Damage to the Eyes

[Nick]

Someone already mentioned the possible damage to the eyes of the player? You know.. they may have fixed the problem of sickness, but long-term, human eyes can be harmed by it.

There are two screens / monitors to 60 FPS a few centimeters of their eyes. On the PC, the monitor is set back, at least. There is a huge difference here.

[Legion495]

I think, if this would have such an huge impact it wouldn't go out anyways... so I believe dmg over time due to aging is much more damage than this could get you in and there are few who will overuse that stuff.

Those are basicly monitors just next to the eye, I don't see the big diff. here.

[Nick]

Originally posted by Legion♋495:

I think, if this would have such an huge impact it wouldn't go out anyways... so I believe dmg over time due to aging is much more damage than this could get you in and there are few who will overuse that stuff.

Those are basicly monitors just next to the eye, I don't see the big diff. here.

There are two screens / monitors to 60 FPS a few centimeters of their eyes. On the PC, the monitor is set back, at least. There is a huge difference here.

[aiusepsi]

Because of the lenses, it's optically like the screens are around 1.3 m away on an Oculus DK2, and it'll be similar in the shipped product and in the Vive. As far as eyestrain goes, it's probably no worse than a 3D movie.

[oni]

light is light if the source is close but the brightness is decreased it doesn't at all. The sun is far away but it can hurt your eyes compared to that your monitor is right next to your eyes but less energy is coming out of it.

[Ruuubick]

I've used my DK2 for more than a thousand hours, sometimes for more than 15 hours in a row, and my vision and eyes are fine, thank you !

[Nick]

Originally posted by Ruuubick:

I've used my DK2 for more than a thousand hours, sometimes for more than 15 hours in a row, and my vision and eyes are fine, thank you !

Thousand hours means nothing in the long run term.

Let's see the news of the problems in the eyes that will occur much use VR. But only in a few years.

Good luck.

[jashan]

I agree that there's a potential risk there because unlike in the physical world, your eyes don't need to focus depending on the distance. Eventually, this will be solved by lightfield displays and/or foveated rendering with lenses that adjust the focal point depending on what you're looking at (not sure if the latter can work at all but there's already prototypes for lightfield displays that have two or three distances to focus on). Having this will also increase immersion and make using VR a little more comfortable for a few very sensitive individuals.

For now, I'd definitely not recommend VR for children - at least not for longer than several minutes. Personally, I do feel like my eyes have gotten a little worse since I started doing VR but that might as well be a long-term effect of using computer screens a lot (which I believe is actually worse for your eyes than VR ... just like reading a lot of books without taking breaks ;-) ).

The good thing is that at least room-scale VR will be much healthier for the rest of your body than playing traditional computers games, because you move instead of sitting for extended periods of time (which is about as unhealthy as smoking cigarettes according to some people).

[[eFz] maonayze]

Remember when you were a small child and your mum used to tell you off for standing next to the TV and looking at it (mine did). She used to say "Get away from the TV it will give you bad eyes". Well apparently it was all a myth, an old wives tale. I have had 20/20 vision all my life and only recently have had a pair of reading glasses, which is normal for people in their late forties...I've also been playing games since I was 9 years old. So I wouldnt panic about the VR headset lenses.

[Nicky the Hutt]

Do you work in IT or using a display of some sort?

Ask HR if your company can pay for an eye examination even if you think your eyes are fine. I damaged my eyes at work not using protective and corrective eye-wear, not by playing games a few hours a week/day.

[Nick]

Originally posted by Nicky the Hutt:

Do you work in IT or using a display of some sort?

Ask HR if your company can pay for an eye examination even if you think your eyes are fine. I damaged my eyes at work not using protective and corrective eye-wear, not by playing games a few hours a week/day.

You clearly did not understand what I said. No matter how many hours you play a day TODAY, you do not have Steam VR as a parameter. I also play several hours a day and had no damage to the eye, but I'm on the COMPUTER / MONITOR. With Steam VR, the glasses there are very few centimeters from my eyes. I will explain again for you to understand:

Steam VR - There are two screens / monitors to 60 FPS a few centimeters of Their Eyes.

PC - the monitor is set back, at least.

There is a huge difference here.

[Nicky the Hutt]

There is about 40 to 60 centimetres difference, do you think or "know" that your eyes are safe from damage because of the distance? Want to Google that?

[Nick]

Originally posted by Nicky the Hutt:

There is about 40 to 60 centimetres difference, do you think or "know" that your eyes are safe from damage because of the distance? Want to Google that?

Of course my eyes (or anyone's eyes) are not safe because of the monitors, but sorry, 40-60 cm difference is significant for human eyes, especially in the long term. I'm sorry.

[Nicky the Hutt]

Do you use computer glasses or just take 5 minutes breaks now and then?

I'll skip to it: Your eyes are not safe at that distance, for many people using screens over 2 or 4 hours a day there are serious short and long term consequences from staring at a screen at that distance, because of the prolonged periods we're doing it and especially the distance. If your eyes developed faults you haven't had checked out, you're at an even larger risk.

That's why some countries enforce laws for companies to give protective eye-wear to their employees, because they're work injuries. Many ignore it, yes, because they get used to it and don't "see" it as injury. They think they're just tired or have a headache.

Your concern is justified, I'm not defending VR, there should be more medical studies, but the fact that I asked about computers at work and you didn't seem interested in it while in the topic of "Damage to the eyes", illustrates something about how we (not just you) pick our safety concerns.

It's natural to worry, but we should really worry intelligently. VR headsets have room for glasses. Protect your eyes if you're using screens daily.

[Nick]

Originally posted by Nicky the Hutt:

Do you use computer glasses or just take 5 minutes breaks now and then?

I'll skip to it: Your eyes are not safe at that distance, for many people using screens over 2 or 4 hours a day there are serious short and long term consequences from staring at a screen at that distance, because of the prolonged periods we're doing it and especially the distance. If your eyes developed faults you haven't had checked out, you're at an even larger risk.

That's why some countries enforce laws for companies to give protective eye-wear to their employees, because they're work injuries. Many ignore it, yes, because they get used to it and don't "see" it as injury. They think they're just tired or have a headache.

Your concern is justified, I'm not defending VR, there should be more medical studies, but the fact that I asked about computers at work and you didn't seem interested in it while in the topic of "Damage to the eyes", illustrates something about how we (not just you) pick our safety concerns.

It's natural to worry, but we should really worry intelligently. VR headsets have room for glasses. Protect your eyes if you're using screens daily.

Good point. You are right.

And I never research on computer glasses. I will do this now.

[Nicky the Hutt]

I did some research out of curiosity and ended up with prescription glasses and computer glasses, the latter free of charge. But some may be luckier, those computer glasses are great for gamers.

Regarding the topic, if distance is the only difference (I'd think there are more differences but I don't know them), something that should be looked into when it comes to VR is when collimated light lens technique is used. There's a strain on the eye muscle to focus at a semi-short distance for continuous periods that is dangerous past 1 hour exposure, but if the VR's (I have tested none of them) allow your eyes to focus to a virtual farther distance, it's healthier.