18 replies to this topic

[Immie]

... 90 FOV maximum is too low.

There are 2 arguments I can think of for a low limit to be set, so allow me to rebuttal them:

• A high FOV effects the art/look of the game in an unintentional way

In alpha I played with it set to 120. I witnessed absolutely zero flaws with the way it looked- no misaligned shadows, no weapons clipping through my screen (In Chivalry: Medieval Warfare, you're allowed to crank the FOV up to 120, but this causes many weapons to clip through the screen and appear cut in half... personally, I'm glad to have the option despite this), and no more clipping of other game assets than when using a smaller FOV. The one issue I found with high FOV was that it also applied to the third person repair cam, which gave a tremendous corner peeking advantage- my suggestion is to lock the FOV to 70 when in third person repair, no matter what settings are being used.

• A high FOV gives an unfair advantage

There is one undeniable advantage to a high FOV- you can see more of your surroundings, resulting in more awareness. However, this also comes with a warping/fish eye effect around the edges of the screen, meaning players who are not accustomed to it will have trouble with depth perception. Most importantly, the cost of having more stuff on your screen is that all of that stuff is smaller. With a high FOV, every single target you pick will seem farther away, and you will find it considerably harder to accurately trace its movements. In many games that allow FOV up to 120 (for example, Tribes Ascend), lower FOVs between 60-100 are often preferred by expert combat-centric players who are willing to sacrifice awareness for an advantage in accuracy.



A few quick reasons why a large range of FOV options are a good thing:

• Low FOV causes headaches/nausea among many gamers
  
• A wide range of options to suit a wide range of play styles
  
• It's simply expected on a PC game; look at Borderlands' PC port for an example. Its lack of options were reamed by critics and gamers alike, and as a result, Borderlands 2 shipped on PC with a much better options menu, including high FOV support

In conclusion, I'd like to suggest the FOV slider be allowed to move up to a maximum of 120.

Edited by Immie, October 25 2012 - 12:14 AM.

[Juodvarnis]

I agree, i get a little nauseous when playing with low FoV,

[Novacaptain]

How about the "you're sitting in a mech, not a glass bubble" argument_

[Tezkat]

I wouldn't mind a slightly wider range, myself. I tend to get rather motion sick in FPS games with FOV set below 90 or so...

[[HWK]Deuy]

Good points Immie, I'll ask around the studio for the consensus on this.  I actually thought the slider was supposed to go higher than 90.  I have a feeling we're playing it cautious since it's a lot less painful to start out stingy and then give players more, rather than vice versa.

[FluxX]

Great to hear there is a FOV option. I can't comment on what's best, but I do hope they continue to check and develop the game.

PS, thanks Deuy. Do what seems right and works for the game. Glad to hear you also want to test ideas before plunging us in the deep. Some companies seem to take delight in watching the player base squirm!

Edited by FluxX, October 25 2012 - 12:11 AM.

[Immie]

Novacaptain, on October 25 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

How about the "you're sitting in a mech, not a glass bubble" argument_

To this, I would answer: There are only 3 different interior views for each weight class, despite a much larger variety of exteriors that do not really match up as if you were looking through windows. This is most likely due to the fact that it would take a huge amount of work to make a new interior for every exterior, but it's also easy to imagine that the exterior of each mech is simply armor, and all that you see from inside are camera feeds, which would be able to have as wide or small a FOV as the pilot preferred.

Deuy, on October 25 2012 - 12:08 AM, said:

Good points Immie, I'll ask around the studio for the consensus on this.  I actually thought the slider was supposed to go higher than 90.  I have a feeling we're playing it cautious since it's a lot less painful to start out stingy and then give players more, rather than vice versa.

Thanks for the quick response... this makes a lot of sense. There'd be much more nerdrage to deal with in the less favorable scenario.

[Gagzila]

Great OP Immie

Deuy, on October 25 2012 - 12:08 AM, said:

...I have a feeling we're playing it cautious since it's a lot less painful to start out stingy and then give players more, rather than vice versa.

I really like that you're approaching it this way...playing Tribes Ascend, they quite often way overcompensated with weapon buffs or weapons just started out OP and nerfing them just created huge amounts of angst amongst the player base. Even though the players knew at the time that it was still closed beta and things were likely to be changed and balanced, people raged nonetheless and made for a very negative vibe on the forums.

Cheers,

Gagzila

[The_Silencer]

Once more, I'm glad to feel the power of the positive feedback in here too. Keep 'em going!

[Th4nis]

Great idea, I remember having some headaches on HL² because of the FOV... wouldn't want that here!

[Palessan]

Yes please. Make it 120
(Plus the VR helmet will have much larger anyway which is only natural)

[D20Face]

But my slider goes to 120...

Wait, that could just be because I edited the .ini first. Nevermind.

[Wadelma]

Novacaptain, on October 25 2012 - 12:05 AM, said:

How about the "you're sitting in a mech, not a glass bubble" argument_

How about the "you still have your head in the mech" argument.

I too would love the slider to go to at least 100, it's how I play most of my games :/

[Phyrex]

oh _ so the motion sickness i felt was due to the FOV _ i thought it was because of the good shaking cockpit effect

[ScHizNiK]

Yeah I am using a wide-screen monitor and 95-105 are what I normally use in games.

[Toneh-cc-]

More options the better!

[Cottonmouth]

The more options the better. Especially on a PC game.

[PhoenixHawk]

Feng Zhu does a really good job explaining the FOV subject in these vids on youtube if anyone's interested.

[Sumrs]

90' FOV on widescreen is like 70' vertical fov, which is terrible