P3D/FSX Field Of View (FOV) Angle Value

[TallTanBarbie 19]

Is there an actual FOV angle specification?  I can't find one.

Is the zoom quantity just a linear magnification factor or is it the tangent of the half angle between the edges of the viewing window plane and the distance from the view window to the viewpoint?  i.e. if the distance from your head to the centre of the screen is the same as the distance from the screen centre to the left or right edge of the viewing window, then the field of view would be  Ω/2 = 45°, Ω = 2 x 45° = 90°, tan(Ω/2) = 0.7071.

 

Edited February 11, 2021 by TallTanBarbie

[neilhewitt 494]

I'm not sure it's quite as straightforward as that - I know that the FOV calculation is different depending on whether you have WideViewAspect enabled or not, and zoom works differently in each case.

In P3D 3.3 and above, if you were to create a ViewGroup (but with a single display) then you could set the horizontal and vertical FOVs directly and the zoom will adjust to fit. 

[TallTanBarbie 19]

4 hours ago, neilhewitt said:

I'm not sure it's quite as straightforward as that - I know that the FOV calculation is different depending on whether you have WideViewAspect enabled or not, and zoom works differently in each case.

In P3D 3.3 and above, if you were to create a ViewGroup (but with a single display) then you could set the horizontal and vertical FOVs directly and the zoom will adjust to fit. 

I'm using P3Dv5.1 and have WideViewAspect enabled.

X-Plane has a direct FOV angle setting but I can't find anything like that in the P3D config file.

I just use the sim to display the outside world if I'm not using VR and have a separate instrument panel display, so I want the FOV on the view plane window (i.e. the computer display) to correspond with the distance from my head to the screen.

[GSalden 4,657]

Try Managing Cameras inside P3D when it’s running.

You can create your own camera view :

x y z p b h zoom

+ camera features like WidevieW correction 

[Luis Hernandez 570]

According to Calclassic, in FS9, for a 4:3 monitor, the value was 0.8 radians (45.8º approx) of horizontal FOV and 0.6 rad (34.3º) of vertical FOV for a zoom value of 1.0. A zoom value of 0.5 would duplicate these FOVs.

Source: http://calclassic.com/sci_tutorial/index.html

For FSX/P3D with WideViewAspect=False, everything would be the same. If I understand correctly, for FSX/P3D with WideViewAspect=True, the vertical FOV would be kept at 0.6 rad (for zoom=1.0) and the horizontal would be expanded to whatever the aspect ratio of the monitor allows to. In a 16:9 monitor, it would be 0.8 rad x (16/9)/(4/3) = 1.07 rad = 61.1º

21 hours ago, TallTanBarbie said:

Is there an actual FOV angle specification?

If you want to be realistic, you'll need to get the physical FOV (you already did so in your post) and try to match the FOV in the sim with the actual one. You'll see now why people here like to buy big monitors for FS. In my case, I can't do much with my 15.6" laptop display hehehe

Edited February 11, 2021 by Luis Hernandez

[TallTanBarbie 19]

On 2/11/2021 at 2:53 PM, Luis Hernandez said:

According to Calclassic, in FS9, for a 4:3 monitor, the value was 0.8 radians (45.8º approx) of horizontal FOV and 0.6 rad (34.3º) of vertical FOV for a zoom value of 1.0. A zoom value of 0.5 would duplicate these FOVs.

Source: http://calclassic.com/sci_tutorial/index.html

For FSX/P3D with WideViewAspect=False, everything would be the same. If I understand correctly, for FSX/P3D with WideViewAspect=True, the vertical FOV would be kept at 0.6 rad (for zoom=1.0) and the horizontal would be expanded to whatever the aspect ratio of the monitor allows to. In a 16:9 monitor, it would be 0.8 rad x (16/9)/(4/3) = 1.07 rad = 61.1º

If you want to be realistic, you'll need to get the physical FOV (you already did so in your post) and try to match the FOV in the sim with the actual one. You'll see now why people here like to buy big monitors for FS. In my case, I can't do much with my 15.6" laptop display hehehe

Wow...this is interesting. Thanks.