Hello,

I'm interested to know what folks are using for your Field of View settings and what you find to be the most realistic please.

Flying only small aircraft low and slow using a 43" 4k monitor, I'm happy with around 93

Thanks

Phil

With your personal peripheral vision, you can see about 90 degrees - how about that.

Yes 93 is kind of a fisheye view, it is a very subjective matter and depends entirely on observer, perhaps the 75 value is the most used, I'm happy with that value too and is more or less similar to what I was seeing and used to in my FSX days. Not sure if greater value may decrease frames because you're seeing more wider view.

Most FPS games settle around 110°. In a spherical projection 180° is realistic. Keep in mind when setting the FOV from 60°-110°, with each additional degree, you add load on the cpu. My advice would be to opt for a low FOV and instead create various 3D cockpit locations for the camera. So you are either "looking out the windshield" or "using the the autopilot", sort of leaning back and forth virtually. That's a good workaround for having a low FOV.

If you want a realistic FOV at all costs, consider that for best immersion, the FOV should be aligned with your display size and viewing distance. Think of the display as a window and in what angle and position you are looking through it. The larger the display and closer the viewing distance, the higher the aspirational FOV becomes. That is also why X-Plane's standard FOV is rather low - it's setup for sitting in front of a computer monitor, in which case 60-80° seem appropriate. The rest of your 210° human FOV is filled up with your cluttered desk.

Edited August 30, 20196 yr by Colonel X

21 minutes ago, olderndirt said:

With your personal peripheral vision, you can see about 90 degrees - how about that.

 

"Humans have a slightly over 210-degree forward-facing horizontal arc of their visual field"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view

It's just personal preference, a balance of different factors. How magnified do you want to see the scenery in forward cockpit view, especially while landing? What size do you want the instrument cluster to be? The setting is called FOV but you also have to think of it as magnification. A wider view lowers magnification of everything you see, so details in the scenery get further away, the instruments get smaller, and so on.

Personally, I use 65 degrees, with TrackIR to look around. I've tried wider angles, but this gives me a better view of the runway when lining up PAPI lights and landing, without having to zoom in too much. I can also read primary instruments in my main forward view without the gauges being too small. 

Monitor size is a factor here too. I'm using a relatively small (these days) 24" monitor. Maybe I'd go wider on a larger screen if it was the same 1920x1200 resolution, as that effectively magnifies what's on the screen. OTOH, my next monitor upgrade might be 4k resolution once I have a GPU to support it, which shrinks things down again. 

it's all personal , on a 20" inch screen  16:9  i keep it at around 110.

8 hours ago, Colonel X said:

 

"Humans have a slightly over 210-degree forward-facing horizontal arc of their visual field"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_of_view

Knew someone would call me on this.  At 81, I feel good having 90.

Mark Hurd of Almost Aviation youtube channel has a series of 3 videos about setting virtual cockpit zoom level based on viewing distance, monitor size, etc.

His analysis was based on having the instruments at or close to 1:1 to real world size. His methodology is especially good with large monitors.

He posts here on and off but I forget his nick. 

 

Too wide a field of view causes distortion as you pan around and makes it difficult to get a true sense of your speed on approach (it will appear like you are travelling faster than it would in real life). Too narrow a field of view does the reverse with respect to judging speed. I use a 21:9 display so set mine at 80, but on a 16:9, 60-70 will provide a more realistic perspective and sense of motion. Higher settings will lead to a fishbowl perspective and, while they make more of the instrument panel visible at once, they are not very realistic compared to what you would see IRL.

Even at my age I have about 180 field of view - my vision's good, it's my geometry that's terrible.

Thanks everyone for your interesting, considered and very helpful replies.

Phil

3 hours ago, olderndirt said:

Even at my age I have about 180 field of view - my vision's good, it's my geometry that's terrible.

ok, all is right then, I was a bit worried for you 😊