How to properly adjust your field of view

The field of view is the most important setting in any sim. It is crucial to have the screen display the simulator as close to 1:1 with real life as possible.

But why is it so important?

We can break this down into 4 reasons.

1. Realism: A proper FOV helps in creating a more realistic driving experience by accurately representing how a driver would perceive the track and surroundings from the cockpit. 
2. Spatial Awareness (sense of speed): A correct FOV allows drivers to better judge distances, speeds, and positions of other cars or obstacles on the track. When using a wrong FOV, it is much harder to know how much speed to carry into corners.
3. Comfort & Immersion: A mismatched FOV can cause discomfort and disorientation, leading to motion sickness or a disconnected feeling from the simulation.
4. Performance:  When the simulator closely mirrors reality, offers clear spatial awareness, and ensures comfort, it invariably enhances performance.

When the FOV is too narrow, it can create the illusion that the car is moving slower than it actually is. This occurs because peripheral vision, which assists in perceiving speed, is limited, making it challenging to accurately gauge the speed of the race car.

With an excessively wide FOV, objects appear to approach rapidly, potentially causing a sensation of overwhelming speed. Additionally, reference markers & apexes become more challenging to see as they appear smaller on the screen.

Now, how do you calculate it?

It is fairly easy, you just need a measure tape and a bit of patience. Depending on the simulator that you drive, find the FOV calculator in the menus. Once this is done, measure the following:

1- Measure the monitor's width - Including the bezels. (If you have triple monitors, you need to only measure 1 monitor)

2- Measure the bezel's width. This includes the plastic edge + the black portion of the screen.

3- Open google and check out what is the curve radius of your monitor. You will need to use it in certain calculators. Curved Screens ONLY.

4- Check "Render scene using 3 projections" & "Enable SMP/MVP" if you own triple screens. iRacing ONLY.

5- Measure the angle between the center & side screens. Triple Screens ONLY.

6- Measure the distance between your eyesight and the monitors.

 Example of the iRacing FOV calculator

Once this is done, click on save/done depending on the sim. Your FOV should be perfect! Now don't touch it!

But, it doesn't feel right?

As stated above, once measured, we don't recommand changing the value you get. There's two thing you can do to make it feel even better.

Increasing your FOV.

If you feel that the FOV is still way too narrow, here are a few things you can try.

1. Move the monitors closer to you
2. Move the seat closer to the monitors
3. Increase the size of the monitors.

These are pretty much the only way you can increase your FOV once it has been measured.

Moving the cockpit camera.

One thing that I love doing is slightly adjusting the onboard camera. Since you are moving the camera, you are not changing the perspective that we have just set. Depending on the simulator, locate the camera adjustment panel. Then, you can move the "seat" closer or further back from the steering. This will help you see more or less from the side windows. If you feel you need to do major adjustments, I'd suggest to try an increase your FOV instead of moving the camera.

HOW TO MOVE THE COCKPIT CAMERA IN IRACING.

What to remember from this.