Is there an ideal FOV?

[SF.]

I'm using GLBoom+ and GZDoom as my primary and secondary sourceports respectively. I use 16:9 aspect ratio (1600x900) with the default 90 degree FOV. 

 

Is it purely a matter of personal preference, or is there any advantage in using a higher FOV? I did try 120 degree once, but it caused me to misjudge the distance between myself and the enemies

[BoxY]

It's really down to what you find comfortable and to what extent you're willing to trade spatial distortion for extra awareness. For me personally the screen warping from a high FOV gets distracting and unpleasant really fast, so I settled with 95 which is the most I can display on my monitor before warping gets noticeable. I imagine that if you pick any FOV and stick with it long enough, it will eventually feel normal, though.

[Gez]

Note that in Doom ports with widescreen support, the FOV setting is for the "inner 4:3 area" of the view window, and does not correspond to the full field of view. So 90° FOV in 16:9 is in fact more than 90° FOV -- I think 106° FOV unless I got my maths wrong, which is very possible*.

 

^{* I just used this site to compute the vertical aspect ratio of 90° FOV for 12:9 (aka 4:3), it gave me 74°. Then I looked at what horizontal FOV gave a 74° verticl FOV in widescreen ratios, asuming it'd be the proper answer to what the "real" FOV is with 90° FOV in widescreen port. The answers are 100° for 16:10, 103° for triple-screen 9:16 (27:9, 3x16:9 in vertical orientation), 106° for 16:9, 120 for 21:9, 139° for 32:9 and 36:10, 143° for triple-screen 4:3 (12:3 or 36:9), 152° for triple-screen 16:9 (48:9).}

[SF.]

That explains it. No wonder using a higher FOV was a bit disorienting to me and even broke immersion. If I'm using widescreen, I'm already seeing more stuff on the screen. A higher FOV only ends up distorting the view 

[MFG38]

The ideal FOV is 1.

[plums]

360 FOV is ideal so you can see all around you :D

 

Quote

 

I think 106° FOV unless I got my maths wrong, which is very possible

 

Doomsday uses full area FOV, and through switching windows back and forth I found setting it to 106° matched other ports, so A+.

Edited November 29, 2020 by plums

[Gothic]

The ideal FOV:

 

[Foxpup]

If anything, the ideal FOV equals the physical portion of your visual field subtended by your monitor: 2 arctan(W/2L) where W is the monitor's horizontal width and L is the viewing distance. Note that this applies to the actual FOV, so for widescreen monitors divide W by the ratio of your monitor's aspect ratio to 4:3 (eg (16:9)/(4:3)=1.333).

 

Or you can just adjust your FOV and viewing distance until it "looks right", which will probably work out to the same thing in the end.

[Old-Doomguy]

I used 123 on Quakeworld back in the 90s but I've never changed it in Doom. 

[Endless]

I'm the guy that plays at 110-120 FOV on LZDoom :P Quite dizzy if you aren't used to it, but pretty good for watching more of your screen and big maps that have lots of good looking areas.

 

90 FOV is pretty much ideal tho.

[Telemassacre]

I play DooM on default 90 degree. I play all else on 100 degree.

[Reisal]

If you have widescreen, 100-110 should be OK. I have an ultrawide (2560x1080) so I use 120 FOV.

[seed]

All depends on what feels right to you.

 

I personally use a FOV of 100 in Doom and the Build games, 90 makes me feel enemies are too close to me.

[Lucky_Edie]

360

 

[plums]

Mandatory link to fisheye quake since no-one's posted it yet: http://strlen.com/gfxengine/fisheyequake/

 

Actual 360° view:

 

[Spectre01]

I always stick with 90 for FPS games. Anything higher and my sense of distance gets thrown off. It starts feeling like "objects are actually closer than they appear".

[Doom-X-Machina]

I use 120 in both classic Doom and modern Doom. I just like it for some reason...

Reminds of using the Xenomorph in the original Alien Vs. Predator too.

[spineapple tea]

If you cant see an imp in the other room by inching up against the wall you're playing the game wrong.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

90-95, but it doesn't matter since everyone knows the human eye can't see over 30fov anyway :P

[Jello]

7 hours ago, TheMagicMushroomMan said:

90-95, but it doesn't matter since everyone knows the human eye can't see over 30fov anyway :P

I don't know about you, but I sure as shit get scared going over bridges or walking through traffic and crowds.

 

 

But yeah, it depends on the game, I've found FOV 90-95 good for most games originally meant to be played on a 4:3 monitor. When I finally got a 16:9, I did notice that FOV generally seemed too low at that 90-95 mark. I fiddled with 110-120 for most games, but I did start noticing the "objects are closer than they appear" thing that @Spectre01 mentioned. Especially in Amid Evil, and Shadow Warrior 2, it would look like the enemy was about 5 feet away, but they were really 3 feet away. Not sure how those two games would be related engine-wise, but those are the two I noticed it the most with. Completely threw me off especially during melee combat.

 

Now I tend to keep most games between 100 and 105, some games look oddly warped at 100 but fine at 105. Some just don't look right above 90. But I just can't stand criminally low FOV. 80 I can do depending on the game, but any less than that and it just gives me a headache.