The High FOV vs Low FOV arguement

[TheSting]

so recently i have been playing on "The Gym", which is a pvp firefight competitive group of over 1000 players. i was playing a pug (pick up game) when a very polite team captain said to me
"hey sting, try lowering ur FOV a bit."
the guy is a lot more experienced than me, so i took his advice, and lowered my FOV to 90. The arguement he gave for lowering it was that it makes the character models wider on your screen. which is fair enough, it does have that effect. however after i lowered my FOV i found i just couldnt rest my sights on my targets anymore. It got me thinking, is FOV a preference or is it a set guideline?

High FOV advantages:
You can see more
U can see your enemy sooner while turning
Personally it helps with reaction shots

Low FOV advantages:
larger character model to hit
???

[Sterling]

I already have mat_monitorgamma bound to 3 keys with the max, the medium and the minimum values, so I don't have to turn a flashlight on at every single slightly dark corner. Might as well do the same with FOV.

[The Icecream Snowman]

A low FOV allows you to see what's in front of you better but reduces your peripheral vision. High FOV gives more peripheral vision at the expense of things in front of you appearing smaller. The difference is finding targets more easily or shooting them more easily.

You can sort of always see the same amount of stuff, lowering the FOV concentrates what you can see and inreaces the 'quality' while reducing 'quantity' of vision.

I set the FOV to a value which doesn't cause peripheral objects to warp and change size when I turn. I do have a 21:9 monitor, though so I have loads of peripheral vision anyway.

[Propane]

You can play with the

cl_ads_fov_scale

cl_ads_weapon_fov_scale

values to get a lower FOV while aiming and keep a higher FOV while not.
Or vice versa.

[TheSting]

What We Do In The Shadows님이 먼저 게시:

You can play with the

cl_ads_fov_scale

cl_ads_weapon_fov_scale

values to get a lower FOV while aiming and keep a higher FOV while not.
Or vice versa.

ah i did not know about this. thanks, this is very useful

[AkH prevent ت]

Snowman summed it up nicely.

I think a lot of experienced players move towards a lower FOV because it does let you "see farther" in a sense. Someone down a hallway or street, prone or behind cover... they are tough to see when they are only exposing a part of their head or elbow/shoulder. Lower your FOV a little, and now that tiny part that is visible isn't so terribly tiny anymore since it does "zoom you in" slightly.

Players with a ton of experience can deal with the downside of losing a little peripheral vision because from all their hours of playtime (often 1,000+), they picked up some map awareness/game sense along the way. Odds are, they have a pretty good idea of where the enemy will be, so being able to see that area a little better is desired.

For people starting out, sometimes a little more peripheral is preferred until you really get a hang of the maps. After playing awhile you'll get to the point where you realize that most threats are typically exactly where you're looking, instead of catching you off guard by attacking you from the sides anymore. That's when I think people start to lower their FOV.

I would slowly lower your FOV in small increments over time until you find something that feels balanced to you. Some of us sit close to the monitor, some a little further away... some of us have bigger monitors or smaller ones, etc. I noticed when I moved from a 24" monitor to 27", people were a little bit easier to see with the same exact settings.

I was a high FOV player for the longest time, with it around 100+, but over time I lowered it to 85 where it felt "right" for me. I tried lower but couldn't get used to it myself.

Some comp guys I know take it down to 75 and do absolutely great with it, but I think they have a bit more game sense than me so they don't suffer the penalty of less vision to the sides as I do. Plus, they seem to have better hearing than me, lol.

[ttv.Linkypoo]

Prevent's comment is exactly what I would have said but he said it better.

I play with 75 FOV but have 3,400 hours. More than 2,000 hours are in private competive games, scrims, matches etc.


I suggest most people keep it at 90 and go no higher. Game sense is a very important part of Insurgency, especially competitive Insurgency. It also depends on how big of a monitor you have. I never go bigger than 24 inches (eyyyy).