Update 1: I found this  detailed technical article on Simulator Sickness over at loonygames. It has everything that you might wanna know about this subject.

It’s been a while since I posted something apart from technology. But this subject was something that inspired me to post about it. Video gaming is a big industry now and people of all ages play them several hours in a day (including myself). If you’re a gamer you should be aware of this feeling when playing certain games and it is better that one knows more about it.

To start off, Vertigo may be a bigger word for this because typical dizziness from playing a game is not vertigo or at least a severe or permanent form of it. But it is definitely serious and you should always take caution and read a game’s manual where it shows warnings about physical health. So let’s define what we are talking about here:

What is this feeling? What are the Symptoms?

When you play an FPS (First Person Shooter) game and the camera moves fast enough to shake your head, that feeling is dizziness. But if that feeling prolongs and your eyes and the head cannot follow up to it, you’ll start feeling sick in the stomach, eyes with throbbing headaches and increased Blood Pressure. This is where you leave the game, and I advice you DO leave the game. However, this is not restricted to FPS games only. You can feel sick to many a games and real life situations and there are reasons to it, which I will list down in the following paragraph. Now, you must keep note here that the amount of pressure a game can put on your health varies to the patterns involved in triggering that feeling. Some games can just make you feel a little dizzy, some will make you feel sick with little nausea/headaches and others can be extreme like triggering epilepsy and vertigo. The symptoms can be as follows:

- Varied Dizziness
- Altered Vision
- Light Headedness
- Vision Displacement
- Stomach sickness / An urge to Vomit
- Eye or Nerve Twitching
- Muscle Contraction or Aching

Reasons for this feeling?

When I was young, the first game I picked up to play on my old 286 system was Duke Nukem. I was 8 years old and I played that game for 10 minutes with a friend. That game made me sick and I vomited shortly after. My gaming career is too long to detail here but I can list down games that have made me sick over these years, and most of them are FPS games. I avoid playing FPS games or games with a dodgy camera, which is one of the reasons for this feeling. I must also say that this feeling has started to climb down in the recent years, not because of my age but because of the advance in technology and how the games are made.

The patterns in video games that trigger this feeling may differ from one person to the other and that is entirely on how a person perceives or processes the information in front of him. Let me explain this through an example:

One knows that when a pilot controls an aero plane, he pulls the control lever downwards to make the plane go upwards. Now when you play games that simulate flight behaviors, they give you the same controls. If you press down on your controller d-pad, the plane should go up. But if those controls do not respond the way,  your mind thinks they should, you will feel uncomfortable and might say that it is unrealistic. So whenever you play a game, the information you engulf with your eyes is readily processed by your brain and if your brain evaluates the information to be wrong or “not the way it wants it to be”, it will cause this feeling. Thus, this feeling can differ from one person to the other. Your brother can keep playing a game for hours and not feel dizzy but you might get sick looking at him play, in 5 minutes.

I have gone ahead and tried to figure out things that can cause this dizziness to happen. I will try to incorporate more factors into this later on.

Jittery Frame Rate or Lag
It turns out that whenever a game runs in a jittery manner and without consistent frame rates, it can induce this horrible feeling. For example, playing a fast game like Far Cry or Counter Strike requires that you have a firm control over your view and keep moving fast. This also requires that the camera be updated and moved as fast as possible. Now, if the game suddenly slows down due to graphical reasons or network issues, you’ll start feeling irritated and might get dizzy.

Also, if a game is supposed to run at 30 FPS (frames per second) and it slows down on various intervals, you can start feeling the effects of that too. I have also noticed that most of the games that run on 30 FPS and 50 FPS induce mild nausea while playing. This somehow does and does not mean that games that run on 50Hz can behave the same. This is because the induction of this feeling is not entirely dependent on the game or the game platform itself. Your environment and your TV play a big role in this.

Uncontrollable Camera or Insanely Fast movement
This can be easily explained that whenever a person moves too fast or takes circles, he’ll get dizzy. This is because the eyes cannot follow the motion fast enough and a feeling of confusion will cause you to get sick. In games, games like Tomb Raider and Counter Strike can have a very fast mouse scrolling rate, which can leave you vomiting on the floor. While playing games like Quake Arena, the characters move insanely fast and the camera is totally out of control. This can cause nausea very quickly.

Camera Centering
Again, it seems that Camera plays a big role in the creation of this phenomena. This is of course true since the game is seen through it . Many games have a procedure built into the programming of the Camera that it tries to re center itself every once in a while or due to an object blocking the viewing angle. If this happens frequently or if it is badly handled by the programmer, you’ll instantly get sick.

Patterns (Light Strobes, Blood, Gore)
It is not always that you feel sick by moving or changing the camera angle. Certain points in a game can make you feel sick. I have heard people complaining about the water in Tomb Raider and Halo as well as COD4 that it makes them feel sick. This is also true to real life objects like Cliffs and high places. People who have issues with Motion Sickness can easily fall victim to those patterns in games.

Violent games like Quake and Gears of War have extreme Blood and Gore content. This can also lead to nausea and sickness. Some people are allergic to blood and objects alike. So this is also a contender in that.

Certain light patterns in games, for example in poker or card games can lead to light headedness and mild dizziness.

Camera Inversion
This may be one of the biggest reasons behind game sickness and nausea after other reasons attached with the camera, I explained earlier. Many games have a controllable camera but not all of them give the user complete control over it. This means that whenever the player wants, he/she can adjust the camera viewing angle as he/she sees fit in a 360 degree manner. The reason why this can cause dizziness is because of the following reasons:

- the speed and accuracy at which the camera moves when controlled by the player
- the direction of the camera when moved to as opposed to the directions given by the mouse or an analog stick. For example, if the user moves the control right and the camera moves left or if the user moves the control down and the camera moves up. This is called camera inversion.

Many games give the user an option to invert the axis of the camera according to their controls but many of them don’t. This can be frustrating and certain people get sick very easily with how the camera controls respond to their actions.

Too much information on the Screen
Ok, this is another one I’ve seen people complaining about. Some people cannot digest the amount of information being updated rapidly on the screen. This means that there mind is not catching up to the pace of the information being fed to the eyes.  This can too lead you to sickness.

Ok enough Reasons, Are there any Solutions to this?

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, the reason I wrote this post was to help people find some solutions to this issue. Firstly, I must tell you that these solutions are really not that effective for playing and that if a game makes you feel dizzy, stop playing it. The world will not end if you don’t play that game. Gift it to a friend if he can play it easily. You’re better off with good health than some enjoyment with a game. OK?

Now i am going to divide this into two sections. First, if a game makes you sick, how do you correct it to play it. Second, if you are already sick, what do you do help to yourself.

Section 1: Making them play Right

Play in a well lit environment
You should always play in a well lit room, which does not put pressure on your eyes while playing. This will reduce the amount of light falling on your eyes and the concentration you require to view the screen.

Frame Rate / Screen Refresh Control
Ok, most games do not let you control the frame rate they run at. But some of them do. This depends on what platform you are playing the game at. For example, if you are running the game on a PC, you can tweak your Card’s and game’s graphical options to make it run more smoothly. Good Developers like EA and Capcom keep that option in there, so you can give it a try. You can also change your VGA to run at a higher Refresh Rate to help this out.

If you are playing on a TV using a console, you can try shifting from a 50Hz mode to a 60Hz mode and see if that helps you. You can also notice that if you run a game in Progressive mode, you’re less likely to feel dizzy. Of course, you require a better quality TV for that to work.

Axis Inversion
Many recent games feature that option in Camera Control Settings. Many gamers including myself prefer that the camera moves to where I move my Mouse or Analog Stick. So if you find an Axis Inversion option in your game, try flipping that and you’re less likely to feel dizzy. For example, I always invert the Y Axis to play Metal Gear Solid 4 or else I can’t play it .

Camera Sensitivity / Mouse Scroll Smoothing
Many games have a shitty camera and that is because the programmers did a bad job programming it. If you find an option to control the sensitivity of how fast the camera moves to your controls, try adjusting that and it might help. I could never play Killzone 1 because of its awful camera and lowering the camera sensitivity helped me enjoy that game for hours.

CRT versus LCD / Old versus Modern
Ok, this is a definite must. If you have a big screen TV at your home and it is a CRT, please get rid of it and try to play your games on an LCD monitor or TV. If you can’t then you should try to sit as far away as possible from your CRT screen. Also, I must tell you here that monitors and televisions capable of running at 100Hz or higher are less likely to induce you with this sickness. So this is a highly recommended change.

Viewing Angle
This may not be a big one but the angle at which you view the game screen does matter a lot. You should not look straight or under your TV screen. Make sure that you are a bit above the screen and the TV/monitor screen is a bit tilt adjustable to help with that.

Section 2: Ok, I am about to vomit, what do I do now?

I don’t want to sound ironic but whenever a certain photographic pattern makes you dizzy, this could be bad for you. So immediately stop viewing it or you can worsen your situation to an extent of triggering Epilepsy or worse.  You can search around the internet and see for yourself, the cases people have posted.

Lie Down and Close your Eyes
Lying down straight or on your couch and closing your eyes will help you relax instantly. You can also try putting your elbow bent over your eyes to help with the pain in the eyes.

Wash your Face
If you feel that you are heating up and the feeling is uncontrollable. Go wash your face twice or thrice. Drink some water and then lie down again. Do not drink milk or any Soda. This will only worsen your situation. If you feel like vomiting, you possibly won’t, but you may. It will help.

Go to Sleep
Just go to sleep, period. Sleeping for about 2-5 hours will eventually help you with this feeling. This has always solved it for me and I am pretty sure it will help you too.

What if it persists?
This is bad. If this feeling persists even after sleeping and you feel the same after one or two days and you change how you want to eat, then you should immediately consult a doctor. There is no fighting it, you should be careful with your health.

So, that was the longest post I ever wrote but I am happy that I put all the information I have ever known about this feeling in this post. Please feel free to contribute your experiences. I did not add any games that make me feel sick because it can vary from one person to the other.

Thank you and enjoy your games. Take care of your health and try not to over do it. I would like to mention Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear Solid 4 here because it was the first game that included content during it’s loading that advised the player to take  a nap either if it is too late in the night or if he has been playing for too long.

MHAQS

Hi Everyone,

The title says it all. This is for people who use their monitor with the Playstation3 and especially for those, who develop using the PS3. Now, I have a single monitor where I have both my PS3 and my computer attached through a Tuner and a VGA connection respectively. Starting development with the PS3 and not having my LAN and computer around would have created so many problems for me. Furthermore, I already have a jungle of wires behind my PC cabinet and I did not want to add a KVM switch and two more hardware peripherals for the PS3. I needed a software solution to this and Remote Desktop/VNC would not do it for me, since my PS3 is already connected physically to my monitor. This is where this amazing app called “Synergy” comes into play.

What is Synergy?
Synergy is a software KVM switch. If you do not know what a KVM switch is, you can read this article. A typical KVM switch allows you to use a single set of hardware devices to work with two or more machines, which can be on different Operating Systems. You can learn more about Synergy on its homepage here. I don’t want to explain all that here, since they can explain it way better than I can.

Requirements:

You will need to have the following things in order for this setup to work:

- PS3 connected to a network/internet.
- PC connected to the same network or the internet.
- Synergy installer for Windows/OSX/Linux/PS3 YDL 6.

Downloading the installers depends entirely on your selection. I was unable to find a later release for Synergy 1.3.1 for YDL 6. However, I might compile one on my own and upload it here (I am not making any promises ).

From here on, you can follow the official Synergy guide:

Step 1 – Choose a server
The first step is to pick which keyboard and mouse you want to share. The computer with that keyboard and mouse is called the “primary screen” and it runs the synergy server. All of the other computers are “secondary screens” and run the synergy client.

Step 2 – Install the software
Second, you install the software. Choose the appropriate package and install it. For example, on Windows you would run SynergyInstaller. You must install the software on all the computers that will share the mouse and keyboard (clients and server). On OS X you’ll just have a folder with some documentation and two programs. You can put this folder anywhere.

Step 3 – Configure and start the server
Next you configure the server. You’ll tell synergy the name of the primary and secondary screens, which screens are next to which, and choose desired options. On Windows there’s a dialog box for setting the configuration. On other systems you’ll create a simple text file.

Note that when you tell synergy that screen A is to the left of screen B this does not imply that B is to the right of A. You must explicitly indicate both relations. If you don’t do both then when you’re running synergy you’ll find you’re unable to leave one of the screens.

Windows
On Windows run synergy by double clicking on the synergy file. This brings up a dialog. Configure the server:

* Click the Share this computer's keyboard and mouse (server) radio button
* Click the Screens & Links Configure... button
* Click the + button to add the server to the Screens list
o Enter the name of server (the computer's name is the recommended name)
o Optionally enter other names the server is known by
o Click OK
* Use the + button to add your other computers
o Using a computer's name as its screen name is recommended
o Choose desired screen options on the Add Screen dialog
* Use the controls under Links to link screens together
o Click (once) on the server's name in the Screens list
o Choose the screen to the left of the server; use --- if there is no screen
to the left of the server
o Choose the screens to the right, above and below the server
o Repeat the above steps for all the other screens
* Click OK to close the Screens & Links dialog
* Use Options... to set desired options
* If the server's screen name is not the server's computer name:
o Click Advanced...
o Enter the server's screen name next to Screen Name
o Click OK

Now click Test. The server will start and you’ll see a console window with log messages telling you about synergy’s progress. If an error occurs you’ll get one or more dialog boxes telling you what the errors are; read the errors to determine the problem then correct them and try Test again. See Step 5 for typical errors.

Unix or Mac OS X
Create a text file named synergy.conf with the following:

section: screens
screen1:
screen2:
end
section: links
screen1:
right = screen2
screen2:
left = screen1
end

Replace each occurrence of screen1 with the host name of the primary screen computer (as reported by the hostname program) and screen2 with the host name of a secondary screen computer. In the above example, screen2 is to the right of screen1 and screen1 is to the left of screen2. If necessary you should replace right and left with left, right, up, or down. If you have more than two computers you can add those too: add each computer’s host name in the screens section and add the appropriate links. See the configuration guide for more configuration possibilities.

Now start the server. Normally synergy wants to run “in the background.” It detaches from the terminal and doesn’t have a visible window, effectively disappearing from view. Until you’re sure your configuration works, you should start synergy “in the foreground” using the -f command line option.

On unix type the command below in a shell. If synergys is not in your PATH then use the full pathname.

synergys -f --config synergy.conf

On OS X open Terminal in the Utilities folder in the Applications folder. Drag the synergys program from the synergy folder onto the Terminal window. The path to the synergys program will appear. Add the following to the same line, type a space at the end of the line but don’t press enter:

-f --config

Now drag the synergy.conf file onto the Terminal window and press enter. Check the reported messages for errors. Use ctrl+c to stop synergy if it didn’t stop automatically, correct any problems, and start it again.

The Client

Ok, I am not going to go over configuring different clients in this post, since we are only concerned with Yellow Dog Linux. However, if you still want to do that, you can read about it on their homepage. This is where the tricky part starts. Configuring the PS3 for Synergy turned out to be way more difficult than I imagined. This was not because of Synergy itself but because the PS3′s network configuration kept breaking all the time. I am going to make a seperate post about that, so let’s move on to configuring it.

First install the Synergy RPM that you downloaded from link in the earlier part of this post. You need to make sure that you are connected to the internet for the RPM to install correctly. Once you install it, you can test if synergy can connect to your server by typing:

synergy -f

For example, I did:

synergy -f 192.168.1.2

AutoStarting Synergy with YellowDog Linux

All of this won’t be of any use until this setup always runs automatically whenever we start YDL on the PS3. So firstly, you need to configure your Server to AutoStart Synergy everytime it boots. To configure that, you can follow their official guide on this page.

Synergy requires an X server. That means a server must be running and synergy must be authorized to connect to that server. It’s best to have the display manager start synergy. You’ll need the necessary (probably root) permission to modify the display manager configuration files. If you don’t have that permission you can start synergy after logging in via the .xsession file.

Typically, you need to edit three script files. The first file will start synergy before a user logs in, the second will kill that copy of synergy, and the third will start it again after the user logs in.

The files we need to edit are:

gdm/Init/Default
gdm/PostLogin/Default
gdm/PreSession/Default
gdm/PostSession/Default

You need to be logged in as root to perform the steps below. Open up a terminal and type:

su -

Enter the root password when it asks you to. Now navigate to the following directory:

cd /etc/gdm

Then Type

gedit Init/Default

you need to write the following lines into the file. You should write them somewhere on the top of this file:

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1
/usr/bin/synergyc

Save it and then open the next file using gedit and enter the following lines into it. Note that this file may be called, Default.sample and you will need to rename it to make it work. It might be empty as well.

gedit /PostLogin/Default

and enter the following lines

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1

You need to enter the following lines in the next two files at gdm/PreSession/Default and gdm/PostSession/Default.

/usr/bin/killall synergyc
sleep 1
/usr/bin/synergyc

Save all the files and verify the changes. Logout and restart the client and once you get past booting screen, you will notice that you can now switch between the server and client screens. The server should also display that the client is connected now. This setup will work for all users but you always need to make sure that your server is running.

So, there you have it.

Regards,
M.H.A.Q.S.

Update: I receive many emails from people who are trying to update their DSL-2640T with Routertech firmware after looking at this thread or this post. I must update here that the Routertech team has declared this router as “incompatible” with their wireless PSP firmware. If you’re still going to update to this firmware, either know what you’re doing and ask reasonable questions, or you’re on your own.

WARNING: Always check the firmware you need to download using RUC first (linked below).

Before you start, I must say that updating a router’s firmware is not for the faint hearted and I take no responsibility if anything goes wrong with your router. This is pretty much a n00b friendly tutorial, so you should be okay, if you follow everything as written in the RouterTech’s help docs and in this tutorial. Now over to the tutorial:

Please download the following tools and confirm the settings following afterward.

1- Download RUC (Router Update Checker, available here)
2- Download WEB (Wireless Environment Builder, available here).
3- Download your router’s latest official firmware (you should have a copy, in case this goes kaput).

Now whatever you do, don’t blame me. Next open up RUC and enter your router login info, defaults are:

ip: 192.168.1.1
web user: admin
web pass: admin
telenet user: root
telnet pass: admin
no of ethernet ports: 4
router description: dlink g624T

check all boxes at the bottom (they are there for a reason).

* You can edit the routers.txt and make an entry for DSL-2640T as follows too:

DSL-2640T 4

Once RUC gives you a report, it should be similar to the following:

Router Upgrade Check 1.2.9 19/09/2008 09:49:15
Router IP: 192.168.1.1
CLI is needed
Description: Dlink G624T
Board type: AR7VW
Product ID: AR7WRD
Bootloader: psbl
RAM 16.0 MB
Flash (ROM) 4.0 MB
ADAM2: No
No default env: No
Linux version: 2.4.17_mvl21-malta-mips_fp_le
Firmware build:
Firmware version: V3.02B01T01.ME-A.20080125
Firmware stamp: 20080125143616
CPU: MIPS 4KEc V4.8
DSP: 6.00.04.00
Annex: A
/proc/wlan: Yes
/usr/sbin/wlan: Yes
TIAP: Yes
TNETW: Yes
Wireless: Yes
WIFI chip: TNETW1350A
WIFI chip conf: Yes
Ports: 4
Marvell (or Marvell like): No
NSP: V3.02B01T01.ME-A.20080125
Manufacturers: D-link Corporation
RNDIS: Telogy Networks Inc

Now, the things to make sure in the above log are:

Product ID or Board type: AR7WRD
Bootloader: psbl
RAM 16.0 MB
Flash (ROM) 4.0 MB
WIFI chip: TNETW1350A
Marvell (or Marvell like): No

The above settings will qualify you for a RouterTech firmware upgrade. The reason to run RUC was to backup all your settings and configurations at one place. If you have not backed-up your settings, do it now. No one will be responsible, if you do this carelessly and brick your router.

Download RouterTech firmware from http://routertech.org/forum.php. You must register on the forum to download the firmware. For DSL2640T, you’ll need the RoHS 4-port PSP firmware. It should be named something as follows:

routertech-rohs-ar7wrd-pspboot-firmware-xxxxxxx.zip

extract it to some directory and open up the upgrade.html file and DO WHAT IT SAYS.

1- back-up all your settings
a- /proc/ticfg/env
b- /proc/interrupts
c- /etc/led.conf
d- config.bin (using your router’s “save config to hard disk” option in the web panel)
2- reset your router to factory default settings. reboot.
3- once the router comes back online, save all settings and reboot again.
4- open up the update firmware panel in the router’s web panel; Tools->Firmware and browse to where you extracted the above zip file and select:

routertech_ar7wrd_1350a_pspboot_firmware_xxxxxxx_xxx

Now click on Apply and pray to God that all goes well. Leave the router alone for about

8-10 MINUTES…

After ten minutes, telnet into your router again and see if it lets you log in using:

telnet 192.168.1.1

Log in using user:Admin and pass:Admin.

If the router let you log in, go to your Router’s web panel and into the System panel. Click on Restore Factory Settings and Reboot. Once the router comes online. Telnet back into your router:

type

cat /proc/ticfg/env

and take a look at the variables and back them up.

Next perform the following steps:

setenv led_conf led.2640t && /sbin/reboot

once again, when the router comes back online. Telnet again into the router and type:

setenv vlynq_polarity low

Reboot the router once again and you should have a working DSL-2640T running with everything on a custom routertech firmware. You can issue all the commands above in a single go but I say, do not mess with your router, unless you are confident of your actions.

For the people, who do not have their WLAN working, after the upgrade or even so before the upgrade, please follow the steps below:

A common issue for many people on a router exists, where the AP stays off and only comes online by using

"echo NVS_TFTP_LOAD 0 > /proc/ticfg/env"

However, this can create issues on the environment side and the solution itself is temporary too. The actual issue is a corrupted WLAN EEPROM, which needs to be fixed:

- Extract WEB (Wireless Environment Builder) somewhere in a directory and open it up.
- Fill up the information it asks for.
- If you do not have a TWNET ID, go to your router’s system logs. They can be found in Status->SystemLog. Browse them and find the line where it says:

"Failed to get DIE ID from wlan driver. Cannot validate EEPROM Image"
....
....
"Setting bootloader env NVS_TFTP_LOAD to 1"

- Look for a string similar to this:

"Retrieving EEPROM image file nvs_5e015cf4a901151d.bin from TFTP Server"
"ERROR: TFTP of file : nvs_5e015cf4a901151d.bin failed"

- there, the string next to “nvs_” is your TWNETID i.e.5e015cf4a901151d. It should be different for you.
- copy it in WEB and click on “get router details” or “build environment”. It should work and after a while, it will ask you that it can send the script directly to the router. Do so, and let the router reboot after that. You’re done, once the Router comes back online, go check your environment now and you’re good to go.

I hope this will help many people. You might wanna head over to RouterTech for more help and if you run into any issues. Those guys are a great help and they have some fantastic stuff there.

Regards,
M.H.A.Q.S.