Eye Strain

[burts]

Im wondering about the effects of eye strain with these new 4k oled goggles...

I own the quest go/quest 2 and quest 3 and sometimes or all the time there comes a point really fast or not for me where the goggles need to come off.... The sensation of needing to rest your eyes coupled with a nauseation feeling is what happens to me around the 30 min mark....

I think certain games will have this effect faster then say beat saber which youll only quit because your tired....

I do not spend much time with my vr dust collectors, maybe 30 min a day since I got the quest 3...Actually I go for 2 sessions a day now with asgards wrath 2...

I ask this because my main concern is I would buy apple vision pro mainly for media consumption which is something I have never done comfortably with my quest....

I wouldnt dare watch a movie with my quest but im wondering would you get eye strain watching youtube/movies in vision pro? Will I reach for my ipad vs the goggles for media consumption after the initial wow factor wears off...

 

[TheColtr]

I want to use the Vision Pro for work mostly, and I too am concerned about this exact thing. I tried some VR work apps on the quest 2 and while it worked for a bit I found my eyes got tired and by the third or so day I stopped doing it because the novelty wasn’t worth the effects. I hope the Vision Pro does not have the same effect.

 

[prefuse07]

Without giving myself away too much, I'm a Management Consultant and my company has a massive partnership with Facebook (from just that sentence alone you can probably guess where I work). At the beginning of the pandemic they started handing out VR goggles to all of our employees globally (including new hires) in order to "improve our digital collaboration" (i.e. do onboarding, host meetings and client workshops within the Metaverse, etc....)

Literally ALL employees returned or no longer use them as a result of 1. Nausea, 2. Eye strain/fatigue/dizzyness/vertigo, 3. Uncomfortable for contact/glasses wearers, and 4. Just overall NOT enjoying the experience. Luckily our Metaverse environment is also easily accessible via browser, and it works the same way, so people just use that since it's way more convenient and easier to use (I myself am one).

We have also tried to host some global townhalls within the Metaverse countless times, and everyone just joins from their browsers (instead of using their headsets), there were maybe 10 - 12 people that used their headsets out of thousands (and they also tend to be on the Analyst side). I know this because during many townhalls I was part of the team that coordinated the Metaverse/headset portion, and we had to keep track of who was using which platform, plus my close friend is the MD of our Metaverse group and is always telling me how much of a failure it is, even though he wishes it weren't.

Leadership just didn't understand why nobody wanted to use it, and sent several surveys to try to understand why, but even after people explained the eye fatigue/nausea/dizzyness/vertigo and they just don't like it, our leadership team still touts Metaverse as the future and urge us to sell the idea to clients (I suspect it's again due to the $$$ that Facebook is throwing at us). As a result of this failure, we no longer use the Metaverse for townhalls.

Now before you go blaming this on the Metaverse, know that we also have a few (non-Metaverse) 3D VR environments (built by our devs) that live within our intranet and colleagues can use if they want to host a "virtual" meeting, also, before the Metaverse, this is where we tried having the townhalls, but it went terribly. So this is NOT a Metaverse specific problem, but rather the VR world that nobody wants (especially when it's forced)

So I come at this problem with a world of professional experience in this (I've been using VR since the 80's), and my company had almost 1MM employees at the height of the pandemic (when we were really trying to push this stuff out).

A lot of people have returned to offices now, and from what i've heard from colleagues that inventory/handle our IT equipment: the majority of oculus headsets are literally sitting in their boxes in a warehouse in TX collecting dust. The ones that haven't been returned are sitting in their boxes in my colleagues' houses... collecting dust.

This is why I am so critical/against this stupid AVP, and this overall VR movement. Again, as someone who has been using VR since the 80's, I have seen this movement come and go multiple times. I will admit that I do enjoy gaming in these headsets (and I also won't lie, Porn is great too), but it's only worth a couple hours of fun, due to eye fatigue/nausea/dizzyness/vertigo, and games/programs not being fully optimized for it resulting in a bad experience, plus once the novelty wears off it's just...dumb.

My headsets sit in their box now.

 

[bloomfeld]

This is why I am so critical/against this stupid AVP, and this overall VR movement. Again, as someone who has been using VR since the 80's, I have seen this movement come and go multiple times. I will admit that I do enjoy gaming in these headsets (and I also won't lie, Porn is great too), but it's only worth a couple hours of fun, due to eye fatigue/nausea/dizzyness/vertigo, and games/programs not being fully optimized for it resulting in a bad experience, plus once the novelty wears off it's just...dumb.

My headsets sit in their box now.

I think it's fair to say that ergonomics is key with a device that is dubbed "headphones for your eyes". Even as I enjoy the Airpods Max very much, I get tired of wearing them after a few hours. Now, with a facehugger device that covers much more of your skull, Apple seems to understand that customization could prevent some downsides of a suboptimal weight distribution.

Although I have no skin in this game (being out of the market due to vision impairments), and wishing Apple success if not for my shares, I personally don't believe that this product will fly, but rather join the merits of Newton: probably ahead of its time and perhaps pacing the way to a different product that does not have so many dependencies on ergonomics.

 

[bb147]

Literally ALL employees returned or no longer use them as a result of 1. Nausea, 2. Eye strain/fatigue/dizzyness/vertigo, 3. Uncomfortable for contact/glasses wearers, and 4. Just overall NOT enjoying the experience. Luckily our Metaverse environment is also easily accessible via browser, and it works the same way, so people just use that since it's way more convenient and easier to use (I myself am one).

I don't doubt this at all. I have a quest 2 that also collects dust at this point because like the OP I can only use it for a max of 30 mins at a time.

However, Apple being a company that so heavily focuses on experience, I am optimistic (perhaps overly) that they've somehow solved this problem. They are a multi-trillion dollar company, they must know in order for this thing to take off, the experience itself cannot cause user discomfort.

That to me is worth the price tag, if somehow Apple was able to solve or help significantly reduce those common issues we see with VR.

 

[beelzebob]

I got mine yesterday, and that's my biggest problem with it. My eyes hurt after a while using it, even when all I'm doing is watching video. I have tried it with the lenses and without (and there doesn't seem to be any difference in video quality with or without lenses.) I ordered the 2.00 reader lenses since that is what I use for my reading glasses. I'm wondering if maybe I need to order just a lower power lens (maybe 1.5?) since the video quality looks no different to me with or without lenses.

 

[Ensyed]

I don’t have an issue w this. But the weight of the headset gives me a neck and head ache unless I rest my head against something.

mot sure how YouTubers are walking around w it all day. Must have stronger necks and bigger heads.

i ordered a contraption to distribute the weight more or pull it back from the front of my face.

 

[KPOM]

I got mine yesterday, and that's my biggest problem with it. My eyes hurt after a while using it, even when all I'm doing is watching video. I have tried it with the lenses and without (and there doesn't seem to be any difference in video quality with or without lenses.) I ordered the 2.00 reader lenses since that is what I use for my reading glasses. I'm wondering if maybe I need to order just a lower power lens (maybe 1.5?) since the video quality looks no different to me with or without lenses.

I noticed eye strain the first few times I used it, but my eyes (really my brain) seem to have adapted.

 

[uiop.]

First day or two were rough on my eyes, but I seem to have adapted. Don't forget you can adjust the brightness of the display, which can help.

 

[Gleipnir]

I think the important thing is that you need to blink. Wearing a headset may reduce your blink frequency much more than before. Personally, I don't feel tired and can use it easily for several hours. When I take it off, I usually need to do other things, such as eating, going to the bathroom, or going out.

 

[bb147]

I don't doubt this at all. I have a quest 2 that also collects dust at this point because like the OP I can only use it for a max of 30 mins at a time.

However, Apple being a company that so heavily focuses on experience, I am optimistic (perhaps overly) that they've somehow solved this problem. They are a multi-trillion dollar company, they must know in order for this thing to take off, the experience itself cannot cause user discomfort.

That to me is worth the price tag, if somehow Apple was able to solve or help significantly reduce those common issues we see with VR.

This is just an experience of one but I used my AVP yesterday for 4+ hours straight without any major issues. First 30 minutes I fiddled with it a lot as it was hurting my cheek bone, but eventually I fiddled with it enough it no longer hurt or bothered me at all. Used it from 9pm to 1am, the only reason I stopped is cuz I had to go to bed because it was getting late.

 

[KPOM]

If you use lenses and notice eye strain, try going to Apple and getting fitted with a different sized light seal. The Apple Store App sized me with a 33W but I tried it with 25W and it felt much better.

 

[scupking]

Doesn’t matter what headset you have. That’s the nature a VR. I have a Quest 2 and it is very fun especially with a good head strap but you still want to take a break after an hour. From what I heard the AVP is worse then the Quest 2 or 3 because of the extra pressure it also puts on your face… I have no interest in AVP. I will upgrade to the Quest 3 when it goes on sale for 399 or might just wait for the Quest 4.

 

[Macaholic868]

I had some eye strain at first where after about an hour or so of use I would feel the need to take the device off. That sensation went away fairly quickly for me within less than a week of getting my hands on the device and wearing it after work.

After three weeks of use I can now wear the AVP for hours at a time without feeling any kind of eye strain at all. It didn’t help matters that my prescription needed to be adjusted. I didn’t want to deal with the hassle of going to the eye doctor to get a prescription in writing when I pre-ordered the device so I just answered the the question about if I primarily used glasses or contacts by saying I primarily used contacts when that's actually no longer the case and hasn't been for years now. After deciding to keep it I did go in to get a current prescription in writing that I could upload to get the lenses and had to do an exam because I hadn't been in to see my eye doctor since before Covid hit and, sure enough, my prescription had changed so in addition to walking away with the proper prescription in writing I also ordered new glasses, frames and contacts.

It’s OT but I’m curious if others with vision insurance have to deal with the same kind of hassles. My vision insurance is a total PITA when it comes to chipping in toward the cost of replacement frames. You have to send your glasses in to an authorized service provider so you're without them for two weeks and SOL if you don't have backups. I’d feel differently if they covered the entire cost of replacing the frames but they only kick in up to a certain dollar amount which isn’t all that generous to begin with. I’m starting to reconsidering even bothering with it next November / December when we’re doing our healthcare enrollment for the next upcoming year.

 

[deaglecat]

I routinely now use eye drops before using my iPad for more than about 30 minutes. My optometrist explained to me that you tend to blink less when using a screen and if you get to the stage that your eyes actually start streaming then it is them literally crying out as an emergency lubrication measure.

Blinking helps... but you have to constantly remember to do it. Whereas eye drops are good for an hour or so, in my experience.

 

[rhemy123]

I had eye strain, but that has gone away. I’m now at week three.

 

[fatTribble]

I routinely now use eye drops before using my iPad for more than about 30 minutes. My optometrist explained to me that you tend to blink less when using a screen and if you get to the stage that your eyes actually start streaming then it is them literally crying out as an emergency lubrication measure.

Blinking helps... but you have to constantly remember to do it. Whereas eye drops are good for an hour or so, in my experience.

My friend is an ophthalmologist who told me the same. He stressed using the good $20 eyedrops like TheraTears (I don’t work for them 🤪). He said cheap eyedrops can damage eyes long term.