Widescreen Gaming Forum

Hi everyone.

I just found this website a few minutes ago. Nice site! Widescreen gaming really does kick the s*** out of 4:3! And I'm really glad that the two games I play the most (World of Warcraft and Counter-Strike: Source) fully support it. :)

Anyway, something I wanted to ask or discuss is the "optimal" field of vision setting for 16:10 ratio resolutions, such as 1680*1050. With optimal I mean the most realistic, not what you think gives the best payoff between vision and aiming accuracy at, say, Quake.

As we all know, for 4:3 resoltions, a field of vision of 90 degrees is optimal. Well, some of the older games, such as Quake 3, don't automatically change the field of vision when you change to a widescreen resolution - they require you to manually change this setting.

Anyway, I did the following simple calculations...

(given that 90 is the optimal FoV for 4:3)
width / height / field of vision = 4 / 3 / 90 ~= 0.0148

This number 0.0148 should be the same for 16:10, I presume. So...

16 / 10 / x ~= 0.0148
x ~= 16 / 10 / 0.0148
x = 108

Is this correct? Is a field of vision of 108 degrees "optimal" for 16:10 resolutions?

I'm not at home just now, so I can't check this... I think I used a FoV of 110 in Quake 3 before, and it seemed fairly good, but possibly a tiny bit off.

Uhm, I just read http://www.widescreengamingforum.com/node/ and the results there are quite different. I guess my calculations are complete nonsense. :oops:

But I'll still compare FoVs of 100 and 108 when I get back home...

i usually do a 105 or 110 depending on the game. but my screen isnt strictly 16:10, it's more like 15:9 ... but just use what you are comfortable with. like fish-eye? crank it to 135 or 140. like it really tunnel-y? try 75-80.

I tend to use 115 for FPSers where the default is 90 degrees. It makes it slightly fish-eyed, but it's not too bad.