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Glossary:Field of view (FOV)

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 02:17, 21 March 2013 by Nicereddy (talk | contribs)
A diagram demonstrating field of view

Field of view refers to the amount of game view that is on display during a game. A useful introduction to field of vision in video games is available from Wikipedia. All PCGamingWiki game articles are required to list problems with FOV as well as appropriate fixes if available.

What Is The FOV Problem?

An appropriate FOV is different depending on how far the player is away from a display.

  • PC games should be designed with a high FOV of around 85-110 because players normally sit closer to their display.
  • Console games should be designed with a lower FOV of around 55-75 because their players usually sit further from a display; normally the distance between a couch and a TV.

However, many games released on the PC (such as console ports) do not have the correct FOV adjustment, usually because the FOV has been kept the same as it was on the console version of the game.

Understanding FOV

Vertical And Horizontal FOV

One difference that often causes confusion is the measurement of FOV - most titles will expose the number horizontally, some games however, measure FOV in the vertical.

  • Horizontal is by far the more common way of it being exposed to users. An example of a game that uses this is Team Fortress 2.
  • Vertical is less common, and less understood. An example of a game that uses this is Battlefield 3.

An intrinsic value of vertical FOV is that it does not need to change to compensate for a wider view, only the aspect ratio does. An example of this is on a 16:9 display, a vertical FOV of 70 will produce 102 horizontal whereas a 16:10 display would yield 96 horizontal. This can lead to some confusion because seeing such a low value can initially appear jarring when it is actually closely in line with other titles.

To further complicate matters, some games expose the horizontal number but internally compensate for the aspect ratio. Team Fortress 2 is also an example of this -- depending on the aspect ratio, 90 FOV is likely not "really" 90. On the other hand, a game that does NOT compensate for aspect ratio is Quake. These behaviors are more commonly recognized as 'Hor+' and 'Vert-' respectively.

Vertical FOV Calculator

When faced with a game using vertical FoV, you can use this calculator to convert from the standard horizontal FOV, into a vertical FOV. It was designed for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, but it should work for most games using vertical FOV.

A few examples for common monitor resolutions:

  • 90° horizontal FOV @ 1920 x 1080 = 59° vertical FOV.
  • 90° horizontal FOV @ 1920 x 1200 = 65° vertical FOV.

Multimonitors

FOV options are also crucial when displaying a game in an ultra widescreen format, for example, when using 3 or 6 monitor configurations or using an Eyefinity setup.

Fixing Resources

Widescreen Gaming Forum

World of Warcraft being played on 6 monitors

This is the largest community online dedicated to fixing FOV and aspect-ratio issues, as well as the configuation of PC games with multi-monitor set ups. Their extremely active community shares videos, information, settings and profiles for fixing FOV issues.

Widescreen Fixer

Widescreen Fixer is a very well-supported FOV utility. It uses rendering call overrides to widen the projection matrix at the API level and, as such, widens the field of view, but can distort the image incorrectly from game to game. It supports several games and is not detectable by multiplayer anti-hack systems. This tool works best for multiple-monitor desktops.

FOVSpot.net

FOVSpot is a community-generated site for field of view and headbob ratings/fixes.

Game-Specific Fixes

PCGamingWiki aims to list FOV fixes for every single game page article. A header is reserved in the sample article layout, and should be included if there is relevant FOV information.