Setting up your FOV

[ZeosPantera 0]

I have seen many a thread on here discussing the "correct" FOV for arma or people asking for a fov based on "this size" screen. As an avid sim racer I have been through the FOV tech for a good long time and can apply the same math and explanations to explain arma's FOV options.

There is no one correct FOV for this game. And frankly trying to play arma with a corrected or "perfect" FOV may turn out to be extrememly difficult or impossible without the proper hardware. ie Triple-head

Here, I made an example of what I am talking about. To have a perfect and correct FOV this is what it should be like to play arma.

That picture puts a 24" monitor the average distance from the eyes of an average arma2 player. To be 100% realistic he should only be able to see things through his 12x19 inch (30x48cm) viewing portal as if it was a window into the game world. A very narrow view indeed.

The math to figure out that "perfect" FOV is very simple and yields a unique value for each player. Get a tape measure.

---------------------------------------------------Procedure-----

Measure the height of your monitor's screen, top pixel to bottom pixel.

Now measure from your eye (normal playing position) to the top of the screen and then your eye to the bottom.

Something like this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game%20Screens/FOV.png

Plug those number into this calculator like so.

EXAMPLE (using inches): http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Forums/FOVCalc.png

CALCULATOR: http://ostermiller.org/calc/triangle.html

That 17 degrees was my real life vertical FOV. I have since moved my monitor closer to me by 5 inches and now have a V-FOV of ~20.5 degrees.

---------------------------------------------------Editing-------

Adjusting the FOV in arma is a simple matter of editing your

"C:\Users\Username\Documents\ArmA 2\Username.ArmA2Profile"

Open it in notepad.

Search for "fov". There are only 2 lines that contain fov near the bottom. They are

fovTop=XXXX; (THESE NUMBERS ARE IN RADIANS!!!)

fovLeft=XXXX;

(my fov was blanked to prevent confusion)

BI (being Czech) has labeled them FOVTOP (Vertical FOV)

and FOVLEFT (Horizontal FOV) Also being Czech if you want to set your Vertical FOV to say.. 75 degrees you must type. 0.75. A value over 100 like 112 requires 1.12

You do not need to use the decimal places found in fov fields!! The game will take the second value and round it off to some obscure decimal you do not need to tell someone to set their fov to 84.2398439. Just say.. 84.

You only need concern yourself with finding the fovTop value. The fovLeft value is determined using your monitor's aspect ratio (ie 16:9, 16:10, 4:3) and a calculator.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Setting my arma to my perfect V-FOV of 20 degrees with a 16:10 screen a means a horizontal value of 32.

That looked like this after using google to convert to radians.

fovTop=0.357;

fovLeft=0.572;

h3vnRIsHG-A

In that video you see 20, 40, 60 and 80 radians tested. Having only one screen makes using that perfect FOV difficult. It would be almost impossible to go through a town without looking around (via mouse look or TrackIR) constantly to see enemies.

I can vouch that it is a much more realistic play experience and would be even more if the ironsight zoom was disabled. Should you have a projector or large TV and sat close enough (not so close that you go blind!) you could set the fov to a calculated value closer to a playable number. Currently I have chosen 65x104.

fovTop=0.65;

fovLeft=1.04;

65 Radians is nowhere near my "perfect" V-Fov of 20° (0.35 radians) but until I have a 3 display system or use my XGA projector to play I have to live with it.

Feel free to experiment and post your thoughts here. If your interested here is the rFactor FOV tutorial discussing the same type of modifications. http://www.racesimcentral.com/forum/showthread.php?5691-Setting-up-your-Driving-view

Edited May 1, 2011 by ZeosPantera

[Zipper5 74]

Interesting idea!

But... BIS is not German. They're Czech. ;)

[ZeosPantera 0]

Interesting idea!

But... BIS is not German. They're Czech. ;)

Duely noted.. and edited.

[Pulverizer 1]

This is why the game has had Zoom In and Zoom Out keys since OFP. Using them you already get the accurate eyesight far and wide peripheral vision up close, only in real life you don't have to keep switching between them.

[nkenny 1057]

This is why the game has had Zoom In and Zoom Out keys since OFP. Using them you already get the accurate eyesight far and wide peripheral vision up close, only in real life you don't have to keep switching between them.

Shame the interface is both clumsy and inconsistent.

@OP. This is really interesting stuff. Is there any benefit? Perceived realism making it easier to move/operate? Or is it all just fluff?

Edit: Read the comment in the youtube vid (and the OP) Playing around with it now.

-k

Edited June 9, 2010 by NkEnNy

[ZeosPantera 0]

This is really interesting stuff. Is there any benefit? Perceived realism making it easier to move/operate?

-k

Yeah if you have the hardware to set your fov to perfect I guarantee it won't feel like your playing a game anymore. But some people cant seem to get past the feel of it. Try it. Move your monitor as close to you as you feel comfortable. make your measurements and try it. It may make you feel a bit queasy at first.

I am going to lower mine down and then bind zoom out to a key to make it act the exact opposite of how it acts now.

I live by it for racing sims.

QY1rcX6fFpY

Edited June 9, 2010 by ZeosPantera

[CarlGustaffa 4]

@ZeosPantera: You are 100% correct in what is the "perfect" FOV. But many thinks the default (I'm getting 0.75x1.20 without having touched it) is too narrow. And yours is naturally even narrower. But, with the "window to world", it is correct. Due to gameplay however, I'm willing to let mine be at what is default, as I'd just rather have that little extra FOV. Also, I'm moving back and forth quite a bit, so any fixed value is never "right" :D

But:

I can vouch that it is a much more realistic play experience and would be even more if the ironsight zoom was disabled.

If my screen res was 16000x9000 or thereabouts, I would agree. But we need something to cope with lack of screen resolution not being anywhere near the eye sight resolution. That being said, there also have to be a relation between an ACOGs zoom/fov versus that or ironsighted zoom/fov.

As many choose to ignore the "perfect FOV" for the added peripheral vision (including myself, important in Arma2), what I would have liked to be enforced is the 40° FOV of the AN/PVS-7. Meaning you get 40° fixed (today I get 80° FOV in normal mode which is just insane, and 20° FOV when zoomed fully in, keep in mind the real thing has 1x (3x or 5x optional), no matter any convenience FOV setting. With those on, you loose the peripheral vision you get to change with the FOV setting.

So what you show in your video for a 40° FOV, that's actually how "bad" it should be when using NVGs :)

[NeMeSiS 11]

Wouldnt walking through the real world while looking trough a hole in a cardboard box be much more difficult?

It would only work if you have a huge monitor, otherwise you are just simulating severe tunnelvision, while right now the screen simulates your whole vision.

[HyperU2 11]

I'd have to say a triple monitor set up would be the best bet.

[celery 8]

In terms of gameplay the "perfect" FOV is useless. It might work for racing sims (haven't tried) but for a shooting game it takes away a big chunk of situational awareness.

[Meek 10]

I don't like to sacrifice aesthetic realism for functional realism. Granted, I can see a realistic FOV being used for a racesim, as quick and accurate determination of distances is important, and worth sacrificing "peripheral vision" for as SA is far less important and less reliant on visuals.

Until I have a triplehead setup, I am not going to be mucking around with the FOV settings.

Nevertheless, that article was interesting to read.

[ZeosPantera 0]

Wouldnt walking through the real world while looking trough a hole in a cardboard box be much more difficult?

Yes, it would be. But a slightly bigger cardboard box hole or 3 of them left to right wouldn't be as difficult. IE we should all have triplehead.

In terms of gameplay the "perfect" FOV is useless. It might work for racing sims (haven't tried) but for a shooting game it takes away a big chunk of situational awareness.

Absolutely. But I find myself walking around towns in-game constantly holding my zoom key. Only when I am perfectly still will an enemy at 200 meters be visible to me while zoomed out. It is a no win scenario either way. You either lose distance vision, which the AI don't ever have a problem with, or you lose peripheral vision and walking past an AI 10 meters to your left gets you shot in the side of the head most times.

EDIT: Just finished a 6 hour game at 40 Degrees. I bound zoom out right next to my zoom in. Worked well right up to the compass http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v504/F12Bwth2/Game%20Screens/arma22010-06-0922-26-00-95.jpg

jus-eosshv8

Edited June 10, 2010 by ZeosPantera

[oktane 0]

Hmm. This is relevant to my interests.

I recently got a shiny new video card (rare, I hardly ever play the PC upgrade parts game, since if it plays arma - I'm happy.. but I wanted to check out eyefinity ) After a nightmare of display port adapter woes (which turned out to be resolved eventually by the drivers+card bios) my 5850 now pushes 3x old ass dell 24inch monitors @ 3600x1920+bezel waste.

(these junk monitors had blown video/power boards, now repaired for this )

Now when I first got it working, I was using them side by side in normal orientation.. this is rather ridiculous. (as in excessive..!!) (pics) As you can see in ultra-wide, the middle screen looks normal, but the L/R screens 'stretch' distortion is so bad that it's an almost unbearable waste of power/pixels to run them like this. Plus the screen is like 5ft across! So now I run in portrait like this (also seen in the other shots on the previous gallery):

kGJj9qKRH3g

But after reading this thread, I think I may have another go at making it look nice with them all wide. I never messed with the ini settings, other than to fix the UI to one screen. (I love arma's flexibility here) I do hate to use windows with them like this. (the vertical space is great, but apps are somewhat horizontally squished unless they span over bezels) On the other hand, 5ft start menu/task bar is not fun either. More info on eyefinity/triplehead as well as a FOV calculator is here: http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/ At least the ATI drivers have become mature regarding the eyefinity features, way less problems now compared to the beginning of the year.

Thanks for the info!

(note: those silly lights in the pics are called 'AmbX, they change color to match the colors on the screen(to provide more immersion), but they were disabled during the video. Also, like 50% of the LED's are burned out because the thing is extremely cheaply made. I got it for free so I can't complain. When it works, it's pretty cool though.)

Edited June 14, 2010 by oktane

[Erratic 10]

That's awesome oktane. I bet it's tons of fun! What size are the screen? I might buy 3 x 23.5 inch widescreen monitors, since I own a computer biz, I get them dead cheap. Whate are your recommendations if any?

*Edit* Well I just checked and I can get a little smaller in size, but 3 x 21.5 widescreen monitors with backlight LED's for £300 total. I would love to get these now but I've got so much outgoing that I will have to wait. I'll be able to research in the meantime anyway and find out what works best.

Edited June 14, 2010 by Erratic

[ZeosPantera 0]

Hmm. This is relevant to my interests.

after reading this thread, I think I may have another go at making it look nice with them all wide

Go for it. I would love to see this setup technique applied to that hardware.

Try it in the vertical setup first. before you switch to horizontal.

[oktane 0]

That's awesome oktane. I bet it's tons of fun! What size are the screen? I might buy 3 x 23.5 inch widescreen monitors, since I own a computer biz, I get them dead cheap. Whate are your recommendations if any?

*Edit* Well I just checked and I can get a little smaller in size, but 3 x 21.5 widescreen monitors with backlight LED's for £300 total. I would love to get these now but I've got so much outgoing that I will have to wait. I'll be able to research in the meantime anyway and find out what works best.

OT About Eyefinity:

They are 24inch Dell 2408's (but they have no cases and there's bits of wires hanging about, never mind that)

Recommendations: Read and understand the limitations of the hardware.

There are 2 DVI, 1 HDMI, and 1 DisplayPort jacks on the cards. (4 outputs total) If you want to run 3 monitors, the first two can be any combination of HDMI or DVI. The third monitor has to be driven by native DisplayPort signals. Whether it's directly, or via an adapter. (DP->VGA, DP-DVI, but the DVI version must be 'active', not just a voltage converter)

This is because the card only has two RAMDAC's. Displayport spec doesn't use a ramdac since it talks directly to the panel. I repeat, you cannot run 3 screens using DVI1 + DVI2 + HDMI, one monitor has to use the DP jack. I used a DP->VGA adapter hacked together from an Apple product.

So if you don't want a headache with adapters, you could try to find a display port monitor.

Also, you may want to research Nvidia's cards. 3d driver support is a plus for their offerings. I don't know anything about how their eyefinity-like system works, I imagine similar. Past few years I have become pretty critical of their marketing practices, die rebranding, price/performance ratio, and the horrible power consumption in their new line.)

[oktane 0]

Go for it. I would love to see this setup technique applied to that hardware.

Try it in the vertical setup first. before you switch to horizontal.

Well I did end up calculating a correct ratio, I think. Also I doubled it to compare what that would look like. See these animated gifs:

Huey Cockpit

http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/forums/anim_hueycockpit.gif

First Person

http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/forums/anim_rifle.gif

SU Cockpit

http://www.506th-pir.org/scripts/oktane/forums/anim_sucockpit.gif

In the end, I used:

fovTop=0.56;

fovLeft=1.11;

(I did have to change the horiz/left number because the screens don't conform to a known aspect in my configuration.)

At this setting, there wasn't too much of a difference, but it does feel more immersive. The gun is 'real' size, I can see the part of it I would expect to see if I looked thru a window the size of my monitor, etc.

Some notes: The IGUIScale cannot seem to go lower than (Very Small) .55000001, it is just ignored. At high resolutions, the GUI is still way larger than it needs to be. When Triplehead=1 is set in the profile ini, the GUI is forced onto the middle screen. If you have a huge resolution like me, the GUI is unusable in that mode since it is too big and now elements overlap each other. Same situation when you set the uiTop/uiBottom values to attempt to put the gui in the middle. (I think this is all the Triplehead bool does actually) So heads up on a few minor GUI issues with very high resolutions.

Edited June 20, 2010 by oktane