FOV and monitor position question

[Flax]

Hey all, I am pretty new to the simracing world (couple months) and I was wondering: I have a 34 inch curved ultrawide monitor and i'm trying to figure out how close to me should the monitor be and what should the in game FOV be? I have tried online fov calculators but they just seem really off. I like using the the camera that comes after the dash cam (dont know what its called) the one the is more closer to the windshield with no wheel or driver hands. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

[goblueteam]

i would say its something you should kind of play with a little everyone probably likes something a little different i also dont like the fov calculators im on a 55 inch 4k tv like 5-6 feet away and they give me some really weird settings.

for me ill switch between 56-58 fov now i use the cockpit cam that moves less and turn off the wheel and hands and use a distance of 28-30ish height and pitch ajuststed according to car personally i like to be able to see the hood so i raise the height up a little.

for me lower fov makes things look bigger and more zoomed in but i lose the sense of speed and miss corners sometimes

so i would start out trying fov 50 and fov 60 each and see what you prefer and kind of dial it in from there i think stock is 54 but i could be wrong when using 60 remember you can use the distance slider to get the camera back to the same spot it was in before

[goblueteam]

also with monitor distance i would say as close as you can get it without hurting your eyes alot people have them right behind there wheel base

[Hal]

My advice? Forget the math. Your wheel/wheelbase should be located where it would be relative to your point of view within the car. You should not see the wheel, or most of the dash in the sim because your wheel/dash are right in front of you in real life. Now that you have that sorted, your POV within the sim should be such that you can see out of the rear-view mirrors (in the sim) with the correct angle (i.e. your POV in the sim should be similar to what your POV would be if your real head were located in the 'real' car). Now, the monitor should be almost at the front end of your wheelbase, so that the dash in the sim lines up to where your wheel is in real life, if that makes sense. Just imagine that you're actually sitting in the car and that your wheel is the actual wheel in the car, and that you need to use your actual rear view mirrors with the correct angles, and then start tweaking the camera settings. This is how I've achieved the highest level of immersion with my 49" super-ultra-wide. It's ceased to feel like I'm driving in a video game, and started to feel like an actual simulator cockpit.

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Flax:

Hey all, I am pretty new to the simracing world (couple months) and I was wondering: I have a 34 inch curved ultrawide monitor and i'm trying to figure out how close to me should the monitor be and what should the in game FOV be? I have tried online fov calculators but they just seem really off. I like using the the camera that comes after the dash cam (dont know what its called) the one the is more closer to the windshield with no wheel or driver hands. Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks

Well . . .
A suggestion I would give is, align yourself (on your seat position) to have your FFB wheel aligned with the in-game wheel.
If both wheels are the same width for your seat position then you have correct (more natural) FOV.

[Flax]

Originally posted by sp1d3_r:

My advice? Forget the math. Your wheel/wheelbase should be located where it would be relative to your point of view within the car. You should not see the wheel, or most of the dash in the sim because your wheel/dash are right in front of you in real life. Now that you have that sorted, your POV within the sim should be such that you can see out of the rear-view mirrors (in the sim) with the correct angle (i.e. your POV in the sim should be similar to what your POV would be if your real head were located in the 'real' car). Now, the monitor should be almost at the front end of your wheelbase, so that the dash in the sim lines up to where your wheel is in real life, if that makes sense. Just imagine that you're actually sitting in the car and that your wheel is the actual wheel in the car, and that you need to use your actual rear view mirrors with the correct angles, and then start tweaking the camera settings. This is how I've achieved the highest level of immersion with my 49" super-ultra-wide. It's ceased to feel like I'm driving in a video game, and started to feel like an actual simulator cockpit.

I get what you are saying, i'll try this out, thank you!

[Flax]

But something i was really looking for was anyone with the same monitor type (34 inch curved ultrawide 21:9) and what fov settings they use if there is anyone that can slap their fov settings down in here

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Flax:

But something i was really looking for was anyone with the same monitor type (34 inch curved ultrawide 21:9) and what fov settings they use if there is anyone that can slap their fov settings down in here

FOV depend on your distance from screen and xscreen sie, but also from what you feel more confortable with.
Try this one:
https://dinex86.github.io/FOV-Calculator/

[Wrath]

i suggest to use cockpit view, adjust the fov and turn off hands/wheel in the visual option then correct the distance.
i use a 34" 3440x1440 at 80 cm setting up 24° FOV and a distance between -24/-30 depending on the car (for some car i need to adjust height +1.5/+2).

an example on a mclaren 720s: https://i.imgur.com/FFWytSv.jpg

[goblueteam]

lol i do the cockpit view just like wrath but totally the opposite for the fov and distance kind of funny i think it just shows theres many ways to get a good result that you can be happy with

for me it said to use 27 for fov this was super zoomed in and idk really off for me ---what i ended up doing is 56 fov +33 distance ---where wrath did basically the complete opposite

[gosu_]

https://dinex86.github.io/FOV-Calculator/

[Wrath]

Originally posted by goblueteam:

for me it said to use 27 for fov this was super zoomed in and idk really off for me ---what i ended up doing is 56 fov +33 distance ---where wrath did basically the complete opposite

i think it's easier to manage braking point and distance from car ahead with the math calculated FOV (in my case 34"/80cm => 24°) but if that works good for you that should be OK :)

[goblueteam]

i guess everyone is different for me i go right past the turns and everything off the track with the fov that low lol i dont know how to put up screen shots but i just took some with it at 56 and 27 fov with the car in the same spot and it looks like the guy at 27 is standing twice as close and i cant see much in the distance

the biggest thing for me personally is at lower fov it feels really slow for me and i think its because you cant see as much of the stuff surrounding the track just a guess im not really sure i do notice alot of people use a lower fov but yea... for me i cant even make a corner that way lol

[Wrath]

i try to make an example (i hope to make no mistake doing it).
look at this image i made: https://i.imgur.com/ddBlnLb.jpg
black lines rapresents "high" FOV, blue line "low" FOV, both side has same FOV but different distance from the object you are looking (the tree).
if you make a planar view (at the red line point) fov changes dramatically proportions but you can see wide area (can be like a fisheye view in photography when you use a wide angle to shot at low distance and some near things looks immense while things far away from the view seems little like ants).
for that reason i firstly adjust the FOV (no distortion/real proportions), then i move away POV (to have a "bigger crop" in the planar view).

but i think that if your configuration works good for you that's fine :)

[Flax]

Thanks everyone for the info, i decided to go with a 45 FOV and then just play around with seat positioning on a per car basis. I went with 45 because i was watching a video on YT and the dude had the same monitor as me and it looked good on his screen so i just copied his settings and just made little tweaks to seat height, pitch etc and it looks awesome now. The main thing for me now is i have the FOV i want which is 45 and i set that once and forget it. Thanks everyone!

[EF_Neo1st]

Originally posted by Flax:

Thanks everyone for the info, i decided to go with a 45 FOV and then just play around with seat positioning on a per car basis. I went with 45 because i was watching a video on YT and the dude had the same monitor as me and it looked good on his screen so i just copied his settings and just made little tweaks to seat height, pitch etc and it looks awesome now. The main thing for me now is i have the FOV i want which is 45 and i set that once and forget it. Thanks everyone!

If you can feel confortable and natural to have good distance feeling/notion (depth perception) and nail your braking and turning points, also driving with confidence close to whoever is in front of you without bumping/crashing all the time, then you got the FOV setting you need and yes you dont need to change it again.