Where to look?

[Lvl 69 C*m Goblin]

Picked up the game on sale. Having a blast so far.

My question is where do you guys look when youre playing, so your eyes dont get rekt? I cant decide if its better to look at your character or the oncoming enemies.

Any input would be appreciated.

Also, is there a quick restart button?

[Pompom]

i mostly look at the incoming ennemy (near the zone where the boss stay) and i just hit with the rhythm

[MDuh]

It's variable for me cause the horizontal scroll speed differs per song and you can't customize it. It's hard to focus on one spot, luckily I have a OSD feature on my monitor to display a crosshair in the middle and I adjust based on that. The most fastest scrolling songs I look at the middle, slower ones will be in the middle of the judge/crosshair, slowest one will be directly on the judge circles

[CLN Flushed]

You shouldn't try to look at the marker to tell when to press, it's really not what you're supposed to do. If you're focusing your sight trying to tell when the notes enter the marker to time your presses no wonder you're nuking your eyes.

If you look at the notes you follow them with your sight and your eyes have to jump left and right very quickly which is extremely tiring for your rectus muscles around your eye. Absolutely don't do this, unless you want to train to compete for the title of strongest eye muscles of all time.

If you focus on the crosshair it will be extremely difficult to track the fast moving notes with your peripheral vision which will put enormous strain on your sight, and you'll see the notes blurred putting extra strain on your vision by trying to refocus all the time. Don't do this either, headaches assured.

For the beginner songs both of these strategies work because of the slow scroll speeds and the fewer notes, and it's fine for getting the jist of when to press according to the rithm, but after you get experienced at the game you should learn to rely on rithm alone instead of visuals.

What I do personally is not focusing on the moving parts at all, actually you don't even need to focus your eyes on anything in particular at all if you want to take it to the extreme, and use your sight only to tell what kind of pattern is coming up (up/down/both/hold, you can tell this very easily even if you aren't focusing your sight), and rely purely on hearing and rithm to get the timing right. Now I don't want to gauge my eyes out with a spoon after 1h of playing anymore.

[Lvl 69 C*m Goblin]

Originally posted by RevolutionTime:

You shouldn't try to look at the marker to tell when to press, it's really not what you're supposed to do. If you're focusing your sight trying to tell when the notes enter the marker to time your presses no wonder you're nuking your eyes.

If you look at the notes you follow them with your sight and your eyes have to jump left and right very quickly which is extremely tiring for your rectus muscles around your eye. Absolutely don't do this, unless you want to train to compete for the title of strongest eye muscles of all time.

If you focus on the crosshair it will be extremely difficult to track the fast moving notes with your peripheral vision which will put enormous strain on your sight, and you'll see the notes blurred putting extra strain on your vision by trying to refocus all the time. Don't do this either, headaches assured.

For the beginner songs both of these strategies work because of the slow scroll speeds and the fewer notes, and it's fine for getting the jist of when to press according to the rithm, but after you get experienced at the game you should learn to rely on rithm alone instead of visuals.

What I do personally is not focusing on the moving parts at all, actually you don't even need to focus your eyes on anything in particular at all if you want to take it to the extreme, and use your sight only to tell what kind of pattern is coming up (up/down/both/hold, you can tell this very easily even if you aren't focusing your sight), and rely purely on hearing and rithm to get the timing right. Now I don't want to gauge my eyes out with a spoon after 1h of playing anymore.

So i should just watch the background in the middle and use my peripheral vision?

[MDuh]

Originally posted by RevolutionTime:

You shouldn't try to look at the marker to tell when to press, it's really not what you're supposed to do. If you're focusing your sight trying to tell when the notes enter the marker to time your presses no wonder you're nuking your eyes.

If you look at the notes you follow them with your sight and your eyes have to jump left and right very quickly which is extremely tiring for your rectus muscles around your eye. Absolutely don't do this, unless you want to train to compete for the title of strongest eye muscles of all time.

If you focus on the crosshair it will be extremely difficult to track the fast moving notes with your peripheral vision which will put enormous strain on your sight, and you'll see the notes blurred putting extra strain on your vision by trying to refocus all the time. Don't do this either, headaches assured.

For the beginner songs both of these strategies work because of the slow scroll speeds and the fewer notes, and it's fine for getting the jist of when to press according to the rithm, but after you get experienced at the game you should learn to rely on rithm alone instead of visuals.

What I do personally is not focusing on the moving parts at all, actually you don't even need to focus your eyes on anything in particular at all if you want to take it to the extreme, and use your sight only to tell what kind of pattern is coming up (up/down/both/hold, you can tell this very easily even if you aren't focusing your sight), and rely purely on hearing and rithm to get the timing right. Now I don't want to gauge my eyes out with a spoon after 1h of playing anymore.

Are you just contradicting yourself? You said you shouldn't look at a marker but then you also said to not follow the notes. What is it really?

Looking at a marker means you have a spot to fix your eyes on. You said it yourself, having your eyes jump left and right creates eyestrain.

OP, If you still can't adjust to the horizontal scrolling gameplay, I suggest rotating your display physically or by drivers.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2129868488

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyEX8n2D4Pw

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by Dirty Rotten Fart Person:

So i should just watch the background in the middle and use my peripheral vision?

Well that's what I do, basically, and if I'm bored and tired I don't even focus on the screen at all.
It's what I've found tires me the least.
Just rest your eyes where you feel most comfortable and click to the rithm, once you practice the maps and start to know the patterns it will matter less and less what you do with your sight anyway, so usually eye strain will naturally decrease with practice and experience. I guess you're transitioning from 4-5 stars to 6 stars and above? Basically don't try too hard and the problem will fix itself.

Also consider that this may be a straining game no matter how you play, make sure to take breaks when you feel like it ; )

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by MDuh:

Are you just contradicting yourself? You said you shouldn't look at a marker but then you also said to not follow the notes. What is it really?

Looking at a marker means you have a spot to fix your eyes on. You said it yourself, having your eyes jump left and right creates eyestrain.

OP, If you still can't adjust to the horizontal scrolling gameplay, I suggest rotating your display physically or by drivers.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2129868488

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyEX8n2D4Pw

It does sound like I'm contraddicting myself, but let me explain that better. It doesn't matter where you look as long as you're not focusing on the notes and straining your vision, but if people look at the marker to see when the notes cross it they're most likely focusing on the notes for a split second, likely involuntarily, straining their eyes. Also trying to precisely track objects while keeping your eyes still still takes up a lot of mental energy from my experience and leaves me mentally exhausted, so that's why I discourage from tracking the notes even while keeping your eyes immoble. You shouldn't have to look at the markers to tell when to press anyway, so if anything it prevents bad practices.

So yeah you could look at the marker without focusing your eyes, sure, as long as you don't try to track the notes of course, but imo it's much easier if you pick a neutral spot, from my experience, also because by picking a spot near the middle you have to rely less on your peripheral vision to see the upcoming notes, which I find tiring.

I guess i could've summed it up in "don't try to track the notes, neither by following them with your sight nor with peripheral vision by keeping your eyes still".
You just need to tell what kind of notes they are and in what sequence, any more than that is all wasted energy that strains you. Of course if you don't want to feel tired you should save energy wherever possible.

[MDuh]

if you look at a marker, you queue the note patterns in your brain that you are supposed to hit so that your eyes don't need to move and follow them.

It's just inherently harder on muse dash cause the note shapes changes, the background changes (This 2 will force your eyes to move/adjust) and you cannot customize the scrolling speed per music to have 1 singular neutral spot.

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by MDuh:

if you look at a marker, you queue the note patterns in your brain that you are supposed to hit so that your eyes don't need to move and follow them.

It's just inherently harder on muse dash cause the note shapes changes, the background changes (This 2 will force your eyes to move/adjust) and you cannot customize the scrolling speed per music to have 1 singular neutral spot.

Sure, but you also do that by looking at anywhere else. It's personal preference and I guess that I shouldn't have assumed that every person would feel comfortable with my particular preference.

But we seem to agree that one shouldn't try to track the notes, in any case. Let's leave it at that I guess.

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by MDuh:

you cannot customize the scrolling speed per music to have 1 singular neutral spot.

And also you said it yourself that picking one precise spot doesn't tend to work well in muse dash because the scroll speed varies between songs. Now you're the one that seems to be contraddicting themselves. Imo you should rest your eyes wherever you find most comfortable, which of course might change between songs, or even within the same song.

But yeah if it happens to be the marker and the notes don't distract you then I find no fault in that, I should've been clearer about that I guess.

[MDuh]

Originally posted by RevolutionTime:

Originally posted by MDuh:

you cannot customize the scrolling speed per music to have 1 singular neutral spot.

And also you said it yourself that picking one precise spot doesn't tend to work well in muse dash because the scroll speed varies between songs. Now you're the one that seems to be contraddicting themselves. Imo you should rest your eyes wherever you find most comfortable, which of course might change between songs, or even within the same song.

But yeah if it happens to be the marker and the notes don't distract you then I find no fault in that, I should've been clearer about that I guess.

How is it contradictory? I said above that the crosshair was a guide and I pick a spot relative to it depending on the scroll speed of a song. You were the one who is trying to push for a "Neutral Spot" which I said is difficult since the scrolling speed of each song is variable.

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by MDuh:

How is it contradictory? I said above that the crosshair was a guide and I pick a spot relative to it depending on the scroll speed of a song. You were the one who is trying to push for a "Neutral Spot" which I said is difficult since the scrolling speed of each song is variable.

I didn't say that said spot was in a fixed position between songs or even within the same song, it's simply the spot that you find most comfy and less tiring, which can change. I actually never said that it's a fixed point.

Also that is maybe what you meant, but definitively not what you said, or at least it wasn't clear.
Even then I don't see why one should force themselves to pick a spot relative to the crosshairs.
You mean it has to be close? Because for example my preference already invalidates that, I don't like to keep my eyes near the crosshairs, and if it isn't true for me then it most likely isn't the case for everyone else, as a logical conclusion. Also might as well explain again I didn't say that that spot shouldn't be near the crosshairs or on the crosshairs as long as you're not making an effort to line up the crosshairs with the notes to click, I was talking about that specific behaviour in that case.
And if it doesn't have to be close, literally any spot can be "relative" to the crosshairs as long as they're both in your field of vision, so you aren't saying anything different than what I'm saying.

Anyway, there's definitively enough material now for anyone to build their own opinion, so imma get going.

[MDuh]

btw, the crosshair I'm talking about is the OSD created by my monitor on the middle of the screen. Not the judgment circles.

[CLN Flushed]

Originally posted by MDuh:

btw, the crosshair I'm talking about is the OSD created by my monitor on the middle of the screen. Not the judgment circles.

Aight thanks for clearing that up, then yeah that's more or less what I'm saying as well.

[sockesocke]

my view stays somewhere slightly left from the center of the playing field. the exception are more complicated patterns where the 2 inputs switch a lot for example. in those cases i look directly at the character.