FF14 Sickness?

I know this is a weird topic and idk where to discuss this but I have sort of an issue with the game.

This has never happened to me before with any game ever but whenever I play ff14 for more than 2 or 3 hours I start to feel....sick... Eye strain, slight headaches, and idk I can't really describe the rest I just feel really crappy.

Anyone else have problems with this? I feel really odd asking about this but I'd like to remedy it as I haven't been this addicted to a game in a long long time. I've played plenty of other games for tons of hours non stop but like I said before, 2-3 hours and I start to feel crappy. The longer I play the worse it gets. I'll take a break for about 30 mins to an hour and feel great then hop back on FF and within half an hour I feel like crap again.

Even staring at this computer monitor makes me feel "relieved."

Edit: Btw, I'm playing on ps4 55 inch TV sitting 8 feet away.

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

This has never happened to me before with any game ever but whenever I play ff14 for more than 2 or 3 hours I start to feel....sick... Eye strain, slight headaches, and idk I can't really describe the rest I just feel really crappy.

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This is something quite common;

When staring at a computer screen, people tend not to blink, therefore your eyes become quite dry.
FFXIV has A LOT of flashing bright lights, this strain on your eyes also causes irritating and eventually headaches on top of the dry irritated eyes also contributing to the headache.

On top of this FFXIV is an MMO with A LOT of information passing on the screen at one time. Consider the eye movements, focus and detail constantly flashing past you every second, this causes quite a lot of strain on your eyes which also contributes towards headaches an then the feeling of nausea.

Lights aren't the only issue, excessive audio and light can trigger migranes, which start slowly in your vision along with a feeling of pain in your head which will slowly start to spread, if you get ANY symtoms of this STOP PLAYING ASAP find a dim/dark and noise free room to relax in. Lay down and do NOTHING (no phones/books/toys) for 15-30 minutes, PAIN MEDICATION WILL NOT FIX THIS.



What can I do to fix/prevent this?



Please bear in mind, sometimes this isn't easily fixed there are A LOT of potential factors, not all of the factors below may affect you.
Faster paced games can cause these issues more-so than slower paced calmer games.

•DO NOT PLAY IN A DARK ROOM. I cannot stress this enough, the flashing light and constant change in colour/tone detail changing will strain your eyes even more in a darker room that a comfortably lit one.

•Oddly enough a wide-screen can also cause this issue, some players report playing games on a 4:3 monitor as opposed to a 16:9 monitor reduces eye-strain and headaches.

•Sit face on with your screen, don't look at it from an angle or from above/below.

•FREQUENT short breaks. Set a time/timer until it becomes like second nature to you. Every 15-30 minutes take a 5-10 minute break.

•Every 10-15 minutes look away from your monitor, find a static object nearby and simply stare at it for a minute or so, your eyes will blink naturally, the static imagry also helps apease the constant visual strain from all the detail and flashing lights FFXIV fetures.

•Players also have a tendency to slouch, most of the time to the point where the player simply doesn't notice, this also puts a strain on the body over time causing joint pains.


Monitor Brightness

•Computer Monitors are designed to emite a bright blue glow to emulate the suns light and provide a crisp clear image.
During the night this isn't nessecary, the monitor DOES NOT need this glow and having this constant strain on your eyes through the entire day will likely cause this issue.

Please consider download this programme;
https://justgetflux.com/
Set your location and the transition to [Slow]

This will dim your monitor in the evening to a halogen glow, reducing your eye strain.


Other possibilities

Diet

A bad diet, malnutrition, dehydration will trigger migraines, eye strain and join pain even faster.
Consider your personal diet and whether it includes what you really need, as malnutrition from certain nutrients may lead to more easily irritated eyes and or headaches/migraines.

Basic Exercise

Simply getting a breath of fresh-air every now and again along with 15-30 minutes of normal casual exercise a day will also help deter some health issues mentioned above.
We're not talking a marathon, just a walk to clear your head or some chores.


Editing the rest as I go.

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

I guess I forgot to mention I'm playing on PS4.

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If your television or monitor is rather bright try adjusting the settings to tone down the brightness (or use FFXIV's gamma correction options).

As someone else mentioned reduce the battle effects;
[Start] > System > Character Configuration > Character > Battle Effects > [Limited/None]

See if this reduction in bright flashing lights helps.


Consider what I mentioned about audio, the sheer amount of auditory diversity may be an issue too, lower your sound-effects volume and increase the music, or decrease both as this may also be contributing to the strain.


Also to re-iterate, make sure you're facing head-on with your screen and not an side, top or low angle.

http://i.imgur.com/spBkUvH.png
http://i.imgur.com/9tOTp0i.png



Edit:

Extra addition:


A low frame-rate can cause issues too, having a lower frame-rate forces your eyes and overall your mind to compensate more for the jar in detail.
30-60fps is ideal, anything lower can sometimes trigger the side affects mentioned above.




///// LAST BUT NOT LEAST //////

If it's really really really bad and frequent, GO AND SEE YOUR DOCTOR.
This is your best source of advice.

If you are playing in the dark, try turning on a light. Also if you are still using a CRT monitor then you should try and bring the refresh rate up to the max it can support.

I guess I forgot to mention I'm playing on PS4.

You could try turning off other players' battle effects aside from your own or tweak some graphic settings or brightness, maybe adjust the camera settings? See which works for you.

I get this when I'm on the ps3 on any game for some reason. Figure it has to do with my monitor's settings which I'm still tweaking till I find something that won't trigger the effects. I can stay for hours on my pc though.

Are you sure you're not getting motion sick? If the character models move too fast, you are playing in HD, and whatnot, you are getting motion sick. The first game to get me motion sick was Perfect Dark on the N64. It's one of the reasons I can't play FPS. Even Metroid Prime made me feel sick 10 minutes into the game.

The battle effects and the frequent glowy environments are usually the culprits for me. Too much shininess. I can barely stand running Coil for all the luminescent lines.

I play the PS4 version too and I know what you mean. I started playing close to the TV to get the full experience but certain duties require you to keep track of a lot more information across a really wide angle. Shifting my eyes and even my head I started to get neck and eye strain.

I eventually had to hit the HUD and increase the size of everything text related so I could sit back further and not work my eyes so hard. I still sit close for the casual stuff like crafting and chatting but when it comes duty time I sit waaay back.

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Originally Posted by Shioban

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You sir are getting a like from me. Went into all that detail to help someone.

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Originally Posted by Naraku_Diabolos

Are you sure you're not getting motion sick? If the character models move too fast, you are playing in HD, and whatnot, you are getting motion sick. The first game to get me motion sick was Perfect Dark on the N64. It's one of the reasons I can't play FPS. Even Metroid Prime made me feel sick 10 minutes into the game.

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I was thinking that but i've never had this happen with any other game :/

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

I was thinking that but i've never had this happen with any other game :/

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You are playing the game on an HD screen, and if there is fluid movement with the 60 fps, then you are going to get motion sick. Believe me, I know so. I got sick of watching my friend play Call of Duty on their HDTV. I had to go into the other room just after watching them play for a few minutes.

i wish i could like that guys post multiple times.

I adjusted the brightness, it was WAY too high. Still kinda high but it works.

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Originally Posted by Shioban

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I gotta say, thanks for sharing this. It's a good read. Kudos to you, good sir!

the pictures are awesome too XD

I do not think you are suffering from Motion Sickness, I think you have a different problem. You are playing on a PS4 using a HD Television correct? First you need to make sure your PS4 uses the correct settings for your television(check the ps4 option menu) normally it would automatically detect the correct settings, however sometimes depending on the TV it won't. Other then that, adjusting the brightness works and the other thing, which i think might be more likely since you said Eye Strain, is that you have a slight eye sight loss.

Go and have your eye's checked out. Eye strain(you do it pretty much unknowingly) can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea etc. The symptons are similar to Motion Sickness hence it gets confused a lot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

I know this is a weird topic and idk where to discuss this but I have sort of an issue with the game.

This has never happened to me before with any game ever but whenever I play ff14 for more than 2 or 3 hours I start to feel....sick... Eye strain, slight headaches, and idk I can't really describe the rest I just feel really crappy.

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I had a super weird "sea sickness" while playin Warhammer Online back in the days for more than 45 mins. Or super strong headaches while playin Doom 3 / Half Life 2 in any part I had to use a flashlight while beein in the dark.

Dont ask me why, it just happened.

The brightness settings are now throwing me off but it was like an almost instant cure. It was at 50, and I turned it down to zero. It's weird now cuz everything looks so dark and weird xD even with the gamma all the way to zero I can still see the X it says you're not supposed to see, so that really tells you how bright it was.

Thanks for all the info, I'll keep this in mind!

http://shop.gunnars.com/gaming-eyewear/l/200

I use the PPK edition, no more eye strain and no more "need a nap after two hours" I focus better and play better, I was really skeptical when i was first looking at getting them, now I always use them and I dont regret it a bit.

Hope this helps!

-cured eye strain player.

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

The brightness settings are now throwing me off but it was like an almost instant cure. It was at 50, and I turned it down to zero. It's weird now cuz everything looks so dark and weird xD even with the gamma all the way to zero I can still see the X it says you're not supposed to see, so that really tells you how bright it was.

Thanks for all the info, I'll keep this in mind!

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I'd lower it a bit, wouldn't whack it the full way down, but frequent breaks will help.

Glad it worked out for you!

yea i liked as well shioban. thanks a lot for the reply. I'm going to keep this page up for a while just to remind myself. I've been getting headaches every once in a while, and feeling kind of nauseous lately, but I've been playing a hell of a lot lol. i go to the gym and exercise and stuff but when on my non gym days if i don't have any obligations i will play for 8 hours +. its sick, but i just get so wrapped up into getting something done like animus books or a master craft book or myth grinding.

my name is ryan, and i am an addict.

The only time i felt an eye strain/ eyes were tripping out was when i was atma grinding for 8 hours + starting around 12am.
It was probably due to long playtime exposure and the momsters running around my screen as my eyes tried to differentiate if it was a fate mondter or not lol...
(｀_´)ゞ bad eye condition coming soon, please look forward to it.

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Originally Posted by Shioban

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As a sysadmin I stare at screens all day mostly every day. What Shioban is explaining here is second nature to me. I've learned it on my own during plenty of years working with computers.

And yes if you have problems go see your doctor. They might be able to suggest similar things.

If you are wearing glasses there are lenses that help reduce eye strain and well worth investing into. But you still need to manage and llok away every so often.

And calibrate your screens if you can. I play on a monitor and use this:
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

It helps a lot. There is no glare, oversaturation etc... Helps reduc eye strain as well.

I only had a headache issues during the PS4 beta. And I'm guessing that was mostly due to the miniaturisation of the GUI. I also play on 720p(but atm not by choice due to the fact PS4 doesn't want to go to 1080p(ps3 does on the same screen))

I think the problem is with contrast. The game has a lot of effects that, when happen, makes the surroundings darken to make them pop up.

Also when it's night time it's really hard for me to see where to go (as if it's actually dark in RL) which I think causes eye strain.

Also sometimes I get a similar effect from looking at the sun (in-game).

What I did to reduce the problem is I increased the lighting in the game (make it as clear as possible in the dark, more than the game suggests) but it makes the colors a bit faded, but it helps a bit.

Either way staring at the screen for hours with minimum blinking has to cause some headache.
I actually try not to blink sometimes to be ready to cast stun/silence when the cast bar begins.

Also Getting a bit older must have its effect on me. I mean I didn't have this problem when I was 18 years old, but after 10 years things change a little.

well usually its field of view that causes it or effects used by the game.

You could mess with settings see if it helps.

Cinematic cutscenes, enabled.
glare: off screen space ambient occlusion: weak

disable rending of objects when not visible and use low detail models on distant objects edge smoothing anti aliasing off

hdr rending and impove overall graphic quality off I use a GTX high end card but I stopped using fancy stuff because it gives headaches but I dont get any headaches now.

this game don't give me any problem only when I max out the settings and game looks like its moving fast forward.

half life 2 did this to me made me sick I cant even play half life games which sucks cause they are pretty good.

I get antsy/frustrated, and just kind of feel like I need to bolt away. I think it's honestly bordem of running the same dungeons over and over again, or reading quest dialogue.

I can play most games just fine, but FF-X and Minecraft make me completely sick to my stomach after bout 20 minutes of playing, and the effect normally lasts at least an hour. :( I've tried changing all sorts of options in Minecraft, but nothing helped. Such is life!

With minecraft tried changing the texture pack to something a bit more high def? Also optifine can help with a bit more tweaks.

This sickness happens to me in FPS when camera is moving around really fast - How about you try to zoom out (lol) to max and play in bird view' even just to test if thats it... and see if you still get sick?

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Originally Posted by Shioban

Awesome things.

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Hi, Shioban-san... To be honest, after reading the OP's message I expected to read just after it a bunch of troll replies such as "It is FFXIV after all, can turn you sick", "Game is so boring that you get sick", "Did you tried farming more than one atma?" and such... But, no, instead... I found your message...

And I'm glad I did, you have my like.

Whoa, Shioban... thanks for going above and beyond there! I think there's a few adjustments I need to make to my gaming style too...

Contrast, vibrance, brightness, flashy effects, sounds.

It can all have an effect depending on the person and how long you spend in game. Do you take frequent breaks? Do you forget to blink?

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Originally Posted by Adrian74

Hi, Shioban-san... To be honest, after reading the OP's message I expected to read just after it a bunch of troll replies such as "It is FFXIV after all, can turn you sick", "Game is so boring that you get sick", "Did you tried farming more than one atma?" and such... But, no, instead... I found your message...

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To be fair, I did not expect any of that.
The OP's message was not at all inviting to any trolling and is described as a situation in which many people have found themselves as well.

That said, Shioban's reply is also clear as day, very helpful and something everyone should take to heart and mind.
I work on computers all day and have been for the last 17 years, during the evenings I continue looking at screens by gaming or watching tv/movies.
For me taking regular breaks has also become a second nature because I have experienced exactly that which the OP is talking about myself.

Besides that I have every screen except for my home office tv placed at eye height and have invested in several other ergonomic adjustments at home and at work because I was also starting to suffer from several symptoms of RSI, as someone in my early 30's with quite a few working years still ahead of me I'd like to avoid those things getting worse.

A lot of people cite being able to sit on the couch and relax while they play as their reason for being grateful for the console versions of the game. I like it because I can stand up while I play.

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Originally Posted by Goldhawk

I know this is a weird topic and idk where to discuss this but I have sort of an issue with the game.

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Lie!. You feel alright dammmmm, drink a coca cola and you feel better

Same thing applies to TV as computer monitor.

My computer monitor has a setting which I use that every 60 Min it flashes on the screen to take a break. I don't drop what I'm doing but after I'm done my current task I take a 5 min break.

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Originally Posted by Skivvy

I can play most games just fine, but FF-X and Minecraft make me completely sick to my stomach after bout 20 minutes of playing, and the effect normally lasts at least an hour. :( I've tried changing all sorts of options in Minecraft, but nothing helped. Such is life!

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It may sound odd, but try adjusting the 'Field of View' in Minecraft to see if it has an affect, however this may just be attributed to the speed of the movement or the frame-rate/refresh rate the game is set to.

As for FF-X I can't really offer any suggestion beside playing it on another screen/television, there may be particular effects or camera movements that are causing a feeling of motion sickness.

http://i.imgur.com/5PIXu1Z.png

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Originally Posted by Rakashu

I get antsy/frustrated, and just kind of feel like I need to bolt away. I think it's honestly bordem of running the same dungeons over and over again, or reading quest dialogue.

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Without a doubt.

Running the game for a few hours, or even back to back days exacerbate these kind of issues.

I found playing FFXIV on launch (due to the excitement) for days on end, where I would wake up and play all day then retire last in the evening gave me all of the aforementioned problems and more, had to take a rather long break to recover from the feeling of frustration and the "Need to speed" feeling

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Originally Posted by Adrian74

And I'm glad I did, you have my like.

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Originally Posted by Sadana

Whoa, Shioban... thanks for going above and beyond there! I think there's a few adjustments I need to make to my gaming style too...

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Thanks!

No problem!

One of the easy "fixes" you can try is to move the camera away back from your character.
The further back it is the less movement your screen does.
Also change to legacy camera to reduce screen movement.

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Originally Posted by Shioban

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I like you. Will you be my doctor?

I get migraines too (mostly stress and genetic based) but what I find that helps me is a dark room and warm compress over my eyes.

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Originally Posted by JemC

I like you. Will you be my doctor?

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I prescribe more subligar!

http://i.imgur.com/o93DGiZ.png