Valve Designer Says Developers to Blame for VR Sickness, Not Hardware

Nausea caused by the use of VR headsets should be attributed to bad software design, according to Valve writer and designer Chet Faliszek.

Speaking at EGX, as reported by GamesIndustry, Faliszek said the idea that VR makes people sick is "bullshit," adding that hardware had matured to the point where it is no longer the cause of the issue.

"We have people come in who don't want to do demos. In a party of ten people there will be someone who says 'I'm gonna be sick, I can't do this.' That expectation is based on either what they've seen before or what they've heard," he said.

"As consumers and people in the community, hold developers to it. They shouldn't be making you sick. It's no longer the hardware's fault any more. It's the developers making choices that are making you sick. Tell them that you don't want that."

Valve has partnered with HTC to create the Vive headset. According to Valve founder Gabe Newell, “zero percent of people get motion sick” when using the Vive.

In his statements, Faliszek highlighted traditional movement inputs such as keyboards and thumbsticks as "the easiest way to get somebody sick."

Vive uses a system called "Lighthouse," which tracks users within a designated space and allows them to more naturally interact with the virtual world. This, Faliszek says, makes the VR experience "exponentially better."

"When you reach in and can interact with the world your brain's buying into the system grows that much stronger," he explained.

Vive units will be available to the public "later this year," but only in a "limited quantity." The wider Vive product launch is slated for between January and March of 2016.

GameSpot's Peter Brown tried Vive and said that Valve "demonstrates the future of VR better than anyone."