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Comment by LeonardoTolstoy | Hacker News Reader

I find it somewhat interesting that a good number of the articles about this don't seem to go into details about eye strain. I don't think I'm mistaken in thinking that even if it doesn't seem like it your eyes are going to be focused on a screen image that is what? 2 inches in from of your eyes. Given the recommendations when reading a book (which is further away although maybe not so much to matter) how does that work with something that seems to be being sold for continuous use over a 2 hour period?

The FAQ from Apple does suggest breaks every 20 minutes "as you become acclimated". I don't quite know what that means for someone who, say, uses it for 2 uninterrupted hours a day to watch movies for example.

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There is no eye strain. As far as your eyes are concerned, the light is the same as if it's coming from meters away, not inches. Watching a two hour movie feels the same as doing it in a theater.

And taking 20 minute breaks is really more to do with motion -- using VR makes some people feel nauseous at first because of a mismatch between what your eyes are telling you and what your body is. But that's more apparent with games. It's a non-issue if you're sitting still watching a movie. No breaks needed.

I'm very curious what focal length they're actually targeting here. I figured they'd put the image at infinity or even ever so slightly past, but the fact they're selling "reader" lenses for it makes me concerned that this isn't the case.

Related: I've had success over the past few years purposefully correcting my computer monitor to be at ~infinity focal distance (EndMyopia method). The idea of using AVP to achieve this focal distance consistently (whereas in real life it depends on careful head placement compared to monitor) is quite tantalizing, though the lens pricing is pretty obsurd.

It's usually around 2 m / 6 ft for most headsets. I don't think there's any reason why the AVP would be different.

If you put a screen 1 inch away from your eye, your eye can't focus on it properly.

To adjust for this, the optics in all VR headsets are set up so that the "focal distance" is around 1-2m.

Articles aren't really addressing this concern because this kind of eye strain has been a "solved problem" in the VR space for a long time, so any tech reviewers wouldn't pay attention to it even if it's a good question.

I have had a significant amount of eyestrain after sessions of an hour or two.

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