VALVe Help

[Shru1kan]

Okay, so I bummed the orange box off a friend. My girlfriend really wanted to play portal, and I played it a bit when I couldn't sleep last night. Got to chamber 10 and I got a killer headache. Sure enough, it's absolutely raping both me and her (she tried it a bit ago). Only she has HARRCORE motion sickness from it. I tried half life 2 to see if it was just portal, but that was nigh unbearable after a half hour for me and we can't tell which made her sick faster, as they both only needed 30 seconds of viewing/playing to make her have to lay down.

Anyways, prior experience with these games made me remember that lots of people seem to get these headaches (feels like a goddamn axe splitting your head wide open), and lots of fixes. PC fixes. If only I wasn't on the 360, right? I don't think it's a FOV problem as I play it on a widescreen HDTV, and trying it on a SDTV with a normal aspect ratio didn't help. I need a fix for this, otherwise it's just gonna be another game with one freaking achievement that I can't delete from my list... (I'm a wee bit obsessive about having at least 100G in every game I play, don't ask why cause I don't know).

Anyways, HELP!

 

[Doclector]

I don't have any solutions, but I always thought it was only me that got massive headaches (and a little nausea) from half life 2. It takes longer to kick in and I only get it on portal if I play for very long, but I don't tend to get that kind of thing with any other games. Do you experience these issues with other games?

 

[yuval152]

Two possible reasons:
1)You're stupid
2)medical problem

nah im just kidding you should see a doctor or use aspirin,or play the game with high gamma,or in well lit room.

 

[Soviet Steve]

Two possible reasons:
1)your stupid
2)medical problem

nah im just kidding you should see a doctor or use aspirin.

In this context I believe the correct spelling would be "You're"

As for the topic, all I can recommend is to sit well away from your screen and play it in a well-lit room.

 

[Mojo]

Really wierd..
Neither me or any of my friends ever got anything like this from any game.
Have you tried to poke aroung any of the xbox settings?
Or download the portal demo on steam and see if that gives you the same problems.
Also see if any of the PC "fixes" work, to see where the problem lies.

 

[Dr_Horrible]

Hm, I've never had any motion sickness or headaches from any game, much less a VALVe game. Do you and your girlfriend have any preexisting conditions that make you prone to migraines/motion sickness?

 

[Lespame]

Yeah valve games do that to some people (my buddies who play tf2 call it "source headaches") although the case you are describing seems more extreme then any I've heard of. My advice, scrap the old valve games and go for portal 2. Apparently the designers noticed that the game had this effect on people during player testing and adjusted something about the graphics/frame rate to compensate for the problem.

 

[kebab4you]

Not sure if you can rule out FOV to fast,doesn't most console game got a fov on 90?

 

[Muh_Balls]

I know you can turn off the motion blur on the PC versions, but not sure about the 360 ones, that might help. Other wise just take some advil or something.

 

[Shru1kan]

Thanks to those who replied. I play way too many games to call it an overall game problem. From what I read, valve sets their FOV to 75. And on a widescreen it doesn't stretch, which leads me to believe that I can rule out fov rather easily.

Hm, I've never had any motion sickness or headaches from any game, much less a VALVe game. Do you and your girlfriend have any preexisting conditions that make you prone to migraines/motion sickness?

She used to, the after vision therapy doesn't get it anymore. I sure don't, never had anything remotely similar until I tried these games.

Really wierd..
Neither me or any of my friends ever got anything like this from any game.
Have you tried to poke aroung any of the xbox settings?
Or download the portal demo on steam and see if that gives you the same problems.
Also see if any of the PC "fixes" work, to see where the problem lies.

Most ofthese problems require access to .ini files or the in game console. Not possible on 360.

I don't have any solutions, but I always thought it was only me that got massive headaches (and a little nausea) from half life 2. It takes longer to kick in and I only get it on portal if I play for very long, but I don't tend to get that kind of thing with any other games. Do you experience these issues with other games?

It seems to be a source engine, minus tf2, although my source experience only extends to orange box games really. And I play way too many games to call it a gaming issue. We're talking potentially 6 hours some nights if the immersion gets me. It's so annoying to just get a headache after a half hour from a game that you want to play.

 

[TerribleAssassin]

These are times we should read the warnings in the instructions!

But, like everyone said, sit far back, well lit room, high gamma, stop every hour, hour and a half and have chill out time, just general advice you'd get from a doctor.

 

[mew4ever23]

Never had that issue on Portal or Half Life 2. Sit well back, well lit room, turn up the gamma, take a break every hour or so.

 

[Sn1P3r M98]

The Orange Box on the Xbox always made my brother motion sick too, but he didn't have an issue with it on the PC. Strange.

 

[kasperbbs]

I have a friend who complains that FPS give him headaches, but that sort of thing never happened to me and i have finished hl 2 6 times, perhaps you should stick to other genres?

 

[redisforever]

Two possible reasons:
1)You're stupid
2)medical problem

nah im just kidding you should see a doctor or use aspirin,or play the game with high gamma,or in well lit room.

True. The gamma, and well lit room part. You mentioned "I played it a bit when I couldn't sleep last night." If it was dark, that may be a problem. I never had any problem with these games though.