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.

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

Can I ask this, when running the correct mathematical fov does the game feel natural, does your steering feel like its steering front wheels that are out in front of you?

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

Can I ask this, when running the correct mathematical fov does the game feel natural, does your steering feel like its steering front wheels that are out in front of you?

 

[Niki Đaković]

Kind of feels like the wheels are underneath you. I guess bcos ur weary of the rear wheels too. After some laps you get a sense side to side where they are and you can brake right on the white line with outside wheel. Exiting the corners you get a more overwhelming sense from the curb too. You can distinguish from to rear wheels and then surely front wheels feel as if they somewhat where ur pedals are, but what u rly want to do is use all four tires for maximum traction.

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

Yeah I can't help but feel some of these mathematically correct fov settings are bordering cheating as it puts the driver in a fake location and gives the benefit of making steering breaking points etc more forgiving than in real life.

 

[Niki Đaković]

Yeah I can't help but feel some of these mathematically correct fov settings are bordering cheating as it puts the driver in a fake location and gives the benefit of making steering breaking points etc more forgiving than in real life.

What are you on about? Yet again we have to discuss that contrary to false beliefe of the slippier and more inaccurate it is, the more realistic. The truth is, the more correct and the easier, it is the more realistic it is. Because it becomes natural. You get more connected with environment. What do you think if this wasn't true that anyone would be as brave is they are in real life on tracks such as Nordschleife... c'mon.

Besides, the moment it gets easier, I start pushing more and driving ever faster. It's never easy, that is for sure!

 

[Cote Dazur]

Yeah I can't help but feel some of these mathematically correct fov settings are bordering cheating as it puts the driver in a fake location and gives the benefit of making steering breaking points etc more forgiving than in real life.

I do not understand your comment, how could it be cheating when you are using the correct set up in relation to how that particular sim was design by the developer? Cheating is bending or ignoring the rules. Proper FOV is playing by the book.
It does not make driving easier than IRL , it makes it closer.
Until we get weight transfer and gravity shift feedback the same as IRL, SIM will always be more difficult than real life driving.

 

[Tim Lundy]

Yeah I can't help but feel some of these mathematically correct fov settings are bordering cheating as it puts the driver in a fake location and gives the benefit of making steering breaking points etc more forgiving than in real life.

The physics are the physics, you are faster or slower only by your own skill level and understanding of how the physics interact with your controller of choice, what your eyes tell you etc. Not sure what you mean by "fake location". With my correct FOV I'm still sitting in the cockpit same as everyone else, what changes is the amount of track/car/environment in my field of view. Any gains in lap times, if any, result from having a more natural and less "game like" view. I mentioned earlier I came from the ranks of Gran Turismo with it's huge FOV and while it gives a good sense of speed, it's also not realistic. They are taking what is essentially the amount of information in my real 60degree FOV (horizontal) and jamming 90 degrees of information into it, resulting in a greater sense of speed, but what is happening on the screen does not occur at the same speed it would in real life, if your vision were restricted to the same 60FOV.

In short, with a more accurate FOV it more closely mimics how things would look in real life, in a real car, on a real track and IMO, eventually your mind adapts and processes the information in a more natural way, as opposed to having to convert the information from game mode to reality.

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

OK guys now I got you all interested.
Better use of words on my behalf may have been useful. Definitely passionate about your realism you guys.....note to memory don't use the cheat word do describe.
My eyes are 600mm from my center 27 diag monitor. Monitor Is 600mm horizontally wide.
Fov calculators put me at 31 fov.
Anyhow using AC triple monitor app, I enter 600 mm spinner width and 600 mm spinner distance.
Seat position left default or fully back or fully forward still leaves me feeling something is not quite right.
Perhaps I need to persevere with this until my brain learns it.
I can't help but feel disconnected from the car.
IMO I feel like my steering point is below my seat or behind me slightly. Slightly like looking through binoculars as I've seen said before.
If I lower my spinner distance to 400mm then things start to feel a lot better.
Perhaps I am missing something with my setup on triples.
I understand speed sensation in real life isn't like need for speed but these cars also aren't like driving my daily down the suburban shops. They go hard, and with my 600 and 600 measured and inputted distances I'm just not feeling it.
Anyhow still trying to get this right, I will try some more tonight and get back.

 

[Stereo]

Well, when you're driving slowly the rotation point is different from when you're driving at the limit of grip, if you're steered 12 degrees and not moving very fast, the front wheels follow that 12 degree angle and the rears are 0, with a slip angle near 0. If you've got 6 degrees of slip the front ends up 6 degrees inward and the rear 6 degrees outward in terms of actual direction of the car.

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

OK thinking out loud maybe I'm seeing this from a point of view where by having my fov setting / triple screen app settings wrong, causes me to be too far forward of where I should be. Hence feeling like I'm viewing down a pair of binoculars, meaning I have more time to position myself in regards to braking and steering etc than I would if things were set up correctly. This is where I loosely used the cheat word when I probably meant advantageous.
Sounds like my triple screen app input values are causing me this frustration.

 

[xNikodemusx]

You can change your seat position in AC seperately from fov.. maybe if you fiddle with that a bit it will feel better?

 

[Ian Cameron]

My correct Fov for my 27" single screen is 33 which I've got it set at then I move my seat back as far as it will go seems to work well just takes getting used to.
I started this thread with the same opinion as Robert and took some convincing that correct Fov was the way. Getting a bigger screen moving it to 26" from my eyes using correct Fov and in conjunction with Facetracknoir I'm enjoying it far more than before, still not very fast however but slowly getting there, I've only just started racing games since this game became available. Dabbled with the likes of Shift 2 and the F1 series but they don't come close to AC.

 

[Robert Bachmayer]

OK, just spent some time hot lapping the Ferrari 458gt2 at spa.
re measured my distances when I am actually gripping the steering wheel.
Distance is 550mm and screen width remains at 600mm.
FOV (vertical) calculator is 34 for a single screen setup.
Tried running in single screen mode 1920x1080 at 34 fov takes some effort with 1 screen.
Went back to triples at 5760x1080 using the triple screen app'
Input distance spinner to 550 and spinner width to 600, adjusted bezel correction and screen angles to suit. Let me say that it will take some time to get used to.
Can I just say after running some laps, that without causing some of you hardcore realist simmers to explode, that it looks like after some more practice it will be easier to drive some great lap times as it appears a little easier than what I am used to. Obviously I've been used to too wide a fov and it will take some time to retrain my brain. Hopefully the excitement will return as it feels a little lacking now, maybe i'll concentrate on close racing or slowly lower my fov / distance rather than drop straight to the mathematical correct position.
From what I've read this is a typical response and the benefits once trained or better still untrained from a wide unrealistic fov will be great. I'll keep at it.
Anyhow thanks all for the inspiration for getting it right.

 

[Ian Cameron]

OK, just spent some time hot lapping the Ferrari 458gt2 at spa.
re measured my distances when I am actually gripping the steering wheel.
Distance is 550mm and screen width remains at 600mm.
FOV (vertical) calculator is 34 for a single screen setup.
Tried running in single screen mode 1920x1080 at 34 fov takes some effort with 1 screen.
Went back to triples at 5760x1080 using the triple screen app'
Input distance spinner to 550 and spinner width to 600, adjusted bezel correction and screen angles to suit. Let me say that it will take some time to get used to.
Can I just say after running some laps, that without causing some of you hardcore realist simmers to explode, that it looks like after some more practice it will be easier to drive some great lap times as it appears a little easier than what I am used to. Obviously I've been used to too wide a fov and it will take some time to retrain my brain. Hopefully the excitement will return as it feels a little lacking now, maybe i'll concentrate on close racing or slowly lower my fov / distance rather than drop straight to the mathematical correct position.
From what I've read this is a typical response and the benefits once trained or better still untrained from a wide unrealistic fov will be great. I'll keep at it.
Anyhow thanks all for the inspiration for getting it right.

Try adding 5 degrees to your correct FOV that seems to be mentioned a lot as an acceptable figure.

 

[Tim Lundy]

OK, just spent some time hot lapping the Ferrari 458gt2 at spa.
re measured my distances when I am actually gripping the steering wheel.
Distance is 550mm and screen width remains at 600mm.
FOV (vertical) calculator is 34 for a single screen setup.
Tried running in single screen mode 1920x1080 at 34 fov takes some effort with 1 screen.
Went back to triples at 5760x1080 using the triple screen app'
Input distance spinner to 550 and spinner width to 600, adjusted bezel correction and screen angles to suit. Let me say that it will take some time to get used to.
Can I just say after running some laps, that without causing some of you hardcore realist simmers to explode, that it looks like after some more practice it will be easier to drive some great lap times as it appears a little easier than what I am used to. Obviously I've been used to too wide a fov and it will take some time to retrain my brain. Hopefully the excitement will return as it feels a little lacking now, maybe i'll concentrate on close racing or slowly lower my fov / distance rather than drop straight to the mathematical correct position.
From what I've read this is a typical response and the benefits once trained or better still untrained from a wide unrealistic fov will be great. I'll keep at it.
Anyhow thanks all for the inspiration for getting it right.

Ultimately you have to do what gives you the most enjoyment out of the game, regardless of what the calculator says. I think the "hardcore realists" are so enthusiastic about their experience they want the rest of the gaming world to share it with them. When it comes to FOV it often takes some retraining because most of us start on console games which all seem to have an exaggerated FOV to enhance the feeling of speed. I was in that boat, but I'm moving towards a more realistic FOV and once you adapt to it, you might wonder how you ever raced with an exaggerated FOV in the first place

 

[Jim Liak]

Ok, 47'' TV at 280cm from my eyes.

Had 48 , calculator says 22 , i put 34 to be able to re-adjust my brain = already faster everywhere.

Slowly i will decrease it to 22.

 

[Stelios]

Ok, 47'' TV at 280cm from my eyes.

Had 48 , calculator says 22 , i put 34 to be able to re-adjust my brain = already faster everywhere.

Slowly i will decrease it to 22.

For a moment i thought you were sitting 28cm away from that 47"

 

[Cote Dazur]

@Jim Liak you need to find a way to get closer to that screen.

 

[Jim Liak]

Impossible. TV in living room + wheel stand pro + wife + couch = 2.8m lol

 

[Cote Dazur]

I see, sorry, you have to ask for a man cave for Christmas.
You can shop here:http://mancavesite.org/