FOV Opinions Please

[Ian Cameron]

Have played around with FOV settings since the beginning. Have used the calculators, one suggests 31, one says 35 and another says 59 according to my monitor size and position from me.
Width 19" Height 10.5" Distance to eyes 30". None have felt right.
So I decided to try and go for a more natural look as you would see behind the wheel. Set FOV to 65
set seat position to how I think it would look. Have uploaded a video for some feedback on this, apologies for quality it was recorded using frapps, and forgive the spin off. Also used is FaceTrackNOIR.
Not my best lap but I go more for realism than breaking records, although any feedback on this would be appreciated.

 

[Ian Cameron]

Think I might at last have got a setting I've been looking for. Read every ones comments, played around with lots of settings and despite what I said earlier about correct FOV'S been unnatural I decided to take on board various peoples opinions.
So I moved screen closer from 30" to 22" away from my eyes raise the monitor up a little. Correct FOV works out at 27.5 with a 22" monitor but I raised it up 5 degrees to 33.
What a difference along with seat adjustments the setting works well, although I'm no expert and it could probably be tweaked more.
So I took the Shelby out on Monza 66, a car previously I could not drive without coming off the track but now It drives completely different I find I can control it better if I feel I'm about to loose control. 1st lap 1.53 after 4 laps 1.46.3 I know this is not fast but for me that's a massive improvement and thoroughly enjoyed the drive, didn't even push the car to its limits either.
Following video is my 1.46 lap, would welcome any comments where I could improve anything.
In the very near future I hope to be buying an AOC 28" monitor, can't afford anything expensive, that's all I could find for my budget of £160. Would prefer 29 or 32" but they are well out of my price range.

 

[Jim Liak]

Use this http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/ but select Pcars instead of ac.
.

@Hany Alsabti , why you propose to choose Pcars instead of AC?

 

[xNikodemusx]

fBeen fiddling around a lot with FoV today. Moving the tv really close and achieving 43 degrees with correctly calculated FoV. Only to realise that my old 42 inch is too crappy to actually sit that close to. Really hur my eyes and brain and could feel the heat from the television. ^^

Moved it back a bit and decided it will just have to do with incorrect FoV for now. (when further back and with low FoV the TV can't keep up in the fast sideways movements and all that)

 

[Boby Kim]

Very interesting information! Looking at a 27 inch lcd, right behind my wheel and a 55 FOV and the cam zoomed in so i still could see the dashboard. Just finished 30 concentrated laps at Monza and while i was reading posts i asked myself how many times i looked at the info at the dashboard...not a single time. So later this day i will adjust my FOV and stick to it for a while...see how it feels. Racedepartment = one big wikipedia for simracers...amazing. Very nice to spend time at when insomnia is visiting me. Now im going to adjust my own VOF and finally get some sleep. God is a DJ.

 

[Boby Kim]

Okay, im sitting about 40 cm from my 27 LCD monitor. The monitor is practically sitting on top of my T500. I have changed the FOV from 50 (all the way zoomed in till the dashboard) towards 35. I can only see the rev lights and the gear.
I think i do understand some theories going on about the whole FOV thingy. Besides the theorie that 30 FOC makes you faster, i have noticed a huge disadvantage which im afraid cant accept: the movement of other cars, either AI or MP racers. In the corners those other cars behave very strange. Instead of seeing the car rotate into the corners, the cars actually slide sideways through the corner and meanwhile they pivot around their centre to straighten up. Look at thre next vid i have made. The Mercedes is going to pass me going into Parabolica. Watch the back of the Mercedes move in relation to the tarmac. You will see that the back of the Mercedes is sliding sideways.

 

[Niki Đaković]

Okay, im sitting about 40 cm from my 27 LCD monitor. The monitor is practically sitting on top of my T500. I have changed the FOV from 50 (all the way zoomed in till the dashboard) towards 35. I can only see the rev lights and the gear.
I think i do understand some theories going on about the whole FOV thingy. Besides the theorie that 30 FOC makes you faster, i have noticed a huge disadvantage which im afraid cant accept: the movement of other cars, either AI or MP racers. In the corners those other cars behave very strange. Instead of seeing the car rotate into the corners, the cars actually slide sideways through the corner and meanwhile they pivot around their centre to straighten up. Look at thre next vid i have made. The Mercedes is going to pass me going into Parabolica. Watch the back of the Mercedes move in relation to the tarmac. You will see that the back of the Mercedes is sliding sideways.

I think this guy had high ping Bob. The cars look natural for me, and im on 31fov. Also, I set camera lower (can see entire dash), since it's GT car u sit even lower then that. The shift lights are just underneeth ur sight, race car.

 

[Cote Dazur]

@Boby Kim , like Niki just wrote, plus now that you are using the proper FOV, the car in front of you looks like it is 20 meter away from you when it is 20 meters way as opposed to with a wide FOV when 20 meters ahead of you looks like 200 meters away because of the fish eye effect.
You will see much more details of that car, like you would in real life at that distance.

An other advantage is that it is easier to follow someone close without hitting the back of the car, as with the perspective being correct the car does not go from very far to very ( too ) close in an erratic manner.
Every aspect of your SIM driving will become more coherent, stick with it a bit, it cost nothing and you can always go back to your old ways if you really cannot get the advantages of using a calculated FOV.

 

[Boby Kim]

@Cote Dazur @niki Dakovic
At this moment it really feels like a personal preference instead of creating more reality. But...i must admit i had the same feeling when i changed the cockpit view with wheel & hands into non wheel hand and a vof change to 50 years ago. I cant go back to the old situation. So we will see.
Lowering the cam view towards that of a GT car so i see the complete dashboard...Niki, seeing you race 4 seconds faster than me @ Monza, racing lines that only exists in a parallel universum, i am convinced you can even race blindfolded. While you travel between stars i only watch them from earth so small steps for me
Oh guys...please, do not call me Bob. Its either Boby or Bee thanks

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

You guys must be smoking something or letting predictive text control your lives because those posts are difficult to understand.

 

[Niki Đaković]

I'd say cote d'Azur has got a good point there. The cars look bigger. And closer. Its more intimidating. This means you're less likely to cock up ur braking and nail the back of someone. And as said before one doesn't get cought out by sudden flash of the car ahead from something that looks like 5 car lengths to bumper allthewhile on full brakes.
It also allows for better judgement of out braking move. All the little details add up imo the better and more immersive it feels, the more natural it is, the more godsgiven talent u can use. Gimmicks like fisheye view, gokart wheel rotation and opera screem tire squeel are for gamers who love the restart button more then their own mother.

 

[Boby Kim]

I'd say cote d'Azur has got a good point there. The cars look bigger. And closer. Its more intimidating. This means you're less likely to cock up ur braking and nail the back of someone. And as said before one doesn't get cought out by sudden flash of the car ahead from something that looks like 5 car lengths to bumper allthewhile on full brakes.

I do not understand, changing the FOV does not change the time speed and distance? Its merely a magnifying glass option. But the brake distance stays the same or does that also change when altering the FOV?

 

[Niki Đaković]

Boby? What?

 

[Boby Kim]

Boby? What?

Made a mistake...meanwhile i edited the post

 

[Jyri Kettunen]

With lower FOV it feels like you have more time to choose your braking points, turn-in points etc.

 

[Stereo]

Well, you can see the braking points from farther away, if you have it on wide-fov warp mode, it goes from a tiny speck of nothing to under your car in a flash.

 

[Niki Đaković]

Ow sry, forum had some bug showing only quote of a posts.

Of 5 human senses we can extradicate 3 of which hearing, touch and seeing are of primary concern for a racer.

Now, were primarily concerned about the sense of sight in this topic. This made clear we can say that were striving for natural feeling. Why natural you might wonder.

We want things to feel natural because those feel good. You feel more connected when this is happening and in return less thought process is needed. So, being more engaged you can rely on primary functions such as intention, judgment or determination are. Those are always more accurate. You simply intend something and it happens because its natural to happen. We are afterall creativistes.

All this might be fuzzy to say I know but, the deeper you look, the greater the mistery.
All you need to do is step outside of the box and take a journey. The answers to questions and understanding have to be done by you Boby, or else you are in yours own way. The road to victory is a path of least resistance. Starting there you certainly don't want to be creating your own resistance. Cheers.

 

[Lars Hansen]

I do not understand, changing the FOV does not change the time speed and distance? Its merely a magnifying glass option. But the brake distance stays the same or does that also change when altering the FOV?

It's not a magnifying function, but a distortion function.
In order to fit in more peripheral vision the image is distorted in all directions.
Take this image (15mm focal lens so it's an extreme example but just to illustrate a point)

Notice the stripes on the road, they're all the same length, even though they don't look it.
Let's say that they're 5 meters in length, the spaces between them is 5 meters as well and that you're moving at 10m/s.
So every second you expect to pass a stripe and a space.
So far so good, except when you have to brake.
Since the stripes are all the same length and you're moving at a constant speed, logic states that the closer stripe should disappear under your car in the same amount of time that the stripe farther away takes its place. But the physical image PROJECTED has the closer stripe being what, three times larger?
So it has to move three times as fast for the world to make any physical sense.
Thus a larger image that has to disappear under your car in the same amount of time, which gives the effect of close-by things zipping past you.
Which is great for speed-effects, but lousy for accurate braking-points.

If you have a camera with a zoom-lens it's actually very easy to illustrate.
Simply drive on the freeway in your car looking through your camera fully-zoomed in........
Well, preferably get someone else to drive while you do that in the passenger seat.
What you'll see is a very small view of the world moving (seemingly) ultra-slow.
That would be a FOV set way too low.

Cheers,
Lars

 

[Boby Kim]

Ow sry, forum had some bug showing only quote of a posts.

Of 5 human senses we can extradicate 3 of which hearing, touch and seeing are of primary concern for a racer.

Now, were primarily concerned about the sense of sight in this topic. This made clear we can say that were striving for natural feeling. Why natural you might wonder.

We want things to feel natural because those feel good. You feel more connected when this is happening and in return less thought process is needed. So, being more engaged you can rely on primary functions such as intention, judgment or determination are. Those are always more accurate. You simply intend something and it happens because its natural to happen. We are afterall creativistes.

All this might be fuzzy to say I know but, the deeper you look, the greater the mistery.
All you need to do is step outside of the box and take a journey. The answers to questions and understanding have to be done by you Boby, or else you are in yours own way. The road to victory is a path of least resistance. Starting there you certainly don't want to be creating your own resistance. Cheers.

Wow...gotta spend a night sleep about this. Reminds me about Morpheus saying: "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path". I'll keep the FOV at 35 for a time and i'll be back after some races. Thanks for the input Niki. Life lessons are always valuable.

 

[Tim Lundy]

Coming from the ranks of the GT series with it's 10,000 degree FOV, I set AC at around 55 to start, even though the calculator said 31. I tried 31 and it was like driving through binoculars. However, my long time racing buddy from GT5 @Cote Dazur kept encouraging me to try proper numbers and last week I lowered it to 45 and adjusted fairly quickly. I then made some adjustments to my seating position, moved the tv (55") forward a few cm and got a new calculation around 33. Last night I lowered it in-game to 40 and it didn't take long to adapt. I admit I miss the whole motion blur effect you get from a huge FOV but I do feel like I'm going to be more consistent and possibly faster because I feel like I'm driving with more precision and can more easily hit the braking points and apexes, and react better and more accurately when the car starts to move about. I'm going to figure out a way to mount my TV onto a sliding platform so I can close the gap even more and hopefully get close to a calculated 40ish setting.

For anyone on the fence about this I suggest doing the same as I did and going halfway at first, and practice in cars and on tracks you're familiar with. For me it was the stellar Barbagallo I just downloaded, nice and short with lots of elevation and blind apexes. Magione is another good one for this, Tsukuba etc. Once you get used to it, you can't go back to the higher FOV settings, it just looks too arcade.

 

[xNikodemusx]

I pretty much did the same as you johnny.. ehm I mean Tim. Just a warning.. you're going to be screwed when going back to GT6. That FoV will feel like lightspeed and you will put your wheels on the grass all the time.