This will be the third forums I copy this tutorial onto. I have received both praise and put-downs to this method. It really does depend on the drivers willingness to make sacrifices and the level of realism he/she wants from the sim.
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I surf through sim racing videos on YouTube almost everyday and only in the rarest occasion is someone using a customized view that suits there particular racing rig/desk. I am making this tutorial to help everyone understand and utilize several ways of adjusting your view to best suit your scenario. Most of these setups using forced FOV usually require a Triplehead or a very large screen. However single-smaller display setups can still benefit from a good tune.
The goal of this tutorial is to make using rFactor more like a full out Driving SIMULATOR and less like a racing game. It should make your racing experience much closer to the real thing. iRacing has these calculations worked out automatically but the same immersion can be found in rFactor with this tutorial.
It may help to think about it in these terms.
That brown rectangle represents an average widescreen monitor sitting an average distance from a user, overlaid in a real world driving scene. What is in that rectangle is all you should see in-game.
That means you should not see your dashboard or wheel. And you should have your Steering wheel shut off in the display options regardless as you most likely have a wheel, in your hands, right in front of you. You do not need two.
FOV: (In-Game Vs Real-Life)
Your VERTICAL Field of View is the VERTICAL angle your virtual eye can see in-game.
You can modify it in your rFactor under Settings>Display. If it is on "Default" then each mod/car will contain a different FOV and rFactor will use that. If you change it to a number "58" then rFactor will force that to be your FOV in all mods/cars.
The extremes of the easily settable FOV in rFactor look like this.
100 Degree FOV
35 Degree FOV
35 may seem close but if you compare to the first image with the brown rectangle it still isnt close enough. To calculate what you need to set your Field of View in-game to you must figure out what your RL-FOV is. That can be accomplished with the following method and measurements. (Get a tape measure)
Take the 2 Distances (Side 1&2) and your viewable Screen Height(Side 3) and put those numbers into this calculator.
http://ostermiller.org/calc/triangle.html
Here is an example of my setup in the calculator.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Forums/FOVCalc.png
My monitor has 12" of vertical height and I sit 39 inches from the bottom and 40 inches from the top to my eye. The resulting angle is what my personal setups FOV is, 17 Degrees.
Trying to set rFactor to this low a FOV is not possible with the in-game setup options. Instead, you must exit rFactor and edit the .cam files for the cars you want adjusted with notepad. Yes every mod would need adjustment should you decide to change them all below 35 Degrees.
Cam Files are located in "X:\rFactor\GameData\Vehicles\Modname\Carname\Carna me_Cams.cam"
When opened you will be presented with every camera available for the car. Starting with Nosecam, Cockpit, TV Cockpit, Swingman, Onboard1 etc etc. The one we are concerned with here is the Cockpit view. This allows for headbob and look to apex to remain intact. The default may differ per mod.
EXAMPLE CODE
The"Fov=(60.00000000, 60.000000)" Must be changed to "Fov=(17.0000, 17.0000)" or whatever yours calculates to be.
* I also remove the "7" from the OrientationOffset line making it all 0's. This will level the view.
Remember, once back in-game the FOV setting must be set to "default" for rfactor to use this adjustment in the cam file.
NOTE: I also opened and changed the Headphysics.ini per mod editing the
HeadMass=6.0 to HeadMass=3.0
making my head lighter causing less intense bounce with the new zoomed view.
You can also use the head movement removal technique from this thread I found here at RD. http://www.racedepartment.com/rfactor/22330-how-get-rid-head-movement-rfactor.html
Here is an example of my adjusted FOV of (17 Degrees)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game Screens/rFactor2010-04-1603-08-12-65.jpg
VIDEO OF ME ON THE NORDSCHLIEFE @ 17d FOV (Note how much more prominent the banks and gradients feel)
And here it is when you view it from real life.
As a scary example here is a single lap of Bathurst replayed in the VLN mods default cockpit FOV of 62.5 Vs an adjusted 20.5
Note the completely different(realistic) sense of distance.
Here is a screenshot from a friend who is running SoftTH and we calculated he needed around 18.5 degrees of V-FOV in-game. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game Screens/SoftTH_rFactor_000163677824.jpg
Now other then setting the correct In-Game FOV you will most likely have to customize the camera position and angle. This can be done in 3 ways.
First is the simplest by just adjusting you seat position. Most times this is good enough.
More severe editing requires that the "PositionOffset" and "OrientationOffset" lines in the cam file be permanently altered changing the origins and angles of the camera in game. This method requires you to leave the game to make adjustments and then return to see the results. An annoyance since you never really can be sure how great an impact a small change can have. NOTE: I believe the increments are in METERS.. So changing 0.1 to 1.0 would move your in-game camera 3 feet! I use it to make some right hand drive cars into Left hand drive EXAMPLE Bathurst Legends Ford
The last method for adjusting your camera position is on the fly is with Cam-Controls.
To use the cam-controls offered in rFactor you must bind them all. They are Cam up, down, left , right, forward, backward, tilt up, etc, etc, etc. These can also be bound to analog inputs which I do recommend. Using a joystick for more finite controls helps greatly. There is also a "slow" key you can define to slow the movement of your adjustments.
To change your in-car (or any) view you must first enable/toggle "free-move". Another key you may need to bind.
Once Free-Move is on you can use your cam-controls to move the camera around to infinite extremes. You will however notice that the movement is not based around the cars position but the worlds X,Y,Z. So up may only be strait up when on flat ground and forward may move the camera sideways or back depending on the cars orientation on the track. It is up to you to sort out and correctly move the camera into position every time the car is reset.
Once set the view can easily be lost by pressing "Esc" while in practice and can lose "tilt" even if you only change camera views. Perhaps the most dangerous part of this method is the fact that since "free-look" MUST be enabled for the view to stay, the slightest mouse movement can cause your view to spin. Not the best situation while racing. These are the limitations of this method but it is far easier and faster than editing every cam file individually.
CAM ADJUSTMENT TUTORIAL VIDEO
(This video has some errors I have worked out since)
Since originally writing this tutorial I have moved my monitor 5" closer so my v-FOV is now 20.5 degrees. That looks like this.
After several months at my perfect fov I find it very difficult to drive with it set to anything else.
I have found out how to enable the virtual mirrors in cockpit view. It greatly enhances the playability of a low FOV.
Go into your rFactor\Userdata\Your Name\Your Name.PLR file and edit the following line. It will not effect server join-ability.
Near the bottom:
[ Graphic Options ]
Broadcast Overlay="0"
Texture Detail="3"
Vertical FOV Angle="34" // 34=use default, otherwise is the FOV for attached cameras (horiz is calculated based on aspect ratio)
Rearview="1" // 0=Off, 1=Center and Side, 2=Center only, 3=Side only (virtual mirrors only, in-car mirrors are on/off)
Allow Rearview In Swingman="0"
Virtual Rearview In Cockpit="1"
Set it to 1 and you are good to go.
I encourage everyone to try their perfect FOV for a day or so. If you can move your monitor closer while racing that may make a huge difference in the feasibility of using a low FOV.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I surf through sim racing videos on YouTube almost everyday and only in the rarest occasion is someone using a customized view that suits there particular racing rig/desk. I am making this tutorial to help everyone understand and utilize several ways of adjusting your view to best suit your scenario. Most of these setups using forced FOV usually require a Triplehead or a very large screen. However single-smaller display setups can still benefit from a good tune.
The goal of this tutorial is to make using rFactor more like a full out Driving SIMULATOR and less like a racing game. It should make your racing experience much closer to the real thing. iRacing has these calculations worked out automatically but the same immersion can be found in rFactor with this tutorial.
It may help to think about it in these terms.
That brown rectangle represents an average widescreen monitor sitting an average distance from a user, overlaid in a real world driving scene. What is in that rectangle is all you should see in-game.
That means you should not see your dashboard or wheel. And you should have your Steering wheel shut off in the display options regardless as you most likely have a wheel, in your hands, right in front of you. You do not need two.
FOV: (In-Game Vs Real-Life)
Your VERTICAL Field of View is the VERTICAL angle your virtual eye can see in-game.
You can modify it in your rFactor under Settings>Display. If it is on "Default" then each mod/car will contain a different FOV and rFactor will use that. If you change it to a number "58" then rFactor will force that to be your FOV in all mods/cars.
The extremes of the easily settable FOV in rFactor look like this.
100 Degree FOV
35 Degree FOV
35 may seem close but if you compare to the first image with the brown rectangle it still isnt close enough. To calculate what you need to set your Field of View in-game to you must figure out what your RL-FOV is. That can be accomplished with the following method and measurements. (Get a tape measure)
Take the 2 Distances (Side 1&2) and your viewable Screen Height(Side 3) and put those numbers into this calculator.
http://ostermiller.org/calc/triangle.html
Here is an example of my setup in the calculator.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Forums/FOVCalc.png
My monitor has 12" of vertical height and I sit 39 inches from the bottom and 40 inches from the top to my eye. The resulting angle is what my personal setups FOV is, 17 Degrees.
Trying to set rFactor to this low a FOV is not possible with the in-game setup options. Instead, you must exit rFactor and edit the .cam files for the cars you want adjusted with notepad. Yes every mod would need adjustment should you decide to change them all below 35 Degrees.
Cam Files are located in "X:\rFactor\GameData\Vehicles\Modname\Carname\Carna me_Cams.cam"
When opened you will be presented with every camera available for the car. Starting with Nosecam, Cockpit, TV Cockpit, Swingman, Onboard1 etc etc. The one we are concerned with here is the Cockpit view. This allows for headbob and look to apex to remain intact. The default may differ per mod.
EXAMPLE CODE
Code:
LocalCam=COCKPIT
{
Fov=(60.000000, 60.00000)
Clear=TRUE
Color=(164, 218, 249)
ClipPlanes=(0.075000, 700.000000)
LODMultiplier=(1.000000)
Size=(1.000000, 1.000000)
Center=(0.500000, 0.500000)
MipmapLODBias=(0.000000)
Flags1=(0)
Flags2=(0)
RadiusLimits=(0.000000, 0.000000)
OrientationRate=(999.000000, 999.000000, 999.000000)
PositionOffset=(0, -0.1, 0)
OrientationOffset=(-0.070000, 0.000000, 0.000000)
Radius=(0.000000)* I also remove the "7" from the OrientationOffset line making it all 0's. This will level the view.
Remember, once back in-game the FOV setting must be set to "default" for rfactor to use this adjustment in the cam file.
NOTE: I also opened and changed the Headphysics.ini per mod editing the
HeadMass=6.0 to HeadMass=3.0
making my head lighter causing less intense bounce with the new zoomed view.
You can also use the head movement removal technique from this thread I found here at RD. http://www.racedepartment.com/rfactor/22330-how-get-rid-head-movement-rfactor.html
Here is an example of my adjusted FOV of (17 Degrees)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game Screens/rFactor2010-04-1603-08-12-65.jpg
VIDEO OF ME ON THE NORDSCHLIEFE @ 17d FOV (Note how much more prominent the banks and gradients feel)
And here it is when you view it from real life.
As a scary example here is a single lap of Bathurst replayed in the VLN mods default cockpit FOV of 62.5 Vs an adjusted 20.5
Here is a screenshot from a friend who is running SoftTH and we calculated he needed around 18.5 degrees of V-FOV in-game. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game Screens/SoftTH_rFactor_000163677824.jpg
Now other then setting the correct In-Game FOV you will most likely have to customize the camera position and angle. This can be done in 3 ways.
First is the simplest by just adjusting you seat position. Most times this is good enough.
More severe editing requires that the "PositionOffset" and "OrientationOffset" lines in the cam file be permanently altered changing the origins and angles of the camera in game. This method requires you to leave the game to make adjustments and then return to see the results. An annoyance since you never really can be sure how great an impact a small change can have. NOTE: I believe the increments are in METERS.. So changing 0.1 to 1.0 would move your in-game camera 3 feet! I use it to make some right hand drive cars into Left hand drive EXAMPLE Bathurst Legends Ford
The last method for adjusting your camera position is on the fly is with Cam-Controls.
To use the cam-controls offered in rFactor you must bind them all. They are Cam up, down, left , right, forward, backward, tilt up, etc, etc, etc. These can also be bound to analog inputs which I do recommend. Using a joystick for more finite controls helps greatly. There is also a "slow" key you can define to slow the movement of your adjustments.
To change your in-car (or any) view you must first enable/toggle "free-move". Another key you may need to bind.
Once Free-Move is on you can use your cam-controls to move the camera around to infinite extremes. You will however notice that the movement is not based around the cars position but the worlds X,Y,Z. So up may only be strait up when on flat ground and forward may move the camera sideways or back depending on the cars orientation on the track. It is up to you to sort out and correctly move the camera into position every time the car is reset.
Once set the view can easily be lost by pressing "Esc" while in practice and can lose "tilt" even if you only change camera views. Perhaps the most dangerous part of this method is the fact that since "free-look" MUST be enabled for the view to stay, the slightest mouse movement can cause your view to spin. Not the best situation while racing. These are the limitations of this method but it is far easier and faster than editing every cam file individually.
CAM ADJUSTMENT TUTORIAL VIDEO
Since originally writing this tutorial I have moved my monitor 5" closer so my v-FOV is now 20.5 degrees. That looks like this.
After several months at my perfect fov I find it very difficult to drive with it set to anything else.
I have found out how to enable the virtual mirrors in cockpit view. It greatly enhances the playability of a low FOV.
Go into your rFactor\Userdata\Your Name\Your Name.PLR file and edit the following line. It will not effect server join-ability.
Near the bottom:
[ Graphic Options ]
Broadcast Overlay="0"
Texture Detail="3"
Vertical FOV Angle="34" // 34=use default, otherwise is the FOV for attached cameras (horiz is calculated based on aspect ratio)
Rearview="1" // 0=Off, 1=Center and Side, 2=Center only, 3=Side only (virtual mirrors only, in-car mirrors are on/off)
Allow Rearview In Swingman="0"
Virtual Rearview In Cockpit="1"
Set it to 1 and you are good to go.
I encourage everyone to try their perfect FOV for a day or so. If you can move your monitor closer while racing that may make a huge difference in the feasibility of using a low FOV.
Then jumped into the Lada in rFactor, and you know what, it pretty much reminded me of sitting in my grandfather's one! Had to adjust seat position a bit and it felt exactly right! Then changed car, and went onto the track with a Moskvich level 3 tuned version for a race against AI cars on the Hungaroring! I noticed that distances seem much more natural, I even took a picture of it:
