[Ace]

For cutscenes and other special effects having more control over FOV in-game would be wonderful.

The idea behind the SEXP is the following, it has two variables:
1- Amount of degrees to increase FOV (if positive) or decrease FOV from current value
2- Time for FOV change transition in ms

So, I might use the current FOV SEXP to set it at 90 for the cutscene and use the FOV-change over time SEXP to have snap zoom in and out of the scene.

Similarly this FOV change SEXP could allow for distortion effects such as the first-person FTL effect seen in Battlestar Galactica. (lens FOV distortion before the jump flash)

While such an effect can be replicated with complicated scripting, this SEXP could allow for easier, smoother, FOV changes.

[Tolwyn]

the problem with a FOV change is that it zooms background as well. Or have you found a way around it?

[Herra Tohtori]

Sufficiently high-resolution background textures with mipmaps?

Actually, if the field of view setting is not horribly small, most backgrounds still look good enough IMHO. Depends of the nebulae in question, of course. -fov 0.5 is starting to creep up to the pixelation threshold, but -fov 0.60 and higher... I don't usually notice a big difference to default -fov 0.75.

Aside from cutscenes, I think the FOV should also be adjustable by the player with keypresses. Crosshair zoom FTW.

[Tolwyn]

Sufficiently high-resolution background textures with mipmaps?

Tried it already with a skybox? I s'pose not