the reality movement.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 4:28 AM on June 12, 2024

You want games listed as the green "comfort level."

I Expect You To Die is supposed to be good, though I haven't played it.
posted by BungaDunga at 6:26 AM on June 12, 2024

Response by poster: You want games listed as the green "comfort level."

THanks. Though looking at this those ratings they seem to mean no player movement or camera motion. I'm fine with both as long as the player and the camera move together-ish.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 6:38 AM on June 12, 2024

General info about VR movement and nausea- sorry if you already know this, but I found it very helpful when I started using VR. Most VR sickness happens when there is a mismatch between your eyes detecting movement (lies your headset is telling you) and your inner ear/vestibular system detecting movement (your body can tell you are not actually moving). There are a couple of different common ways to get around in VR, one is called smooth locomotion or gliding, where you use a thumbstick or button to control movement, and the world kind of flows past you as though you are walking. Some people find this one great. It gives me terrible motion sickness. Another major one teleportation. You aim somewhere and instantly appear there. This one works great for me- there is no sensation of movement, you're just in a different place.
A lot of VR games have a setting where you can switch between movement styles. If you are interested in a game but it's making you sick, it's worth checking if there is a setting for teleportation.
The other major way I occasionally get VR sickness is if a game glitches or freezes and then the movement is not lining up with the movement of my head. If this happens, close your eyes as fast as possible and take the headset off. As soon as you close your eyes the conflicting movement information is gone, and you are less likely to get sick.
VR sickness is very common for new users, you will likely get less of it as you use the system more. Keeping sessions short helps, and stopping as soon as you feel any nausea is key. Don't try to power through, it will not get better.

Games I really like that don't give me motion sickness:
Beat Saber- Rhythm game, like Rock Band, cutting notes to the beat of music. You will feel like a badass! You stay still, the notes come to you.
Open Brush- An open source continuation of the discontinued Tilt Brush, it's a drawing/sculpting program. Neat stuff.
Mothergunship Forge- Stand still and shoot robots. Not gory, very little movement. I don't usually like FPS games but this was fun.
Deisim- Make a little world and take care of the people. Like Populous, if you played that back in the day. Once I figured out how to move myself without getting sick it was lots of fun.
posted by Adridne at 6:56 AM on June 12, 2024

Unfortunately this is a custom hack so isn't something that you can actually do, but you'd probably have enjoyed playing yourself in third person.
posted by snarfois at 6:56 AM on June 12, 2024 [2 favorites]

fwiw, teleportation works for some people, but it barely helps me at all. I am very sensitive though and even my first few stationary experiences left me seasick.
posted by BungaDunga at 7:45 AM on June 12, 2024

I'm fine with both as long as the player and the camera move together-ish.

I think that Space Pirate Trainer is the only game that works well for a very large space. The problem really for games where you're moving in-game as IRL, is that in-game is almost always so much larger than the space that you'll be able to setup. Even if you're in a squash court.

Actually I'd find a squash court to be a bit dangerous. You could start to get into the habit of making large quick movements. Potentially you might try to sprint a few steps, and spring through the guardian into a wall.

As BungaDunga mentions look to setup teleport movement in games; you can do a combination of fine-movement with letting teleport handle larger movements. With fine movement, there's less danger of going through the guardian too abruptly.

Alternately test out gravol/dramamine. I've been using my Q2 and now my Q3 since the Q2 was first released (and a few years of PSVR before even that!), and my VR legs are very, very poor. Gravol helps immensely. I need about an hour for the gravol to kick in. Ginger, fans, etc do nothing for me. Fortunately for me I have no issue with teleport/stationary games.

For Teleport, In Death Unchained (if you have PSVR, In Death (without the unchained) is by a different developer, and so much less. IDU on the Quest store is so much better!) "bakes" the teleport into the game, so it doesn't feel like a hack. For the last ~4 years, easily 75% of my VR play time is in Synth Riders, In Death Unchained and Beat Saber. Synth Riders makes it pretty easy to get custom songs. Beat Saber on Q3 was stupidly difficult, and I needed to turn to "alternate" options, despite having paid for Beat Saber on Quest (and PSVR, and Steam).
posted by nobeagle at 11:11 AM on June 12, 2024 [1 favorite]

Walkabout Mini Golf would probably be great with a big space. I have a small space and can still manage it with a bit of teleporting. I also really enjoyed Superhot.
posted by miscbuff at 3:44 PM on June 12, 2024

My headset is basically a dedicated Walkabout Mini Golf device. There's a new Meow Wolf DLC that is quite trippy.

You can also point your VR browser at Moonrider.xyz in case you aren't ready to commit to Beat Saber.

Wander is a 360 degree Google Street View viewer, not interactive but fun to wander around.
posted by credulous at 8:13 PM on June 13, 2024