Image scales versus monitor size?

[spudkopf]

This may seem like a silly thing to ask, but it has been something I've been pondering over for some years now.

 

So when sitting in a cockpit with the view set at the default POV FOV, what scale am I seeing on a 16:9 aspect ratio 24 inch (1920 x 1080) monitor, and thus what is the scale difference between the default, maximum and minimum POVs FOVs?

 

Which brings me to my underlying question, at maximum POV FOV what monitor size would one need to use to be seeing an image scaled at 1 to 1?  

 

Just curious

Edited November 25, 2018 by spudkopf
Not POV but FOV , dah!

[SharpeXB]

A very large screen. Larger and higher resolution than is currently being made. So no luck there. 

[Scott_Steiner]

This is a good question, a question that should be asked a lot more. I am fairly certain that very few in the flight sim community have a grasp on field of view and it's importance.

 

As someone who plays racing simulations as well as flight simulations, having an accurate and indicated actual field of view is something that community has had for a long time and most sim racers adjust their field of view to have a real life 1:1 ratio before even turning the engine on for the first time in game.

 

In most racing sims, there is a slider to set the FOV that actually tells you what it is based on some sort of number or measurement, either horizontal or vertical field of view measurement. It is often not easy, and up to the user to figure out what this number means and how to interpret .. as the game does not necessarily know how wide your monitor is or how far away you sit.

 

As an example, someone made a nifty program like this (of note is that this applet uses flash):

 

http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/

 

On that page you can take a handful of the most popular racing simulators and get the FOV setting you should use in each game based on your monitor and seating position info.

 

Currently I don't believe something like this is possible in IL-2 because the field of view controls don't give you any kind of number for the settings.

 

I run a 38" Ultrawide (21:9 ratio) and if I zoom all the way out it looks like I can see maybe 120-150 degrees, hard to really say for sure.. Maybe 16:9 monitor zoomed out would probably be 100-120 fov.. so imagine sitting at your desk or wherever you play and looking out at past a 45 degree angle from center to the left or right, maybe a 50 or 60 degree angle.. Wherever your eye is focusing at would have to be the edge of the 16:9 monitor for it to be 1:1.. At most seating distances that would be an extremely large screen.

 

A couple tricks you could do to try is to put your eye maybe an inch or two away from the screen.. This will make the pixels huge and look terrible, as well as being hard to focus on with your eyes, not to mention probably straining your back being hunched over.. but you may be able to get the cockpit to look close to life size at this wide FOV and be able to look far off to the sides in a realistic fashion.

 

The other trick would be to either load or stream IL-2 to a large living room screen or save a screenshot and load it on your TV. With a very large modern television (maybe 70 inches or more) you might have better results.. and no.. don't sit on the couch, again you will have to get fairly close to the TV where a 50 degree angle from your center line shows the edges of screen, it may be a little bit further and a little bit less taxing than trying to do it on the monitor. Either way will not have a desirable dot pitch or comfortable effect on your body.

 

As a side note, I try to run close to 1:1 when I'm flying normally and zoom in the FOV for aircraft / object identification. Running a 1:1 fov will give you the most realistic and natural experience, probably in almost any simulation that you play. The idea is to have your monitor be like you are looking out a window, not a magnifying glass or fish-eye lens. 

 

[JonRedcorn]

7 minutes ago, Scott_Steiner said:

This is a good question, a question that should be asked a lot more. I am fairly certain that very few in the flight sim community have a grasp on field of view and it's importance.

 

As someone who plays racing simulations as well as flight simulations, having an accurate and indicated actual field of view is something that community has had for a long time and most sim racers adjust their field of view to have a real life 1:1 ratio before even turning the engine on for the first time in game.

 

In most racing sims, there is a slider to set the FOV that actually tells you what it is based on some sort of number or measurement, either horizontal or vertical field of view measurement. It is often not easy, and up to the user to figure out what this number means and how to interpret .. as the game does not necessarily know how wide your monitor is or how far away you sit.

 

As an example, someone made a nifty program like this (of note is that this applet uses flash):

 

http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/

 

On that page you can take a handful of the most popular racing simulators and get the FOV setting you should use in each game based on your monitor and seating position info.

 

Currently I don't believe something like this is possible in IL-2 because the field of view controls don't give you any kind of number for the settings.

 

I run a 38" Ultrawide (21:9 ratio) and if I zoom all the way out it looks like I can see maybe 120-150 degrees, hard to really say for sure.. Maybe 16:9 monitor zoomed out would probably be 100-120 fov.. so imagine sitting at your desk or wherever you play and looking out at past a 45 degree angle from center to the left or right, maybe a 50 or 60 degree angle.. Wherever your eye is focusing at would have to be the edge of the 16:9 monitor for it to be 1:1.. At most seating distances that would be an extremely large screen.

 

A couple tricks you could do to try is to put your eye maybe an inch or two away from the screen.. This will make the pixels huge and look terrible, as well as being hard to focus on with your eyes, not to mention probably straining your back being hunched over.. but you may be able to get the cockpit to look close to life size at this wide FOV and be able to look far off to the sides in a realistic fashion.

 

The other trick would be to either load or stream IL-2 to a large living room screen or save a screenshot and load it on your TV. With a very large modern television (maybe 70 inches or more) you might have better results.. and no.. don't sit on the couch, again you will have to get fairly close to the TV where a 50 degree angle from your center line shows the edges of screen, it may be a little bit further and a little bit less taxing than trying to do it on the monitor. Either way will not have a desirable dot pitch or comfortable effect on your body.

 

As a side note, I try to run close to 1:1 when I'm flying normally and zoom in the FOV for aircraft / object identification. Running a 1:1 fov will give you the most realistic and natural experience, probably in almost any simulation that you play. The idea is to have your monitor be like you are looking out a window, not a magnifying glass or fish-eye lens. 

 

 

[Scott_Steiner]

A fellow sim racer, I see.

[Matt]

9 hours ago, spudkopf said:

what is the scale difference between the default, maximum and minimum POVs?

FOV is 60, 150 and 30 degrees for default, max and minimum.