[WMCoolmon]

This is fairly long, as it's written with the wiki in mind. But atm the wiki is glitchy, so I'm posting it here.

Intro:
The 'field of view' in a game controls how much of an area in the game space you can see. With the -fov parameter, you can actually set this paramter to see more or less  of the area.

This is sort of akin to the width of a window; if you stand and look out one window, then go to another, wider, window and stand the same distance away, you'll be able to see a wider area with the wider area.

Note that field of view is dependant on your distance from the object as well; if you've ever seen a sequence in a movie or TV show where the background seemed to zoom in or out, while characters remained the same size, the same principal applies

Freespace 2:
The field of view in Freepsace 2 is actually set incorrectly to make things appear to scale. It's actually set too large. This is on purpose; by doing this, Volition wanted to make the game easier and more fun to play. Humans have a field of view of about 135 degrees; but most people don't play with their face pressed up against the screen, so their fov is restricted by how much area the computer screen takes up. (See attached diagram)

Figuring out your FOV setting:
Figuring out what your FOV setting should be depends on two factors; the width of your monitor, and how far away your face is from it. You'll probably want a ruler of some sort (The kind you measure with, not royalty or GWB). If you're thinking you can cheat because you know the size of your monitor, think again - the size of a monitor is its measurement diagonally, not its width or height.

Once you've figured out how far away you sit from your monitor, and how wide it is, you'll need to do a little math. Go to this site and enter the following (Replacing "monitor width" and "your distance" as appropriate):

Code: [Select]

atan((monitor width/2)/your distance)*2

Now, add the result after "-fov" in the custom flags field of the launcher. For example, "-fov .1786". Start up a mission in Freespace and you should instantly notice the difference. You might want to tweak the value some, as it can be a bit uncomfortable to play with a small FOV.

[Col. Fishguts]

Well explained

[Grug]

But in what units? inches and cm's?

[WMCoolmon]

It doesn't matter, as long as you're consistent. Tangent takes that ration and makes it radians, which measure rotation amount rather than distance.

If you were reasonably accurate you could measure both in terms of fractions of your pet's tongue.

[Grug]

Ah so they both have to be the same unit?

Kewl thanks.

Mind reader again I see...

[Deepblue]

I personally think the game is cool with 0.89 fov cause it makes everything look faster...

[Ypoknons]

PS If you're using your own calculator SCP's fov is in radians, not degrees. Dop!

[Turambar]

now we ought to fix the bug that cuts off the orb radar at lower fov's, cause that gets annoying

[Flaser]

If only we had true freelook + in-game fov setting...(hint,hint ).

That would be a godsend for cockpits and would make dogfight easier.
(too much exporuse to LOMAC - I wanted to constantly check six in I-War2 and it didn't let me!)

How much work would the in-game implementation be WMC?
...the freelook?

[phreak]

Originally posted by Turambar
now we ought to fix the bug that cuts off the orb radar at lower fov's, cause that gets annoying

ok thanks for letting me know.

[Turambar]

the cut off edges

[Goober5000]

I always wondered about this.  Thanks, WMC.

[WMCoolmon]

Originally posted by Flaser
How much work would the in-game implementation be WMC?
...the freelook?

I started on some code for the padlock thingy (hold down a button and it tracks your curret target) but I remember there was some problem I had with world orientation -> model orientation - or maybe eyepoint position with model orientation.  I should really take another look at it since it's half-implemented in CVS.

You should be able to check your six with the current padlock views though, assuming there's nothing in the way. And you can hold down 0 on the numpad to 'look around', IIRC.

[Deepblue]

Can you make a way for the padlock view to track enemies?

[Flaser]

What I would find handy would be being able to look around 360 degrees like I can with the numped ins/0 but without having to hold down the button.

To tell the truth I want/would like a system like the one in Lock On - it made aquiring targets visually seamless, and setable fov transformed the cockpit into a dependable instrument instead a mere graphics.

[phreak]

Originally posted by Turambar
the cut off edges

fixed... hopefully

i need an orb model

[Deepblue]

Can you take .max?

[phreak]

no.  i only have TS, and i avoid using that like the plague

[Grug]

mmmm plague...
Try the Babylon projects one?

btw, what's the optimal average FOV?

[Flaser]

Read the first post and get your ruler ready to get the realistic reading.
...then experiment what gives you the best eperience/immersion.