Simulator sickness

Simulator sickness is a subset of motion sickness that is typically experienced while playing video games from first-person perspective. It was discovered in the context of aircraft pilots who undergo training for extended periods of time in flight simulators. Due to the spatial limitations imposed on these simulators, perceived discrepancies between the motion of the simulator and that of the vehicle can occur and lead to simulator sickness. It is similar to motion sickness in many ways, but occurs in simulated environments and can be induced without actual motion. Symptoms of simulator sickness include discomfort, apathy, drowsiness, disorientation, fatigue, and nausea. These symptoms can reduce the effectiveness of simulators in flight training and result in systematic consequences such as decreased simulator use, compromised training, ground safety, and flight safety. Pilots are less likely to want to repeat the experience in a simulator if they have suffered from simulator sickness and hence can reduce the number of potential users. It can also compromise training in two safety-critical ways: It can distract the pilot during training sessions. It can cause the pilot to adopt certain counterproductive behaviors to prevent symptoms from occurring. Simulator sickness can also have post-training effects that can compromise safety after the simulator session, such as when the pilots drive away from the facility or fly while experiencing symptoms of simulator sickness. Though human-piloted aviation has existed since the early 20th century, simulator sickness did not arise as an issue for pilots until much later when the first fixed-base simulators were created. Bell Aircraft Corporation created a helicopter simulator for the Navy during the 1950s, and it was found "that a large number of observers (mostly helicopter pilots) experienced some degree of vertigo during these demonstrations". Navy psychologists performed further study on the pilots who participated in these simulator exercises, and found that 28 out of 36 respondents to their evaluations experienced sickness.