Is FOV only half the equation?

The FOV for my monitor at the distance I'm seated is around 26.

With that narrow FOV my cockpit view is not as much as I would like (I have game steering and hands off).

To address this, I slightly increased the FOV to 28, instead of 26, and slightly adjusted the in game view position backwards for the cars that I needed it (it can be up to +10, depending of the car).
This way, I have a more approximate RL scale of the track (slightly smaller due to the higher FOV, but it's not a big difference at all) and a more approximate RL car cockpit size (still different because of the monitor size).

Track IR will do the rest and allows me to look at the apex, interior mirror, both side mirrors and cars left or right.

View (21:9) with 26 FOV and default view distance:



View (21:9) used with 28 FOV and adjusted view distance:


Real (16:9) POV:

 

The distance between head and monitor is a factor of the FoV calculation, it has nothing to do with the position of the in-game camera.

The position of the driver's eyes does not change the FoV. They're completely independent.

 

Yes that's about right - it moves the "camera" or "virtual drivers eyes".

I suggest to use the wheel method. You set the "distance" so that from your (the real you) driving position, the on-screen wheel has about the size of your real wheel.
depending on monitor placement and head tracking, you can now see the instruments through your own FFB wheel rim.

This way, the cockpit has about realistic scaling, too.

 

one short question: do you place your monitor behind the wheel base or above?

 

I think it depends on your monitors vertical height. Currently I am roughly 10cm in front of my 42" HDTV and the top of my wheel base is in line with the bottom bezel. My wheel base is roughly on a 30-40 degree incline.

 

Sounds and looks about right. I also up the FOV slightly from the calculated value and move the in-game driver eyes (distance) back a bit.

Yeah I understand all that. It's not what I was talking about.

 

I just use a desk so it’s simple to set-up, just move the monitor, I put if behind not above so I can see a part of a car as a reference, u fortunately I don’t have a game in the background on those photos,
I put pedals on the boxes and I use an ikea chair and the whole setup gives me actually quite good driving position, I use my brother for the reference
Also don’t mind the guy sitting in front of the wheel

 

Actually I realised there is a photo on the previous page so you can see how that looks