Hard Light Productions Forums

General FreeSpace => FreeSpace Discussion => Topic started by: Fmstrat on October 01, 2004, 02:17:23 pm

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Fmstrat on October 01, 2004, 02:17:23 pm

Sorry for starting so many posts so close together, I'm just getting into this and this is the only other thing I can't seem to find in the docs :)

In the FSdoc I found:

Quote

-fov x
    You can completely miss out this option if you want. It turns on the Field Of View code. This allows you to constrain the view making ships seem larger. There's no tickbox for this one at the moment so you'll need to enter it into the Custom Flags box. Of course you can alter the x to any number you like. Try -fov 0.35 for a more realistic FOV or -fov 0.45 for a good compromise between playability and reality.

Now, if I have a widescreen that I pass 1280x720 (HDTV) into (I actually have to use 1280x768 for some reason or the bottom half of the radar doesnt show up, just a half circle), can I use the fov command to widen my playing field accross the extra area?  I imagine it will be slightly distorted on the edges, but it's got to be better than the stretching I currently have.  Also, what would be a good number to try, .80, 1.20?  I remember I used 120 degrees in Quake 2 :)

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: kasperl on October 01, 2004, 02:30:03 pm

Try it out, but IIRC it just changes the view angle, not the output.

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Fmstrat on October 01, 2004, 03:24:23 pm

What do you mean?  I'm thinking of it as like in Quake 2, if you set your FOV to 180, it squashed everything on the screen so that you could see all the way from one side to the other.

So if I have a screen that's got more viewable width, wouldn't changing the FOV allow me to "squash" and remove the stretch?

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Liberator on October 01, 2004, 03:33:43 pm

What it does is change the camera so that it distorts the image so that certain things look larger.  It's more a perspective shift, similar to looking in the wrong end of a microscope.

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Taristin on October 01, 2004, 03:33:44 pm

It's not exactly the FOV angle, but more like a zoom... it's complicated.

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Taristin on October 01, 2004, 03:36:04 pm

odd. I have the last post on this page, but the BB says Lib does... :wtf:

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: StratComm on October 01, 2004, 04:14:12 pm

*burp* (It was the forum! I swear ;))

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Hippo on October 02, 2004, 08:34:28 am

Or was is? :p

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: Fmstrat on October 04, 2004, 09:27:26 am

I get it, so it's really more like lens aperature than FOV.  Thanks.  I tried it out, and it works OK at 1.20 but the vertical is now distorted the oposite way, so oh well :)

Title: FOV and Widescreen
Post by: aldo_14 on October 04, 2004, 09:47:46 am

(I can't believe I've forgotten the specifics of this, but ne'ermind)

For converting 3d points to a 2d display, they're multiplied by a matrix.  The values in the matrix can be altered to change how the 2d points are calculated - this is, I believe, what the fov value does.

(i.e. flat projection would use a matrix that just ignores the z axis, isometric is different, etc.  I can't remember the types & matrices offhand, sadly)