68 here! ...my year of birth

Quote from Bob Smith :

Threw this together in a couple of hours for the interested:

FOV Calculator

It makes it obvious that lower FOVs look more natural but if we used "real" figures we'd have no peripheral vision what-so-ever. Obviously compromise is needed.

Also that program doesn't take borders into account, or angling of the screens (which you shouldn't do anyway because the 3D engine assumes your display is flat).

You only have 16:9 listed for 24" widescreen CRT's. My Sony FW900 is 16:10. I think it is roughly equivalent to a 22" 16:10 LCD, though.

Early on I used to run in the 90s but I put this down to my long standing Quake addiction running with 90fov.

For the past year or so though I have dropped to 63degs. I have to run virtual mirrors in BF1 and MRT and also virtual dials in the MRT but speeds and distance feel more natural and it has improved my driving loads.

Forbin, you're right. The word 'improved' is a subjective value judgement. I should have used a phrase like 'more natural' instead. The closer the in-game FOV approaches the 'natural FOV' setting which Bob's FOV Calculator derives based on the geometry of eyepoint distance to screen and screen dimensions, the more natural the spatial relationship between the elements in the scene will seem. In my case, at least, that improves my ability to judge speed and distances and to be more precise in hitting apexes and choosing braking and turn-in points. However, as the poll results show, I'm very much an outlier in this regard; an overwhelming majority prefer to use much higher FOV values.

As an experiment, last night I asked my wife, who is not a gamer, to try LFS with a few different FOV settings. She was most comfortable with lower FOV values, though she found the lowest settings (i.e. less than 50°) disorienting largely because she could no longer see much of the frame, dashboard and steering wheel.

Quote from Forbin :

You only have 16:9 listed for 24" widescreen CRT's. My Sony FW900 is 16:10. I think it is roughly equivalent to a 22" 16:10 LCD, though.

TBH I tried looking up widescreen CRTs but couldn't find any that weren't tellies. Curious though, I thought 16:10 was just some silly marketing thing for TFTs.

Do you know of any other widescreen CRTs? I'll research a little more and try to make a complete list...

My TFT is 4:3 and 19", there is this size missing from program

Really? What model is it? I've never seen a 19" TFT that wasn't 1280x1024 native.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Really? What model is it? I've never seen a 19" TFT that wasn't 1280x1024 native.

This is Acer AL1916, it has 1280x1024 native, but brochure says it is 4:3, you make me confused, sir

1280 / 1024 = 1.25

4 / 3 = 1.333 = no match
5 / 4 = 1.25 = match

Your brochure is wrong.

Quote from Bob Smith :

Really? What model is it? I've never seen a 19" TFT that wasn't 1280x1024 native.

edit: damn i'm dumb
but yeah, i've seen some 4:3 19" LCD screens here in Brazil.
Acer, LG, maybe some other brands too.

Quote from Bob Smith :

1280 / 1024 = 1.25

4 / 3 = 1.333 = no match
5 / 4 = 1.25 = match

Your brochure is wrong.

Yes it is, very wrong and it is straight from manufacturer, came with monitor, lol.

80-90 seems like a good balance.

Forbin - your Sony CRT seems to be the only widescreen CRT ever produced, or at least google isn't giving me other info. I've changed the list in the prog to 16:10 instead of 16:9 for CRTs.

Can't get comfortable with more than 80

Usualy use between 70 and 80.

17" TFT

I used to race with the chaser view, but now I'm becoming a fan of the "inside car" view. I don't think I can get back to the chase view again...

Quote from Bob Smith :

Forbin - your Sony CRT seems to be the only widescreen CRT ever produced, or at least google isn't giving me other info. I've changed the list in the prog to 16:10 instead of 16:9 for CRTs.

it has a predecessor too ... same specs though (sizewise)

and i do know of at least one 4:3 19" 1600*1200 tft from iiyama

Well, according to bob's calculator, I should be using a FOV of 83 or less, which looks completely absurd with my setup. I'll stick with my 120 degrees.

Quote from dawesdust_12 :

Well, according to bob's calculator, I should be using a FOV of 83 or more, which looks completely natural with my setup..

Corrected your two mistakes there Dustin.

The FOV that works best for you is generally somewhere between the natural FOV, and something that gives a good peripheral vision and a good sense of speed. Of course it's all personal preference but it's useful to know how low is "real". There's little point going under the natural FOV, since the image will both look wrong and lack the other qualities I just mentioned.

Also each degree you add is a compound effect, the difference between say 40 and 50 degrees is quite small but 100 to 110 is (comparatively) massive. I've tried 109 degrees when in triple monitor mode, and even then it looks a lot. I don't know what setup you have but it can't be THAT much wider than 3x 22" 4:3 displays.

I dunno, anything less than 120 with my 2 monitors looks really wierd, but I'm now starting to see the sort of fisheye effect, but it gives me better perferifrial (spelling is wrong) vision. When I look left and right, I seem to get into a slide no matter where I am.

Thanks for fixing my post though Bob :P

Quote from Bob Smith :

Forbin - your Sony CRT seems to be the only widescreen CRT ever produced, or at least google isn't giving me other info. I've changed the list in the prog to 16:10 instead of 16:9 for CRTs.

I think you're probably right. I'd never even heard of such a thing as a widescreen CRT monitor until I saw this one.

I use 80-90.
I need to see at least one of the side mirrors…
And 90 degrees seem to be ok at my 17 crt

Tried to set 50 dedrees or lower and it seemed to be extremely unnatural that I could see only the half front windshield from the drivers eye view…



I understand what you saying Bob but i can't follow realistic fov unless i have a multi monitor setup or a projector...

Quote from Forbin :

I think you're probably right. I'd never even heard of such a thing as a widescreen CRT monitor until I saw this one.

I'll have to look on Monday and see what my brother-in-law has at work. He has a CRT 24 inch (I think) wide screen, while they give me just this crappy 15 incher that isn't even a flat screen CRT.

Ooops, there was a bug where in that little app where 16:10 displays were actually 16:0, so the FOVs calculated were too high for those display. Fixed now (same URL).

Quote from Bob Smith :

Ooops, there was a bug where in that little app where 16:10 displays were actually 16:0, so the FOVs calculated were too high for those display. Fixed now (same URL).

how did you manage to do that without getting a div by 0 ?

Easy, you don't ever divide by the either half of the ratio.


Taking 16:10 as an example, LeftAR1 would be 16, LeftAR2 would be 10 (or with the bug, 0).

120° degree, cockpit view. but i have a 15,4" 16:10 wide-screen monitor with 1280x800 resolution. i see both mirrors