What FoV to use?

Soldato
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I've always kept the FoV set to default because I have no idea what I'd change it to anyway. But recently I decided that's pretty silly since if its going to give me an advantage in the game, I might as well take full advantage of it!

When gaming I either run fullscreen 1920x1200 or windowed 1680x1050, so what FoV's are the 'best' to use for these resolutions? I realise that its subjective for most people, but it also varies on a game-by-game basis?
 
Think I used 78 or something for BFBC2 at 1080p. Almost a little on the fish-eye side, but much better than standard.
 
Depends on the game and aspect ratio used but I tend to use horizontal FOV of 90-100.

In BFBC2 that is the setting of 59-68 for 16:9 monitors and 65-74 for 16:10 monitors.

Think I used 78 or something for BFBC2 at 1080p. Almost a little on the fish-eye side, but much better than standard.

That would be horizontal FOV of 110.
 
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I have no idea what the numbers actually mean. I just went by the recommended on the BC2 FOV calculator website ;)

4:3 (1024x768)
-----
FOV90 (Recommended) = 74
FOV100 = 84
FOV110 = 94
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5:4 (1280x1024)
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FOV90 (recommended) = 78
FOV100 = 88
FOV110 = 98

16:9 (1280x720, 1920x1080)
-----
FOV90 = 59
FOV100 = 68
FOV110 (Recommended) = 78
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16:10 (1280x768, 1280×800, 1440×900, 1680×1050, 1920×1200, 2560×1600)
-----
FOV90 = 65
FOV100 (Recommended) = 74
FOV110 = 84
 
At 1920x1080 on a 24" monitor sat about a foot away I use 90 (that is horitzontal FOV) on BC2. Saw a big improvement in scores and accuracy by changing the FOV, also I can play for longer without getting headaches or motion sickness. Would certainly recommend it.
 
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I have no idea what the numbers actually mean. I just went by the recommended on the BC2 FOV calculator website ;)

Aspect ratios and example resolutions at the top, then horizontal FOV on the left (what you're actually looking for) and vertical FOV on the right (what you have to set in settings file).

FOV = Field of View

If you edit settings.ini, make sure to set it to "Read only" afterwards.

Horizontal FOV of 110 on 16:9 monitors may be a little much and push it towards the "fish eye" effect. I would recommend using FOV of 90-105.
 
Depends on the game, I use 120 for Quakeworld (competitive multiplayer) but default for most single player games unless it's really low like under 80 or something. HL2 was a good example of where the default was too low for me, 75 or something like that.
 
Low FOV:
+Easier to see things at a distance as they will appear slightly bigger
+Less distortion

High FOV:
+See more to the sides so can spot things that otherwise you couldn't
+Things that are very close to you don't move around so quickly in the horizontal plane (i.e. go off the side of the screen) so it is easier to keep track of them

My advice is to use the highest FOV you can that doesn't compromise your aim (assuming FPS games here obviously).
 
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