Ok, im sure all of you have heard the problem about not seeing enough in the cockpit, or lfs looking to slow. Well, the problem is, the defualt FOV in the cockpit for lfs is set so that you can only see the wheel (almost all of it) and then the hands of the driver and the wrists. Screenie:


Now, hold your wheel (or if you dont have one, pretend theirs one in front of you). Now, like me you should just be able to see your shoulders, and all of your arms. Now, you cant simulate peripheral vision with a monitor very well, seeing your shoulders is out of the game. Screenie:


With the FOV like this LFS looks alot better in means of how fast things look, and also now you can see the whole cockpit window. Now your saying, ok, thanks for pointing that out Vendetta, but why make this thread if we can change it? Well, if the default FOV was like this, new players would have a better sense of speed for their car, which could maybe prevent crashes on T1 () and also, if it was like this, their would never be any discussion on not being able to see the whole cockpit, or lfs looking to slow etc, which would mean their would never even have to be this thead. So uh yeah........i think ill start racing like this from now.

The most realistic FOV to me is this:

It gives you the veiw most realistic to what you see in real life, but looks extremely odd. Maybe a low FOV looking veiw, that lets you see all that?

can you provide the numbers for those views? cheers.

The last one, the one that looks weird, the fov is set at its highest. 120. The middle one is set too 100-102 degrees. The first one is 80-84. All these pictures were taken with the female character.

But the default is more realistic in a way. PC monitors aren't very wide. Actually the default is what you would see from a window about the size of your monitor.

I have set my FOV to about the default, maybe a little bigger so it feels natural to me. But those two last ones just look somehow weird, a big chunk of view crammed in to a small space. And the view is too far back, there is a little distance between you and the monitor, so actually the distance to the virtual wheel in LFS in the last picture is about 2x length of the hands.

The most natural FOV is a different from the best for gameplay and it's dependant on the width of your monitor.

Quote from Vendetta :

The last one, the one that looks weird, the fov is set at its highest. 120. The middle one is set too 100-102 degrees. The first one is 80-84. All these pictures were taken with the female character.

But the default value is 90 degrees.

I used to play with 86 degrees but then I changed it back to 90.

One thing would be very useful: Simply changing the place of the seat forward/backward without using the custom view.

Reason why the devs probably didn't have the default FOV like the middle one. (I like that the best) Well think of it this way, if you put on a helmet, how much do you see now? Try it, I can only see nearly up to my eblows, I can see most of the steering wheel, and thats bout it. In real life a turn of the head would do ya just fine so you could check your sides with peripheral vision. When I go four wheel'n I get a little tunnel vision and thats about how much I see, I just can't figure out how the devs could simulate a view in a helmet with peripheral vision and all.

I run 75, I can't see as much of the car as I should be able to but it looks far more real to me that way. It actually looks like real cars on the screen rather a computer game (if that makes sense).

This is one of those ask 3 people, get 4 different answers. All of the views shown and suggested here is absolutely horrible. My FOV is 65. In the simulation of my view, I take into account the steering wheel I am actually using mounted on my desk. Then I set the FOV to let me read the gauges and simulate where the windshield would be relative to where I'm sitting, not the frame of my PC monitor. I have the A pillar just on the edge of my monitor screen display and the wheel ingame turned off (already have one in front of me, why do I need two?) I know what you mean though, Vendetta, about the default view and bigger FOV giving better judgement of speed and such for new racers. It would make it alot easier for them at first with a bigger FOV.

Though I don't have any "peripheral vision" with 65% FOV, you get use to using the sounds and your look left/right buttons, which EVERYONE should map and use, to compensate for the lack of peripheral vision. To me, 55-65% without the ingame wheel is the most realistic and gives the most feeling of sitting in a car rather than playing on a computer and looking at a 17/19/21 inch monitor screen.

**EDIT: Thanks Bob for saying almost the same thing. Must have just taken you a good bit shorter time to type that up, hehehe.

Quote from Bob Smith :

I run 75, I can't see as much of the car as I should be able to but it looks far more real to me that way. It actually looks like real cars on the screen rather a computer game (if that makes sense).

Im same as Bob have run my FOV at 68 for a year and half, the real solution is not increasing FOV as it distorts things, the ideal solution would be a three monitor setup or XGA projector, etc then a FOV of 120 deg wouldn't seem so distorted I'd guess

LOL soon we might be saying "to experience LFS as it should be, you need a wheel and pedal set and a surround vision/sound gaming setup

[Edit] and I'm a slow typist too [/edit]

For fun, try taking the formula car, setting the veiw just in front it, on the ground. Put your FOV to a high value like 110+. Its scary

Quote from Vendetta :

For fun, try taking the formula car, setting the veiw just in front it, on the ground. Put your FOV to a high value like 110+. Its scary

Try using Wheel view and FOV 120, now thats Fun

Quote from Fordman :

Try using Wheel view and FOV 120, now thats Fun

I use to use wheel view because of frame rate and the open wheel car with 120 FOV looks exactly like the LX cars did in wheel view with my 65 FOV. That was weird feeling/looking and anytime I had to use the LX, I had to change the FOV or position to fix it in order to drive it.

I use 75 too, works much better for me than a lower/higher value. Same for every car.

I use under 70 on a 17" CRT monitor how big is you monitor Vendetta, a few miles wide?

For those who haven't found it you can move your mirror so you can see it without enabling the gastly virtual mirrors, go to Options > View > mirror offset lateral IIRC.

I've been using a high FOV since the beginning for these exact reasons. I think i'm at 100°
these days. I've always found the increased sense of speed well worth the small visual distortion.

I'm using about 68-72°, depending on car and mood. Everything with a insanely high FOV gives me a completely surreal image with a waaay too exaggerated feel of speed (for my liking). With such a high FOV I drive through corners like granny because everything feels much too fast. Also somehow I miss the apex much easier with a high FOV.

I don't know the mathematics involved here but looking at a 19'' monitor from about 1 metre distance you'd need a FOV of about 30° to get everything to "realistic" proportions (IIRC).


Also don't forget that when driving on broad roads like a racetrack, the felt speed is much lower even IRL. Now if we had something resembling rally stages in LFS, I doubt many people would have a problem with the standard FOV.

I started with 90 but have slowly reduced it over time to 77. I find the sense of speed is just something you need to get used to and it's completely relative. In the same way that the normal speed seems totally sluggish after you've been watching a replay at 4x.

Once you're used to it, fast still feels fast and slow still feels slow, and I don't rely on the speedo to tell me that either.

The reason I reduced it, was in part to reduce the distortion effect, but also I think changes in direction/attitude of the car are more obvious with a lower fov.

I used to use about 75 degrees to start with in S1. Hitting apex's was much easier and the sense of speed was much slower so everything seemed more calm. But discussions with Kirves, who I was TRYING to beat to the WR of SO Classic in the MRT, showed he used 90 degrees.

So I used 90 degrees, and I was slower But after a while I got used to it, and it helped me find over half a second quite quickly, when before I was stuggling to improve by hundredths.

I really don't think your FOV has much effect on your lap times. It may certainly change your perception of the track, and therefore how you learn it in the first place.

As you said yourself, it's being used to an FOV setting that is important, then you learn how to judge your speeds, and any increase in laptimes is a result of practice.

I'm naughty. Incredibly naughty.

I drive all the cars from a centered view that simulates a TV on-board camera mounted on the roof/roll-bar. :ashamed:

http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=view11gu.jpg
http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=view25tv.jpg

Yes I know I'm a stupid arcade racer because of this, but I drive all my sims this way (F1C, NR2003, LFS) and the increased view makes me a better safer driver. So sue me.

Well I have always used wheel view and 120 FOV. I had the team, T7R stay at my house for the T7R 1 year party, and yes they all laughed at my settings, but as some of you mentioned, the sense of speed is well, what to me should feel like if you are doing 120mph+

Trees, barriers, cones, they wiss past, as I think they should. Now I have never done 120+mph in a real car on a public road, so I would not know what it "should" feel like.

thats just my taste, real or not, but suits me

I don't mind the perception of speed which it adds, but I dislike the fish-eye warping it causes to the whole view. So I have found a happy medium somewhere in between. As Bob says, you get used to what you know. IRL our peripheral vision shows us more then we really "see". Our view is blurred at the periphery and we seldom focus on that part of an image although we still use its information.

So why don't we get the whole fish-eye lens effect in real life? We have two eyes, two slightly different perspectives. Our brain uses two images and blends them for us. That is what we are used to. This also helps us to judge distances between us and the object of our focus.

So in my cockpit I pull back from the totally wide view a bit until things are a little less fish-eye. Personal preference. I always feel wierd with the driver's arms stretching into the distance like you get when you pull way back. When using the head turn feature I find a wide field of view hard to drive also.

Quote from mrodgers :

This is one of those ask 3 people, get 4 different answers. All of the views shown and suggested here is absolutely horrible. My FOV is 65. In the simulation of my view, I take into account the steering wheel I am actually using mounted on my desk. Then I set the FOV to let me read the gauges and simulate where the windshield would be relative to where I'm sitting, not the frame of my PC monitor. I have the A pillar just on the edge of my monitor screen display and the wheel ingame turned off (already have one in front of me, why do I need two?) I know what you mean though, Vendetta, about the default view and bigger FOV giving better judgement of speed and such for new racers. It would make it alot easier for them at first with a bigger FOV.

Though I don't have any "peripheral vision" with 65% FOV, you get use to using the sounds and your look left/right buttons, which EVERYONE should map and use, to compensate for the lack of peripheral vision. To me, 55-65% without the ingame wheel is the most realistic and gives the most feeling of sitting in a car rather than playing on a computer and looking at a 17/19/21 inch monitor screen.

**EDIT: Thanks Bob for saying almost the same thing. Must have just taken you a good bit shorter time to type that up, hehehe.

I have changed my default FOV settings now to match these (i.e. 65 & no wheel). Totally thumbs up Works pretty good with TrackIR and does give that "sat in the car" feel over the other views.

Quote from ajp71 :

For those who haven't found it you can move your mirror so you can see it without enabling the gastly virtual mirrors, go to Options > View > mirror offset lateral IIRC.

Everyone should check _all_ those view settings. Especially those g force emulation sliders which aren't enabled by default (which isn't nice).

Quote from RacingSimFan :

http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=view11gu.jpg
http://img530.imageshack.us/my.php?image=view25tv.jpg

Yes I know I'm a stupid arcade racer because of this, but I drive all my sims this way (F1C, NR2003, LFS) and the increased view makes me a better safer driver. So sue me.

You are weird.

A widescreen monitor is the way to go, I got a Dell 20" LCD a few weeks back and it really helps. I'm using a FOV setting of 85 which is probably about 70-75 on a normal monitor but it still gives a great sensation of speed. I can't remember for sure but I used a similar setting of 85 on my 19" CRT and it feels faster than that did.