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Comment by neixidbeksoxyd | Hacker News Reader

> There’s VR, but I believe there will be a new category introduced within the next five years that will change the gaming landscape.

I have been dreaming of better interfaces (controllers) for games for decades. The Wii, despite it's limited power, was a huge leap forward in how we played games. Unfortunately Nintendo is the only gaming company taking risks while Microsoft and Sony keep doubling down on graphics with the same controllers from 30 years ago. If someone made a non-VR console with VR-style controllers it would be a huge leap. Instead we keep getting the same old immersion-killing 4-button-mashing consoles and games with upgraded graphics cards.

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> Unfortunately Nintendo is the only gaming company taking risks while Microsoft and Sony keep doubling down on graphics with the same controllers from 30 years ago.

Because they work and they're what people want. Xbox and Playstation both tried their own motion controls and they flopped, and thank god they did. Many of us like controllers and don't want people trying to innovate that away.

I think their motion controls flopped because they were an afterthought. It's like comparing touch screen controls on iOS vs Windows.

Keep in mind that 1/3 of the population suffer from motion sickness, so for them (I'm in this group) VR isn't an option for the most part.

Of course if this is a solvable problem - those who otherwise suffer from motion sickness are symptom-free in any VR application - then I agree VR could have a bright future.

That can probably be trained away.

Even assuming this is true (I'd be inclined to doubt it) why on earth would anyone bother?

Because all your friends are playing a VR MMO and are talking about it nonstop on social media

Go on, how?

I'm getting into boat-sailing, and I'm saddened by the nausea it causes. I'm looking into ways to reduce this, and I'm thinking ways to deal with motion sickness incurred in VR-games is probably applicable to me.

I go sailing and don’t get nausea much these days. But VR still makes me queasy after an hour or two.

Add others have hinted, it depends a lot on which games you play, how well they perform and their locomotion mechanics.

Exposure

Nausea at sea is definitely something that typically goes away at least after a couple of days at sea. You get "sea legs". But if you're having it more as a now and then hobby I'm not sure but I recon that there's a long term training element in it as well.

Interestingly, it's the same when you go into space. Around half the people experience it and there doesn't seem to be a link between people who get motion sick and those who get space sick. Symptoms can be mild to relatively severe but people tend to adjust after a few days.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_adaptation_syndrome

I get quite motion-sick. Boat rides are - at best - mildly unpleasant.

After trying the oculus dk1 roller coaster demo, I was incapable of doing anything for 4-5 hours and still felt sick days later.

I play beat saber regularly; taking off the vive after an hour I feel mildly disoriented for about half a minute and then I am fine. The tech has progressed tremendously and no longer gives me any trouble (which may not hold true for everyone but it’s definitely been fine for me)!

The DK1 was basically the same as google cardboard in terms of tech... I still have mine under my desk.

A big part of it is does your ingame motion match your real world motion. In games like Beat Saber the only movements are from you physically moving. I've had a VR headset for maybe 4 years now and can still only play racing games for about an hour before motion sickness starts to settle in. I bet the roller coaster demo would be much less disorienting if one sat in a motion simulator. I'd love to own one eventually for my sim-racing setup.

With modern VR techniques (teleportation) and hardware (Vive/Rift hardware or later), this is no longer a problem.

Wouldn't generalize this; I think there are also factors like game performance (FPS) that are at play. I can play Beat Saber and HL:Alyx just fine on the Vive without any issues whatsoever, but whenever I want to give 'Blade & Sorcery' another try I feel absolutely terrible after a few minutes of gameplay. I do think it's poor performance (low FPS and 'location stutter' where the game seemingly can't decide where to place me exactly) are the cause, but I could not place a finger on when/where exactly the threshold is where I start to feel sick.

Yeah - performance is an issue here (I've worked on VR tech before). What I'm suggesting isn't that developers are getting it perfect, but that we have technologies and techniques that make it work at scale (without people being sick).

Controllers were quite different 30 years ago. Dual stick didn’t become the norm until 20 years ago, though arguably Xbox and PlayStation controllers haven’t changed their layouts much since 2000.

To be fair, human anatomy hasn't changed much since 2000 either.

You think the current interface devices are optimal for human anatomy?

> If someone made a non-VR console with VR-style controllers

Sony did with PS Move, many years before PSVR. I guess you could consider the Wii a prototype in that direction as well.

Yes, and the very few games that really tried to make use of the interface were amazing. Zelda Skyward Sword was incredibly fun. I remember slashing around thinking there was no way we were going back to regular controls from then on, but I was wrong. I think we have invested so much in the current controller layout that it's difficult for new ideas to get off the ground.

Ironic you mentioned that game is being the Pinnacle of motion controls, I'm fond of Wii sports resort instead, that zelda game made me wish they had GameCube controller support because it was so inaccurate.

So long as FPS remains the most popular genre in console gaming nobody is going to deviate from existing controller designs, they are ideally suited for shooters.

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