PSVR2: How to Reduce Motion Sickness

Looking to learn how to reduce motion sickness with PSVR2? Motion sickness relates to the sensation of queasiness and dizziness, and is more common when playing virtual reality due to the disconnect between what you're experiencing and the lack of physical feedback. While motion sickness triggers are extremely subjective, there are some steps you can take to relieve the discomfort. As part of our PSVR2 guide, we're going to explain how to reduce motion sickness.

PSVR2: How to Reduce Motion Sickness

Motion sickness will affect everyone who uses PSVR2 in different ways, and unfortunately to varying extremes as well. As such, there are no hard and fast rules for eliminating the sensation entirely. However, the tips on this page should at least help you to mitigate the issues.

Take a Break As Soon As It Starts

Some virtual reality veterans will tell you to persevere through motion sickness in order to get, what's colloquially known as, your "VR legs". While you can gradually build up a resistance and tolerance to motion sickness, we'd recommend taking a break as soon as you begin to feel the onset of queasiness or dizziness. The reality is that taking off the headset and resetting for 15 to 30 minutes is all you'll need to recover, and then you can get straight back to playing again.

In our opinion, the worst thing you can do is keep playing when you're starting to feel unwell. Once you begin to experience the pangs of motion sickness, the reality is it's not going to improve until you take your headset off. If you're particularly susceptible, then we'd recommend planning out your play sessions in advance; set aside time to complete just one or two levels, and commit to taking off the headset once you're done. As you do build up a tolerance, you'll slowly be able to extend those play sessions. Be sensible, though: a small bout of motion sickness won't take long to recover from, but if you persevere you could be feeling unwell for the entire day.

Check Every Game's Comfort Options

Developers are much more experienced at creating virtual reality content these days, and most will include a variety of comfort options to make gameplay as accessible as possible. Some of the most common toggles you should look for are snap turning, which rotates your viewpoint in increments, and teleportation. While the latter can feel less immersive than traditional first-person controls, it's unquestionably more comfortable warping to a particular point than manually walking there.

You should also pay attention to options like vignettes, which create borders around your peripheral vision to reduce the intensity of movement. And, if you're really struggling, consider disabling things like screen shake. To be honest, we'd suggest starting a new game with all of the comfort options enabled, and then slowly disabling the ones you don't need as you progress. It's better to take this approach than going gung-ho into a new game with all of the accessibility options off, and ending up feeling sick.

Try Some Less Intense Games

If you're new to virtual reality, or you're getting sick quickly, reconsider the games you're playing. High-octane first-person experiences, no matter how many comfort options they offer, are going to trigger you faster and harder than slower, calmer titles. Games like Moss and Job Simulator are great, low impact virtual reality titles, as they're fairly stationary experiences where your body stays in a fixed position.

It's important to underline that these aren't bad games just because they're more comfortable: in fact, they're among the best you can currently buy for PSVR2. Playing these games will help you to steadily build up a tolerance for motion sickness, allowing you to gravitate to more intense titles later. But the same rules as we've outlined above apply here: take a break as soon as you start feeling queasy, as there's no real benefit to pushing through.

Make Sure You're Wearing Your Headset Properly

While it won't necessarily trigger motion sickness on its own, wearing your headset incorrectly won't help. This is because if you're trying to focus on blurry, unclear objects or text, then you're going to cause eye-strain, which will lead to headaches and discomfort. Make sure you're wearing your PSVR2 properly to eliminate this potential issue.

You can find out more information in our How to Wear the Headset Correctly and Comfortably and How to Fix Blurry or Unclear Image Quality guides. Effectively, you're going to want to ensure that you always find the sweet spot on the headset's lenses, and that you don't overtighten the device during the fit. Try to ensure there's no pressure on your forehead or the bridge of your nose, as these things can lead to headaches if you don't get them right. You're looking for a secure but comfortable fit, where the headset stays in place without pinching your head.

Did this guide help you learn how to reduce motion sickness with PSVR2? Share some of your suggestions in the comments section below, and be sure to check out our PSVR2 guide for much more.