Field of View (FOV aka why does that track look so wide?)

[FinnZevo]

Update May 4, 2015: Video from Alan at VVV regarding FOV and view adjustments from Project Cars



There will be a lot of players coming from Forza or the GT series that are used to an exaggerated and large Field of View (FOV) setting and may find some videos on the internet about Project Cars or other racing sims that appear to be too wide relative to what they are used to. Of course in your own game you can use whatever you feel comfortable with but a "proper" FOV is that which matches the field of view you would have if you were sitting in a real car but your vision was limited to the size of your tv screen.

You can do an interesting experiment by holding butting your thumbs together and holding your forefingers up in front of your face and matching the size of your screen in your usual gaming position, then going out to your car and replicating it in the real world. Note what you can and cannot see in the cockpit and outside the car and it's usually far more limited than what you are used to in most racing games.

This is a popular FOV Calculator Punch in a few paramaters and it'll tell you what the proper setting is for your setup and the game you are playing. Assetto Corsa uses a vertical FOV as opposed to a horizontal FOV so the numbers are lower but for me, the calculator says about 35 and mine is set to 40. Below you'll see what changing the FOV does in a static image. The views are in order of my native 40 to 50 to 60 to 70.


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Here's the always entertaining, but wordy, Mr. Empty Box, who pretty much nails the entire FOV question in one video:



I was hesitant to use the real FOV for Assetto Corsa but gradually lowered it from a GT6 like setting of around 60, down to 40 and I'll never go back. IMO there is a huge advantage in seeing the track details along with hitting your marks in both braking and apexes and outweighs the disadvantage of a more limited range of vision.

I was at 75 .I like it a lot but I used the project cars calcalator and it says my correct fov is 49.. Thats way to close so im using 68 now...here's a video.

 

[Speedster911]

Anything below 85 makes things appear too slow.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Anything below 85 makes things appear too slow.

For you maybe. I'm at 60 in PCars and on a 60" screen so I have lots of peripheral and a good sense of speed.

 

[UkHardcore23]

Anything below 85 makes things appear too slow.

PCars does seem much slower than other racers. My correct FOV is 48 but it's far to close but using anytinh between 50-60 and it makes 100mph feel like 10mph.

Im on a 51" screen and having to use 75 to feel any sense of speed.

 

[Bethany Dawn]

Anything below 85 makes things appear too slow.

When you are driving down the highway looking straight ahead, don't oncoming objects appear to move slowly? It's when you look to the sides that you get the sense of speed.

 

[Speedster911]

PCars does seem much slower than other racers. My correct FOV is 48 but it's far to close but using anytinh between 50-60 and it makes 100mph feel like 10mph.

Im on a 51" screen and having to use 75 to feel any sense of speed.

Right; F5 and 6 has the correct FOV when you keep motion effects on, and it relays a good sense of speed.

When you are driving down the highway looking straight ahead, don't oncoming objects appear to move slowly? It's when you look to the sides that you get the sense of speed.

Right, but I want to be looking straight ahead most of the time in a game, and I understand things may appear slow since we don't have the same 180 deg peripheral vision that gives a good sense of speed when driving a car fast IRL. Well, anyway.. for a game, PCARS looks slow. They should have explanations or at least 2-3 sets of default settings that let players choose what FOV/sense of speed trade-off they're willing to settle for.

 

[Fanapryde]

My eyes 87 cm away from the 32" TV (can't bring it any closer for the moment, without changing my rig).
FOV (according to the calculator) should be set at 45.

Did some extensive testing and my best is 60 for the moment.
The suggested 45 seems to be way off...

If I compare FOV 60 to driving a car on a race track, sense of speed looks pretty much allright to me.
I will have to tinker with it as soon as my triple stand arrives, because triple 27" will make a huge difference...
There is something with chicanes though. The ones at Spa and Zolder (being the only ones I can compare) are easier IRL than in the game. Maybe triples will solve that too ?

 

[EmArA]

if you want realism and immersion you go with a proper FOV, if you just want to play a game and be able to see out your side windows you use the zoomed FOV. But if you want realism/immersion the single best thing you can do is get your FOV dialed in correctly. When you do, this is the result:

Interesting to find out that the FOV is the default one in RaceRoom and that he only moved the position in cockpit forward and that the TV (which is 40") has a 1080P.

Wish it was that easy to find the proper FOV in AC...

 

[BrandonW77]

Interesting to find out that the FOV is the default one in RaceRoom and that he only moved the position in cockpit forward and that the TV (which is 40") has a 1080P.

Wish it was that easy to find the proper FOV in AC...

Yeah, I was totally shocked to see how simple his setup was after seeing his incredible videos.

 

[Speedster911]

Interesting to find out that the FOV is the default one in RaceRoom and that he only moved the position in cockpit forward and that the TV (which is 40") has a 1080P.

Wish it was that easy to find the proper FOV in AC...

That looks just about right but in a game like PCARS, you lose any believable sense of speed if you set the cockpit FOV anything below 80.

 

[goguvarra]

50° hFoV is....50/81*100=62% In the GT6 Multi Monitor Settings

I know this is old but really wanted to thank you and ask a couple of questions
Your answer must be the single most useful thing to my day right now, didn t know all this about GT6. you made me really happy )
1) just curious how did you find out the values? did you just compare views with the same circuit or something?
2) these values are supposed to be used in the cockpit view in the "standard" setting i suppose? Because narrow and narrowest change the FOV further.

GT6= 100% | 90% | 75% | 69% | 50%
AC = 52 | 47 | 39 | 36 | 26
PC = 81 | 75 | 64 | 60 | 44

3) I'm not the best at math but in your table above if 81 in PC = 100% in GT6 shouldn't
44 = 54% (based on this 81 = 113% )
60 = 74%
64 = 79%
and so on...?
So, is the 81 = 100% correct? can I base my calculations on that?
Many thanks.

 

[goguvarra]

@Pseudopod you might be interested in reading this thread:
http://tunerspit.com/forum/showthread.php?2745-Field-of-View-Adjustmen-in-GT5

The default FOV in GT5/6 is 82 degree Horizontal, Pcars also use horizontal degree value, AC uses vertical value, equivalent to 82 Horizontal is about 52 vertical for the same perspective.
Switching from bumper view to cockpit view in GT clearly shows that the FOV are different, also be careful that when you change the FOV in ''Server'' it also affect the 3 settings in Cockpit view.
My favorite and only SIM like in GT is the narrowest, getting the screen as close as possible to the back of the wheel.
It would be great to be able to get the seat a little further back, but it is not possible in GT, the sit is fixed, only the FOV varies.
Bonus of the narrowest setting, it makes the Standard not so bad to drive.

Bonus of the narrowest setting, it makes the Standard not so bad to drive. --> do you mean that if you change the values in the "server" page and put the lowest setting there in makes the Standard cockpit view in GT6 alright?

The default FOV in GT5/6 is 82 degree Horizontal, --> oh, so this would make my assumption from above that indeed 81 or 82 = 100% in the "server" settings page for GT6. Like blowfishrulez states in his table.