Widescreen 1080p and FOV

I just purchased a 23" 1080p widescreen monitor. Wow I have a LOT of screen now lol.

I was wondering about FOV. Since I have so much screen now, should I increase the FOV? Should I lower it?

Any suggestions?
 
Yeah, that gives you IMHO the right immersion to drive a real car no need for fancy motion blur stuff. :smile-big:
Besides, on my 24" screen the trackelevations become only at that FOV (82) near the reality (comparing the GTR-Evo Nordschleife to the original on a bike).

Mhhh, something to try to fiddle with tonight me thinks. I have a 24" 1080p screen. Suggested settings is FOV 75 right?
 
  • Matt Crouch

I personally go for increase increase. I'm on 16:9 ratio at 115 or 120, gives that small bit of extra sideways vision which could make the difference.
You can adjust it in game so you can see it changing and judge for yourself, it's personal opinion really - to me, decreasing the fov seems like negating the advantage of having a wider screen :)

I'm not sure what you mean about the motion blur Tobias?
 
I personally go for increase increase. I'm on 16:9 ratio at 115 or 120, gives that small bit of extra sideways vision which could make the difference.
You can adjust it in game so you can see it changing and judge for yourself, it's personal opinion really - to me, decreasing the fov seems like negating the advantage of having a wider screen :)

Exactly my thinking. I tried 75 and 82 but I felt like there was so much I was missing.

110 seems to be my sweet spot.
 
  • Mikkow

It's a very, very personal thing. There is no 'best'. Here's an explanation why:

Real racers see almost 180 degrees forward, and at the same time, stuff is very large (real life scale, even) and detailed.

A monitor takes up no where near 180 degrees of your vision. More like 25-35 degrees maybe (very individual, the further away you sit, the smaller the screen etc). And in this small space, you must choose what to fit.

A higher fov:

+ Makes you see more to the sides (like real life)
+ Stronger sensation of speed

- Stuff is much, much, muuuuch smaller in scale than real life (massive loss of details). It really feels like just watching something go on on a TV screen rather than being there.
- The view is distorted (fish eye view, or similar effect to watching through the wrong end of binoculars)
- Due to the scale being so off, distances are much harder than real life to estimate.


A lower fov:

+ Can (not in Race 07 which has a cap at '80%' whatever that is, but theoretically) be put to a 1:1 ratio of your viewscreen, making stuff appear exactly in the same scale like in real life.
+ Translates better into real world driving due to more correct scale (heard lots of this from real world racers & simracers) - the tracks look and feel correct.
+ Better detail

+ - Becomes essentially like driving a car through a window in front of you

- blind to what goes on next to your car (you can turn your head, of course, and use mirrors)
- Less sensation of speed.

----

In my own opinion, I try to have the biggest screen possible and sit as close as possible, then turn the fov down quite a bit to make it look something like real life. Stuff really 'pops' up in front of me and I relate so well to my real world car experiences. A very nice sense of realism. I have a 24" 16:10 monitor that I sit a bit less than a meter from with my head. In "Live for Speed" I find that 57 degrees FOV is a very good compromise.

And as you can see, having a bigger screen does in no way mean you should raise the FOV to see 'more'. In fact, it offers a chance to see things more to real world scale and have it start acting like a window into the game world rather than merely a TV screen.
 
  • Mikkow

That's certainly some good info there Mikkow. You say you use 57 for LFS. What do you use for RACE?

(btw it's not capped at 80 anymore)
It isn't? That's awesome to hear. I'm going to try to find something similar to LFS in that case. I haven't tried Race in months, but when I raced before, I had it set to the lowest FOV allowed (which was 80%), and that was not as low as I wanted.

I'm pleased you found the information useful. :dance2: Many people have no idea about these considerations. They get stuck with a single thing from reality (like feel of speed or peripheral vision) and forget/know nothing of the rest.
 
Excellent posts mikkow. :)
As a illustration, i made a splitscreen movie of GTR Evo with both FOVs (75 vs 100) in a 16:9 resolution (1280x720).


[ame]http://www.vimeo.com/3974023[/ame]


Here some Screens the compare the different FOVs in Game and some onboard footage of a M3 GTR.







Videosource for the comparison onboard cam shot, move to the ~3:53 timestamp to get video inline with the GTR-Evo movie.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LV5EcSlBhqc[/ame]
 
Ok you've sold me. After further experimentation, an FOV of 80 seems to be right for my screen - since it's 23" instead of 24". 75 causes issues with the moving hands on the steering wheel.

Thank you all for your input :thanks:
 
  • Mikkow

The cap has indeed been lowered! Tried it a bit, very happy!

I discovered an issue with it that I think I'll post in the bugs section: The helmet texture doesn't change size when zooming in and out, so when you zoom in, your viewport is ridiculously small due to the helmet - and the open wheelers have a 'down' angled view making it hard to see the track. I fixed the helmet problem by getting an alternate bigger 'opening' texture for them. But I cannot fix the angling issue. Setting the up/down view angle is actually important if you are trying to put the real G25 steering wheel close to your screen and in the correct 'part' of the cockpit etc, and having the same horizon on screen as in real life (imagine looking up or down onto the horizon, doesn't help immersion).

Now, immersion/realism tip:

1. Put screen as close as you possibly can

2. With the steering wheel mounted as close as possible in front of it. I even put the clamp of my G25 over the 'foot' of my 24" monitor to get it closer.

3. Put the fov low, between 40 and 65 if you have a monitor similar to me and you sit close enough.

4. Disable steering wheel rendering in the game.

5. Disable 'real seating positions'

6. Using the mouse and mouse buttons when in-game (in the car), adjust the view so that you align your real world steering wheel to where it should be in the car. You can often see the steering wheel rod even with wheel disabled in the WTCC cars for example. Try to align it to the back of your wheel.

7. Make sure your framerate is always 60 minimum.

8. Get some good sounding sealed headphones (such as the AKG K271S or the Sennheiser PC350 gaming 'headset') and take the time to adjust them (equalizer etc).

9. Make sure you have two easily reached buttons for looking left and right (otherwise the rather limited FOV can cause issues in close racing). You use it like this even in open wheelers to look at the left/right mirror.

10. Dim the lights, get rid of glare in your peripheral vision.

It ends up being a really neat homemade makeshift racing simulator, with excellent immersion, without actually having to build a cockpit and so on.
 

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