Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials) Motion Sickness: Why It Happens & What Helps
The camcorder wobble is Outlast's art direction, and no game in the series ships a field of view slider, a fact players ask about and confirm in the Trials' own Steam threads. Motion blur off is the only official lever in The Outlast Trials. Everything else, shake removal, FOV changes, film grain, is community work: config-file edits for the original game and Nexus mods for the Trials. This is one of the honest no-real-fix pages. Checked September 2026.
PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch · first-person, found-footage · No FOV fix · Player-reported motion-sickness risk: one of the most commonly reported triggers in gaming.
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- Moderate
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- Very high
Risk levels summarise what passengers and riders commonly report, not measured testing.
Key facts
- Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials) runs on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, Switch.
- The camera is first-person, found-footage.
- Player reports place it in the high band for motion sickness.
- The game has no field of view control.
- 3 specific settings are listed on this page, starting with Motion blur (The Outlast Trials).
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Why Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials) can trigger motion sickness
Most first-person games try to hide their camera. Outlast points one at you: the conceit is found footage, so the view wobbles like handheld video, complete with grain and a narrow frame. That design decision is also a motion sickness generator, because handheld wobble is unrequested camera motion applied continuously, and the night-vision sequences remove the stable visual anchors that would normally help. The developers have never added an FOV option across the series, so the usual first fix does not exist here. What players can do is documented below, and the honest half of it is community-made.
- Found-footage camera wobble applied continuously by design
- No field of view control anywhere in the series
- Night-vision sequences that strip out stable visual references
- Sprinting chase sequences, where the shake peaks exactly when you cannot look away
Comfort settings in Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials)
Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials) has no field of view control.
There is no FOV slider anywhere in the Outlast series, and the camcorder wobble is deliberate art direction rather than an oversight. Motion blur off in the Trials is the only official comfort setting. The community wrote the rest: shake-removal and FOV mods for the Trials, config edits for the original. If the found-footage camera is what triggers you, the menus cannot help, and off-screen tools carry the load.
| Setting | Where | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|
| Motion blur (The Outlast Trials) | Settings, video options | Off. It is the one official comfort lever in the Trials, and it removes the smear layered on the wobble |
| Field of view | Not in the menus, in any Outlast game | Players asked in the Trials threads and the answer is no slider. A community FOV mod exists for the Trials on Nexus Mods; for the original game, config-file edits documented in a community guide change FOV, grain and blur. Both are unofficial routes |
| Camera shake | No official setting | An anti motion sickness mod on Nexus removes shake from the Trials. Community work, presented as such: it alters game files and updates can break it |
Set up before your next session with Outlast (series and The Outlast Trials)
Dizzout runs on your phone, not on the machine you are playing on. Install it now, and when you next feel it starting, move the headphones you are wearing over to your phone and press play. Drug-free, and it works once symptoms have already begun.
Before you need it: find out how prone you are
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Put it on your phone
Free to try, no card needed. Or go straight to the App Store or Google Play.
Scan to open on your phoneOn a computer? Dizzout installs on your phone. Scan the code, or open dizzout.com/get on your phone and it'll take you straight to the right store.
Know someone who gets motion sick?
Send them the app that helps stop it, drug-free, in about 90 seconds, works with any headphones. Free to try.
What helps beyond the settings
- Turn motion blur off before your first Trials session rather than after the first bad one
- Take breaks between trials and chases; the shake peaks in bursts, and recovery between them matters
- Sit further from the screen so the wobble occupies less of your vision
- A drug-free sound-therapy app like Dizzout is designed to help once symptoms have started, and horror players already have headphones on for the audio cues
The fixes people reach for once they step away from the screen are covered separately, with the trials attached: the remedy verdicts.
Frequently asked questions
Can you change the field of view in The Outlast Trials?
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Not officially. Players asked in the Steam discussions and confirmed there is no FOV slider. A community mod on Nexus Mods adds FOV control, and a separate community mod removes camera shake, but both are unofficial file modifications. The only comfort setting in the official menus is turning motion blur off.
Why does Outlast make me sick faster than other horror games?
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Because the camera itself is a character: the found-footage framing wobbles continuously like real handheld video, on top of a narrow view with no FOV option to widen it. Most horror games add shake in moments. Outlast runs it as a constant, and night vision removes the stable scenery your eyes would otherwise anchor to. Fast onset is the commonly reported pattern for exactly those reasons.
Do the config edits for the original Outlast actually work?
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A long-standing community guide documents changing FOV, film grain and motion blur through config-file edits in the original game, and players have used it for years. It is an unofficial route: back up the files you touch, expect patches or verification to revert them, and treat any guide's exact values as starting points rather than gospel.
Other game motion-sickness guides
Sources & further reading
- https://steamcommunity.com/app/1304930/discussions/0/4302697906486481676/
- https://steamcommunity.com/app/1304930/discussions/0/597415740309595330/
- https://androidgram.com/the-outlast-trials-how-to-disable-motion-blur/
- https://www.nexusmods.com/theoutlasttrials/mods/243
- https://www.nexusmods.com/theoutlasttrials/mods/4
- https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=521641390
Your next question, probably
Based on publicly reported player experiences and each game's documented settings, as of September 2026. Settings menus change with updates, so check your version. Game names are trademarks of their respective owners; Dizzout is not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Motion-sickness sensitivity varies by person, so this is informational, not a game review or a substitute for a doctor's advice.