Anyone getting dizzy literally?

[TheMystic]

There has to be some sort of link in the past week with me getting extremely dizzy and Civ 4. I'm not playing for excessive amounts of time or anything, lately multi-games that go on for 3-4 hours. It seems like the dizzyness lasts for a little over 24 hours and after a couple of nights sleep I'm back to normal. It's really disorienting though and the feeling is just uncomfortable.

Any suggestions on how I can try to stop Civ 4 from making me dizzy? I don't understand why it's happening to begin with - I play shooters constantly and plenty of other 3D games. If it helps any, I'm playing at a 1280x960 resolution at 100hz refresh. All details maxed. Maybe if I turn off certain effects this whole dizzy thing would stop. I don't know.

Just curious if there's anyone else out there experiencing this. I love the game but it's screwing with my balance for a long time every time I play.

 

[Janos]

I'd try perhaps getting some fresh air or turning off the computer for a bit! You said when you're not having a CivIV session you're playing shooters or other 3D games constantly... there needs to be a limit and maybe taking a break from playing games for a day or two would help?

 

[Max_x_fire]

Do you have sore or itchy ears? maybe you have an inner ear infection... that can make you dizzy (Just a thought!)

Maybe a checkup with the Doc is in order!!

 

[arcan]

of making a 15 min pause every hour when playing.

 

[Shigga]

Hm the fact that you play FPS does not necessarily mean that you are immune in general, only that you are used to the rapid movement of FPS. Since cIV is another thing altogether, perhaps it is the absence of movement that makes you dizzy. I mean, even RTS is still kind of fast switching compared to cIV. Turning off a little of the eye candy could help tho.

Reminds me of the days when I first started with games. Wolfenstein made me sick up but I kept on playing and after some time the effect began to lessen and disappeared eventually. Keep on playing even if it's discomforting, perhaps it will go..

 

[memdee]

I have the exact same problem with getting dizzy, although I hardly have any time for playing civ (unfortunately ). I play every now and then, but never for longer than an hour - so that can't be it.
Also, Civ 4 is the first game I experience this "problem" (if it is one) with.
I'm playing on 1280x1024x72hz on a 17" TFT.

 

[elderotter]

wow, I sat down to play last night and dizziness came upon me. I was very tired tho having been fishing all day - plus 50 mile ride each way there. Perhaps I had OD'd on fresh air ?

 

[Shigga]

Perhaps it's subconscious carrier waves telling you to buy the next title of the franchise!

all jokes aside, I wonder if there are more than the 2 so far... bc if there are more ppl affected then somebody should adress this issue.

 

[arcan]

Perhaps it's subconscious carrier waves telling you to buy the next title of the franchise!

all jokes aside, I wonder if there are more than the 2 so far... bc if there are more ppl affected then somebody should adress this issue.

Should it be adressed in the "bug report" section?

 

[LostKing]

Zoom out a little. Going around at max zoom can be quite dizzying as it goes through the units.

 

[NinjaCool]

Maybe your eyes are sensitive to the refresh rates. Try lowering to 75 and 85 and see if it helps.
You could also try another resolution if the above doesnt work.

 

[Dicanio3]

wow, I sat down to play last night and dizziness came upon me. I was very tired tho having been fishing all day - plus 50 mile ride each way there. Perhaps I had OD'd on fresh air ?

I'm sorry, but I'm very confused! Let me see if I'm understanding you correctly, you have a copy of Civ4 and you decide to go fishing? Not only this but you drive 100 miles (about two hours of Civ4 playing time) to do this??? I don't think dizziness is your main problem, priority setting yes

ps. apologies if fishing is your trade. Second apology if you had a copy of Civ4 strategy guide in your hand whilst fishing. Third apology for being a jealous Uk citizen that still has to wait until Friday for Civ4

 

[opkoad]

I suggest disabling "Show friendly moves" in the options dialog. Say your allies with your neighbors, and the camera is constantly panning to show their worker movements, military units through your territory, etc. The panning from one unit to another is probably contributing to the dizziness. By disabling "show friendly moves", you will only get pans on movements of units whose tribes you are at war with.

Also, try pressing alt-f (satellite view) which gives you a straight top-down view of the world -- because maybe it's the rotation towards the horizon as you zoom in that is bothering you.

Experiment with these two options separately to narrow down which one causes dizziness.

 

[TheMystic]

Hm the fact that you play FPS does not necessarily mean that you are immune in general, only that you are used to the rapid movement of FPS. Since cIV is another thing altogether, perhaps it is the absence of movement that makes you dizzy. I mean, even RTS is still kind of fast switching compared to cIV. Turning off a little of the eye candy could help tho.

Reminds me of the days when I first started with games. Wolfenstein made me sick up but I kept on playing and after some time the effect began to lessen and disappeared eventually. Keep on playing even if it's discomforting, perhaps it will go..

I've also played tons of games of Rome:TW, Civ 1,2,3, MOM, Colonization, MOO1,2,3, etc. I've never had anything like this. I haven't had much time for FPS in the past week because of Civ 4. I bought Call of Duty 2 CE for example and I've had maybe an hour of time with it thus far. Same goes for Quake 4.

 

[TheMystic]

Maybe your eyes are sensitive to the refresh rates. Try lowering to 75 and 85 and see if it helps.
You could also try another resolution if the above doesnt work.

Eh, usually lower refresh rates are what make people feel off. My 21" monitor can handle the 100hz at that res with no problems. It's a very high end 21".

I suggest disabling "Show friendly moves" in the options dialog. Say your allies with your neighbors, and the camera is constantly panning to show their worker movements, military units through your territory, etc. The panning from one unit to another is probably contributing to the dizziness. By disabling "show friendly moves", you will only get pans on movements of units whose tribes you are at war with.

Also, try pressing alt-f (satellite view) which gives you a straight top-down view of the world -- because maybe it's the rotation towards the horizon as you zoom in that is bothering you.

Experiment with these two options separately to narrow down which one causes dizziness.

I'll try these suggestions as they sound pretty promising. If I'm wrong though, there goes another 24 hours of balance. It's the weirdest thing I tell you.

 

[memdee]

I just played another hour. I noticed that zooming out a little actually does help a bit.
Another thing I noticed (actually it was someone watching me) were my eyes twitching around all the time. My suspicion: the unorganized user interface! My eyes are constantly on the move, looking for buttons they don't yet recognize at once.

Just a theory

 

[KMadCandy]

i'm definitely an odd case because i have really bad dizziness/vertigo problems, long-term, in fact it's why i have so much time to play civ4 since i'm currently not working . i can't play FPS games at all, and even the very very old wolfenstein 3D that wasn't 3D hardly at all made me seasick within minutes.

i never had any trouble at all with civ2 or civ3. and while playing civ4 i don't feel dizzy or seasick/nauseated. but lately when walking i definitely feel dizzy, and i can tell something is up because i've been dreaming about flying which i always do when i have a flare-up, but it's odd, this is not nearly as bad as a usual flare-up so it's quite strange. i only linked it to civ4 about an hour before i read your post, wasn't obvious to me since i don't feel dizzy during the playing, but this started happening literally the night i got the game so i'm pretty sure it's linked.

the very first option i changed, before i played a single move, was to turn off all the show movements, i can't handle the view changing that much. i'm going to try the satellite view, thanks for that suggestion opkoad i hadn't noticed that option yet

 

[opkoad]

Sweet! I just found the file that lets you tweak all the camera controls.

It's called CvCameraControls.py and it's in the Assets\Python folder. Experimenting with the settings should help alleviate the dizzy spells

 

[opkoad]

Just to elaborate (for you non-coders) it should be possible to modify the script in this file to remove all camera motion. Ever notice how when you click on the mini-map far away from your current position, you snap directly there instead of smoothly moving there? Well, you could probably make it *always* do that, when panning and zooming. I haven't look at the file too much yet, since I'm at the office, but just from skimming it, it seems like the capability is there

 

[TheMystic]

i'm definitely an odd case because i have really bad dizziness/vertigo problems, long-term, in fact it's why i have so much time to play civ4 since i'm currently not working . i can't play FPS games at all, and even the very very old wolfenstein 3D that wasn't 3D hardly at all made me seasick within minutes.

i never had any trouble at all with civ2 or civ3. and while playing civ4 i don't feel dizzy or seasick/nauseated. but lately when walking i definitely feel dizzy, and i can tell something is up because i've been dreaming about flying which i always do when i have a flare-up, but it's odd, this is not nearly as bad as a usual flare-up so it's quite strange. i only linked it to civ4 about an hour before i read your post, wasn't obvious to me since i don't feel dizzy during the playing, but this started happening literally the night i got the game so i'm pretty sure it's linked.

the very first option i changed, before i played a single move, was to turn off all the show movements, i can't handle the view changing that much. i'm going to try the satellite view, thanks for that suggestion opkoad i hadn't noticed that option yet

I'm going to give that a shot but I'm going to wait until tomorrow I think. I'm still dizzy from this weekend so tomorrow should hopefully be better. It's definitely something that becomes more noticable once I get off the computer. I'm just surprised how long the duration is.

I'm also going to see about possibly seeing a doc to get my ears checked later this week just as an extra measure. While I'd like to blame it on an ear infection, it seems that when I stay away from Civ the dizziness goes away after 24 hours or so.