Epilepsy trigger from collecting a lot of EXP

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Isn't this sufficiently serious that it should be treated as a bug?

The info on photosensitive epilepsy here http://www.epilepsy.org.uk/info/photosensitive-epilepsy suggests to me that the orb rate could be close to the sweet spot for triggering it. As about 1% of people have epilepsy and 3% of those may have photosensitive epilepsy, and MC has 40 million users❓ , there could be hundreds who might be affected. 1%x3%x40000000=12,000

Don't people with epilepsy know that they should take caution before playing video games?

It's actually only about 9.5 million players, which means about 3000 epileptics. And that's assuming that the same fraction of the non-epileptic people as epileptic people play Minecraft, which seems unlikely.

That isn't the point. Taken from my Minecraft Forums post,

I have a number of friends with epilepsy who play Minecraft simply because it's a game easy on their eyes.

There's a seizure risk, however, if someone collects a lot of experience all at once, say through bottles of enchanting or experience farms. The experience orbs orbit the player's eyes, resulting in bright flashes of yellow and green, thus causing seizures.

I suggest the focus of the experience be moved down to the player's torso where it's less likely to cause these seizures.

Yes, people with epilepsy play video games. My friends are just very careful about what video games they play.

Please read this. This is a very serious issue and people have had epileptic seizures while playing Minecraft.

http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/1722462-epilepsy-risk-with-xp-collecting/#entry21355052

This is one such example of a person having a seizure based on experience gathering. This is a serious issue to those with photosensitive epilepsy.

This is actually a serious issue. Remember the locked chest Easter egg?
(From the wiki) "Entering items totaling over $10,000 into the cart causes a window pop-up asking if you are prone to seizures. Entering OK makes the screen start flashing. When first released, there was no seizure warning label, Notch later implemented it to avoid lawsuits and posts on the forum."
This is a valid issue and should be reopened.

This isn't a bug, and if you are that prone to seizures then you should either make the game greyscale or just not play video games.

Also, pressing F5 is not a bad idea either.

Jeb considered and took action on MC-973, a similar issue. That one only was painful, with no risk of seizures. I would think if that issue qualifies as a bug, so too would this one, which has a greater risk of consequences.

It certainly can't be "intended" that Minecraft would cause seizures, and thus this may qualify as a bug in Mojang's eyes.

Telling potentially affected people to "just not play video games" as a solution is remarkably poor.

Isn't the discussion unnecessary if MC-460 (XP rotating around player) will be fixed ?

But otherwise, how far should that go ?

• no more thunderstorms ?

• no redstone-lamps ?

• no texture packs (see whoa15.zip in MC-11439) ?

• no ghasts ?

• no blaze ?

• ....

There's nothing inherently wrong with any of the things you list, any more than there's anything wrong with bats or them making noise. The specific details that can cause seizures can be changed, generally without much, if any, perceptible difference to someone who wasn't at risk of being negatively affected in the first place. Once again, MC-973. The problem was high-frequency noises that most people couldn't hear, and were painful for anyone who could hear. The sounds could be modified to remove the problem without any perceptible difference to people who weren't affected.

While we're pontificating, shouldn't this issue be reopened?

And in response to an earlier comment - 'Don't people with epilepsy know that they should take caution before playing video games?' - I believe Minecraft is generally considered one of the 'safer' games for epileptics to play. I mean, if they're playing a first-person shooter with explosions and stuff they know they're asking for trouble. But this means getting ambushed by XP orbs, something which spoils a game that generally is mostly safe, is a nasty and somewhat unexpected trap.

TBH I'm not impressed with the attitudes of the mods who have responded on this bug thread. All issues to do with epilepsy triggers, sound sensitivity, colour blindness, sight-impaired users and so forth ought to be taken more seriously a) because of Minecraft's /extremely/ large user base and b) because Minecraft is considered such a 'safe' game and hence it is used by a much higher proportion of minors, epilepsy sufferers and other minorities who do not or cannot play many mainstream games.

Reopened.

Again the question: Isn't this issue co-fixed, if MC-460 will be fixed ?

This is not the same issue as MC-460. The experience orbs are eventually collected; they just take a while because of how many and the orbs seem to be absorbed one at a time. That issue addresses the "ghost orbs". This issue addresses where the orbs orbit and how they obstruct the player's vision, causing seizures in at least one known case (see above).

I can see MC-460 being fixed with better interaction between the client and the server, but if the XP orbits the head after the fix, then this issue is still open. They are separate issues.

Yes, this issue refers to the fact that when you throw about 500 XP orbs on the ground to generate lots of orbs, Then go to collect them, your screen is filled with experience orbs. Except since that can't usually happen in survival Minecraft, it could be to a much lower extent, such as when killing a horde of zombies, or even the Ender Dragon XP reward. I wouldn't call this a bug, aside from the fact of epileptic siezure risks. So I'd call it serious enough to be a bug.

I believe there is one easy fix, one more-difficult (but more visually pleasing) fix, and one easy patch (that would not be a fix).

• Easy: have the orbs target the player's feet

• Medium: have the orbs' transparency increase as they move toward the player, so that they're completely transparent when orbiting the player's head.

  • I like this fix because I feel the orbs only need to be visible for the player to collect them. Once the player has started collecting the orbs, they needn't be visible. The alpha color of the orb would thus be

    public static ORB_VANISH_START = 2.0;
    public static ORB_VANISH_STOP = 1.0;
    /* ... */
    double dist = min(max(orb.getDistanceToEntity(player), ORB_VANISH_STOP), ORB_VANISH_START);
    alpha = dist - ORB_VANISH_STOP; /* invariant: 0 <= orb_alpha <= 1 */

• Patch that isn't a fix: give an epilepsy warning to the player upon downloading and installing Minecraft. That is, the first invocation of Minecraft (where it sets up the .minecraft directory and friends) would present an alert box explaining the risk of an epilepsy trigger by collecting too much XP at once.

Affects 1.8.

I don't have epilepsy and feel really bad for all the people who have it, but I have a fix-suggestion
But first a question, does generally multiple objects for example also 100 cows at one block and does als z-fighting triggers epilepsy?

Mabye then a fix would be a option in the graphic option which is a function in the render part of the game and when set to true, only object of a kind will render per block (but this until there is no entity anymore, because when you would have multiple XPorbs and one would get collected, the game would else change also the graphic maybe...)
Just a fix suggestion

Confirmed for 15w44b.

Good one, @unknown.

Relates to MC-973?

Is this a satisfying resolution of this bug ?
https://youtu.be/SUpYdZIyTQg

If not, please reopen the ticket with an explanation of what more can be done.

A lot better as 15w46a. TY ProfMobius