cavador_8 on 22/2/2009 at 21:59
I am currently using 100 for the fov with the Thief 2 widescreen patch. I have a 26 widescreen monitor and I am using 1920 x 1200 resolution. It just seems a little stretched horizontally sometimes when I'm playing. Is there a better FOV than 100 to use on Thief 2?
Poesta on 23/2/2009 at 07:40
For a normal widescreen monitor (16:10) you need 100 degrees if the original fov is 90. If you have a TV-like monitor (16:9) then you need 106 degrees. Some people are used to using a higher fov to get an advantage in fps games, so it's really just what suits your taste. Experiment a little. Personally I've played with 100 degrees on a 16:10 monitor and it seemed fine to me, but somehow I prefer my good ol' 4:3 19" CRT.
OT: Usually everything above 120 degrees looks too stretched at the edges to be playable, but someone made a Quake mod so even a 170 degrees fov is playable. Looks pretty cool. (
http://strlen.com/gfxengine/fisheyequake/compare.html) Link
Muzman on 23/2/2009 at 09:52
This is a bit beside the point but narrower fields of view can work better and give you a more (dare I say it) immersive experience in first person stuff.
It works for me anyway. On a typical 4:3 monitor that's about a foot and a half/ 40-45cm away from your face, the portion of your field of view that screen takes up is only about 60 degrees (probably less). If the game engine is rendering properly, setting it to 60-65 degrees can give you a better spacial sense of the 3d world (ie. as though the game avatar's eyes are more like where yours are). I don't know off hand, but I'd guess on a widescreen this translates to about 80 degrees.
Plenty of people can't stand having limited peripheral vision in games as it is, so they probably won't enjoy narrowing it further. But I find it much better this way. You can give it a try easily by playing Thief 2 and tapping the eye zoom key twice (or there abouts. It'd have to be tweaked to suit typical playing stance, or sitce).
Herbrand on 23/2/2009 at 10:05
I always played with FOV 105 ever since the days of (
http://www.urbanterror.net) Urban Terror, but back then I was playing on a 4:3 screen.
On Thief I don't really need peripheral vision, as the action is not as frenetic as in a traditional FPS, so I find that keeping 105 on my 1440x900 is adequate.
EvaUnit02 on 23/2/2009 at 13:01
Most of the fellas on widescreengamingforum.com use ~100 for most 16:10 resolutions (standard for TFT monitors) and ~105 for the even wider 16:9 (standard for HD resolutions and wide TV displays), respectfully for most games. They often mathematically calculate the correct FOVs for the various aspect ratios, on a game by game basis.
Nameless Voice on 23/2/2009 at 17:42
Degrees have nothing to do with it. The widescreen modifier is a percentage of the ideal aspect ratio.
So 100% will always give you the ideal aspect ratio / FOV for your resolution. 100% at 1400x1050 will give you a 4:3 aspect ratio, 100% at 1440x900 16:10 aspect ratio, etc.
Herbrand on 23/2/2009 at 19:56
Nameless voice, that is interesting. Do you have anything I can read to prove this?
Herbrand on 24/2/2009 at 12:13
Thank you, that makes it completely clear.
