Oculus Rift Team Working to Stop the Motion Sickness

The Oculus Rift virtual reality headset is a real trip for anyone who straps it on — for some more than others.

Complaints about motion sickness while riding a virtual roller coaster or traipsing through a far-off land made of pixels has inspired Oculus VR to make some changes. according to PCMag's sister site IGN.

"There are a lot of challenges, like resolution," Brendan Iribe, head of Oculus VR, said during this week's Gaming Insiders Summit. "It's a big one on the current dev kit."

As part of the next incarnation of the Rift prototype, Oculus is expected to boost its current 640-by-800 resolution to 720p. Eventually, the headset will run in full 1080p HD, and perhaps one day — "not far away," Iribe said — it will reach 4K.

"You can imagine what it's going to look like when it's 4K," the Oculus exec said. "It's not now, but it's coming."

Not soon enough, though. The still-unannounced retail launch date will not fall in 2013, according to Iribe. The company is taking its time to work out the kinks before sending consumers running for the bathroom whenever they play a virtual reality video game.

"I've gotten sick every time I've tried [Rift]," Iribe admitted, adding that it only takes a couple of minutes in a virtual world before he feels ill. But the company seems to have fixed the issue, at least for Iribe.

"In the last couple weeks, I've tried a prototype internally where I did not get sick for the first time, and I stayed in there for 45 minutes," he said.

Oculus later confirmed that the company does have a new internal tech demo that "greatly reduces simulation sickness and even eliminates it in certain virtual environmets."

The Rift is not the only technology affected by this issue. Shortly after Apple released iOS 7 in September, users said the system's zoom animations produced bouts of nausea and vertigo. Unfortunately, while there is no way to disable the Parallax motion setting, users can reduce the effect via Settings > General > Accessibility > "Reduce Motion."

For more, see PCMag's Unboxing the Oculus Rift VR Headset and the slideshow above. Also check out Your Guide to the Oculus Rift VR Headset, along with the hands-on video below.

Also see 'The Hobbit' and Other Movies That Will Make You Sick.

Editor's Note: This story was updated at Monday with comment from Oculus.