Hi everybody,I would like to have your opinion on the best zoom setting to use when flying airliners especially at TO and landings.In my opinion the zoom 1 is not adequate because it does not give a realistic view of what the pilot has in front of him in real life, at least I think so. Also when taking off it has the inconvenience of making it very hard to keep in line. I use 0.6 zoom but I am not sure it is the best setting. A large angle has the inconvenience of including too much scenery in the window and hitting your frame rate if you are in a zone with plenty of 3D objects.Anyway I would like to have you guys' opinion on the subject.I hope the subject has not been treated already, if it has please clue me.Cheers to allJFC

Yes, it has been discussed hundreds of time. Use "search" option.Michael J.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

This topic has always been of interest to me since I work at Gen. Mitchell Int'l in Milwaukee and as part of my work do daily runway inspections. I've often just been able to sit in my truck on the approach end of a runway and look to the opposite end and closely examine what the view is from the cockpit and compare it to what people say the zoom setting should be. I realize sitting in a truck is lower than a cockpit of most airliners but compared to a Cessna its the same. I don't know where people get the idea that .6 or anything under 1.0 for that matter is close to being realistic. I think they like the illusion of going faster than they actually are. I've taken photos and video of this exact position and am here to say that a zoom setting of 1.3 is what you're going to see out of a real cockpit. Please try it. Thanks,Tom

I thnk setting the zoom below 1.0 makes it look like you're going slower. Anyway, I use a zoom of 0.5 because it gives a better "periferal" view, and it's quick to set up (just hit the - key once). I put together this little illustration:Look at the position of your aircraft in relation to the runway numbers:http://www.ircore.com/~reaper/img/top.jpgNow I drew lines from the pilots eye down the cowl of the aircraft to the centerline of the runway to show what you should be able to see from the cockpit:http://www.ircore.com/~reaper/img/eye.jpgYou should be able to see the numbers from the cockpit, but at a zoom setting of 1.0 you cant:http://www.ircore.com/~reaper/img/zoom10.jpgNow at a zoom of 0.5 you can see them:http://www.ircore.com/~reaper/img/zoom05.jpg

>I thnk setting the zoom below 1.0 makes it look like you're >going slower. Oh, this is definitely not true. The longer zoom the slower your perceived speed. This is simply basics optics. Try it with your zoom equipped camera.

Search the Archives for Zoom Options under my name, (Vulcho). I posted this same question a long time ago. I use diffrent zooms depending on the aircraft. .50X is usually my choice of prefference.Cheers,Alex.ERROR:Banner is 6.6KB, 15 pixels (width) above limit. Cannot Display!

Don't look at the runway numbers and worry if you can see them or not, that might be dependant on how high you crank your virtual seat up in the aircraft. Instead, using your example, look at the size of distant objects like the buildings. They sure look farther away than they actually are when you zoom down to .5, and also look at the width of the farthest end of the runway that you are on. That is a key in determining the proper zoom. Tom

If we had monitors that were as wide as our peripheral vision then maybe a "correct" zoom factor could be sorted out. Compressing your whole field of view to a 19" screen kinda messes things up.boneshttp://fsaviation.net

Here are 2 pictures from my ("real") landing, my friend took these out Cessna152 hope these help to compare to your view in the simulator. Happy flying

Tom, I have to agree with you. A zoom of of greater than 1.0 is actually more realistic. Especially when you are flying a big airliner, a zoom of between 1 - 1.3 is closer to what you would actually see in reality. Go below 1.0, and the view becomes too panoramic.

I am not going to argue with someone's unique perception. But it is the fact the zoom setting can be settled mathematically. And the results may vary from panel to panel. It has been talked about quite often on this forum.If you take for example the 767 PIC panel the zoom setting I personally calculated to be most realistic is in the 0.65-0.85 range. I personally use 0.71 for that plane. But again, it can be computed and no matter what one may say it is in fact the most realistic zoom. Some 767 pilots only confirmed the result to be absolutely valid.Michael J.

"Instead, using your example, look at the size of distant objects like the buildings. They sure look farther away than they actually are when you zoom down to .5, and also look at the width of the farthest end of the runway that you are on. That is a key in determining the proper zoom. Tom"

You are assuming a zoom of 1x is normal, which I think it is too much zoom as to what the eye sees."Here are 2 pictures from my ("real") landing, my friend took these out Cessna152 hope these help to compare to your view in the simulator. Happy flying "A camera can not capture what the eye sees, so looking at a picture is not going to prove anything.All I can say is set the zoom to what whatever works for you. I'm an instrument rated pilot and all I can say is what FS calles a zoom of 1.0 is not what I see through my eyes.

>A camera can not capture what the eye sees, so looking at a >picture is not going to prove anything. >>I agree here. The above photos are useless for the purpose of this discussion. However they would carry significant more weight had they included the portion of the instrument panel (hopefully big enough portion). Then one could compare relative angles with the same in the sim. And this could be done regardless what lens was used for the photography.Michael J.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

Based on a post in another forum I used the advanced FSUIPC settings to create to pre-set zoom settings - 0.68 and 1.25 which are accessed through two buttons on my joystick. Solves the problem completely. Keyboard to restore 1x, buttons to set zoom quickly. Details are in the Advanced User Guide.What I have find is that the zoom is relatively unimportant. What is important is to match the zoom to the perceived field of view, and in real life this varies constantly.Doing an instrument scan we only need to catch the edges of the instrument panel in our field of view to have sufficient FOV to manage our activities. From their, our eyes zoom on the instruments in turn. At this time the wide dispersal FOV is unimportant. Zoom becomes the issue. A moment later, and the gaze returns to Outside Of Cockpit (OOC). Once you go from inside to OOC the FOV becomes vital to the perception of reality. Not zoom, but FOV.No sim can properly represent the change in focus and focal length the brain and eye can manage, so whatever discussion centres on mathematics, ultimately as someone has noted, the view OOC cannot be accurately scaled to appear on a computer monitor - the proportions of the monitor are plain wrong. To get the FOV the zoom must be incorrect. To get the zoom correct the FOV is lost. Perhaps a multi-monitor setup or widescreen TV can approximate the FOV and zoom at the same time but until then we either `crop` the image to suit the horizontal FOV OR the zoom, but never both. Which you choose is based on personal objectivity and perception and the needs of the moment. We as humans need peripheral vision just as much as direct focus. It's what we use to judge speed and relative position. We use focus to provide range and detail to complete the `picture`.I find 0.68 realistic enough for all flight regimes other than take-off, approach and landing, for which 1.25 looks more like the image I see when landing in a light plane, perhaps because I am `focussed`. Interestingly though, when I use my Fresnel lens I find that both those settings look less realistic and that 1x becomes my normal mode of operation, except at high altitudes. Just that small increase in Depth of Field provided by the lens completely alters perception.ChasW

I'm coming in late to this discussion. It has been interesting reading. What was even more interesting was that there was little or no discussion of the impact of zoom on frame rates. In the end, I found your discussion the most interesting of all, and will definitely look into using FSUIPC to set things up the way you have. The higher zoom when taking off and landing will have the salutary effect of improving frame rate where it is most likely to be needed. Thanks for the tip.-Basil