Peter Schultz

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.

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.

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.