fov confusion

I recently watched Empty Box's video on fov which inspired me to get mine right. I must say it does feel like hitting apexes easier than my previous too wide fov. What has confused me is that the closer to the screen you can get, the wider you can allow your mathematical fov. Ok fine, but what if you can engineer a situation where you are like 30cm from the screen. This is going to allow a very wide fov which will surely distort things and make the whole 'warp speed but can't judge corners' thing happen.

What I'm getting at is the question of whether there is some perfect distance to sit from the screen in order for mathematical fov to be as realistic as possible?

 

? There is a realistic FOV for each configuration (screen size, aspect ratio, distance from you). Here is a website to do the calculation:
http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/index.php
A little trick: if after adjusting the FOV you cannot see the cockpit at all, just move the seat position a little backwards using the in-game app.

 

The perfect distance is the closest you can get to the biggest screen you can get. Think of the screen as a window and you trying to look out side, it helps understand the concept.

 

A mathematically correct FOV never distorts the picture you see! Even at 30cm distance.
The best viewing distance in simracing is as close as you can get to the screen.

Edit: Ninja‘d by Cote Dazur

 

I don't really buy that. For example at 10cm view distance, the fov should be 138 degrees. That's going to feel like ultra warp speed and I just don't see how you'll be judging corners with such a distorted image. Here's a spreadsheet I made which does the calculations, if you'd like to play around with it.

 

I think you got the concept totally wrong.
Just test it out and you will see.

 

The sides would be very distorted because you are displaying/projecting the side of your car to the flat monitor in front of you. It is supposed be very distorted when you go with the extreme case of 10 cm distance.

 

Fair enough, if it really doesn't become suboptimal the closer the screen, I think we need to ask monitor manufacturers to start making monitors with arches in the middle so we can mount them over our wheel bases!

 

You don't need manufacturers to make that type of monitors, because no matter what you do, when you go super close distance, the wheel will be BEHIND the monitor already. Below is a post on this forum a couple of years ago, and it shows how 30 cm eyes to the monitor looks like hardware-wise. I am pretty sure most people don't do that, and I start to think that in these discussions you forgot that the distance is the distance to the driver's eye, or you underestimated how small 30 cm was:
https://www.assettocorsa.net/forum/index.php?threads/fov-clarification.30532/#post-632113

 

That’s one messy room, I like it.

 

is that a bathroom and sim room all together ? lol

 

That’s where sh1t gets done...

 

Oh, they've already got it sorted.

 

You probably still have smaller FOV than an actual monitor up your face though!

 

"Mathematically correct" or "realistic" FOV intention is to have 1:1 scale picture i.e. objects appear to be the same size on your screen as in RL. I guess it would be more correct to call it "1:1 scale FOV" or "realistic scale FOV" comapared to something like "realistic FOV" or "the only mathematically correct FOV", it's more accurate in what it does. How close to "realistic" it is will depend on a setup, a very large 1 flat screen with very small viewing range with "mathematically correct FOV" will provide distorted view on edges due to trying to squeeze it on a flat screen, e.g. the doors of your car will be in front of you instead of left/right of you. More "realistic" approach in this case would be having a curved screen or multiple screens positioned around you. While small screen with "mathematically correct FOV" and relatively high viewing range will provide a view closer to a driving like driving with binoculars (imagine 20 or lower FOV which is way below comfortable level) and despite 1:1 scale (which is realistic scale) it's not "realistic" to race with binoculars. What I am saying is that "mathematically correct FOV" is not the only factor to have a "realistic experience" when it comes to replicating picture that you would expect to see in real car.

 

@unknwn ”e.g. the doors of your car will be in front of you instead of left/right of you. ”
Before VR I was driving a mathematical fov with my eyes 3 feet from a 100 inch diagonal projected screen and I could hardly see past the a pilar. So having the door in front of me were not an issue and everything from my seated perspective appears very realistic.

 

Until you move your eyes to sides to see your opponents or an apex in a very tight corner (which will be also distorted at the sides of a screen with a high fov e.g. imagine something like >90 FOV ) and where "realism" goes down the pooper, but yes it will provide a better racing experience than 1 small screen.

 

My 32" touches the wheelbase of the Fanatec.
If I push the screen back, I'm sloppy and miss apexes.
You want it to be as close as you are comfortable with.
No two eyes are the same, not even the two eyes in your head.

 

I notice that when I set the FOV to anything under 40 degrees, objects on the screen appear to be moving too quickly, feels like I'm looking through my 200mm zoom lens at max zoom and running down the street, distances feel cartoonishly compressed, jarring to say the least. Most my eyes can tolerate is 45 degrees or so. I'm using a 27inch wide screen monitor, as close as I can get it to my wheel base and at its lowest position on the desk.

 

There is new video from Empty Box covering this topic