screen resolution, zoom, and pixels

[Guest jprintz]

Does anyone know exactly how many degrees of the "flightsim world" are visible onscreen, both vertically and horizontally, for the various zoom settings, or for 1.00 at least?? I looked for variables I could use to calculate this myself, but didn't see anything. (Perhaps I'm not creative enough!!) I do see ways to do it relatively imprecisely, but for the gauge I'm doing, what I'm looking for is PRECISELY the nuber of degrees out the window (to 10th of a degree). Thank you all for any help! This form is a tremendous resource.

[Rocky 128]

This is a very interesting question, but I still wonder why you need it... Sorry to say, I don't have the answer, but I am interested because I asked myself the same question for the use of a wide screen (16/9 instead of 4/3).If you use a wide screen, the lateral angle of visibility does not change, so the image is stretched without increasing the pilot visibility. This is why I am also interested in the ability to CHANGE the angle of visibility.Eric

[Guest jprintz]

Yep, I know what you mean. In addition, by a little "quasi-experiment" I just did, it seems obvious that in the sim, 1 degree of visible pitch does not equal one degree of visible azimuth. I think everyone senses this, but I had never measured it. The vertical degrees are "squashed." At zoom 1, I'm getting ABOUT 45 degrees azimuth, with 40 degrees pitch visible, which is clearly out of bounds with the 4:3 monitor ratio. This is probably why there's no proper feeling of altitude, and why, to get the right picture and feeling of height for a 3 degree glideslope, you have to zoom in to 1.5 or so... which of course then distorts the apparent distance and perception of speed.... (When I did my first "real world" approach, I was surprised by how high 3 degrees actually felt, after all those years simming... ;-) Anyway, I suppose it's all a compromise, but I wonder if there'd ever be a way to independently adjust degrees visible vertically and degrees visible horizontally, so as to give the user the option of 1:1, and to match the 4:3 ratio of the monitor. This would let you solve your problem too. (It seems like there must be another way to solve that one though??) Back to my issue (heheh),I wonder if there's a zoom setting where 1 deg = 1 deg, or if they're all distorted by the same percentage?? Adjustibility here would be nice. Personally, I'd gladly give up a little azimuth for that feeling of depth/altitude... and then you could get an accurate picture of 3 degrees, WITHOUT having to give up perception of accurate speed and distance....

[Guest jprintz]

not to reply to my own post, but... ;-) ... fooling around with resolution has changed my mind a bit. You CAN get the proper feeling of altitude if you lower the resolution in the vertical axis. Of course, you lose detail this way and, at a point, start to add a whole new type of distortion.... Still looking for a way to precisely measure the field of view in various resolutions and zooms....

[Guest iholrf]

I recall reading somewhere that the view forward is 27 degrees. Hope that answers your question.CheersShad