Field of view on consoles needs to match PC

I'm really getting tired of the low field of view on console games. Every Halo game, every Mass Effect, and even COD (though COD's FOV is much higher than those other two, I think) have sub-par field of view, around 70 or even worse.

Compare that to most PC games where you can go beyond just one monitor, and use three displays to equal 170 degree FOV and beyond. It's embarrassing to not have 90 FOV as the standard for console games.

The only thing that has consistently held developers back from having a FOV around 90 is because of hardware limitations. More stuff on the screen = more rendering = more CPU usage/whatever and that can drop the FPS to horrid levels like 20. And because low FPS is 'far more noticeable than low FOV' (just ask anybody in this forum what field of view is and most will give you a blank stare), gamers don't seem to care most of the time. So this cycle is perpetuated until people like me say...

It's time for this practice to be ended.

tl;dr: FOV should be between 80-90. Anything less should be punishable by riding in a Mass Effect elevator for all of eternity. Please comment.

I am more concerned with line of sight. If I can't see my Xbox.............I worry.

85-90 should be the standard, low FoV is extremely annoying for sure especially in first person shooters, the damn weapons take up 1/3 of the screen.

Adjustable FOV should be standard. People can get motion sickness if they can't adjust it.

never had a problem with fov

consolites don't care they just want thier new CoD

Every game should have a 16:9 mode available these days.

Depends, if you sit close to a screen then yeah sure increase the fog, otherwise a big no for me... But yeah an adjuster would be nice but then you have the problem of fps dropping when increasing the fov...

Deal with it if you buy a console.

i agree.

maybe one day both pc and console will have the horsepower to get closer to the insane amount of peripheral vision you have irl.

although really this is kinda a lol topic.

if you understand how vision works you know you really only see a tiny area in front of you in hd that almost exactly matches the current standard of 60 or 70 degrees and the rest of your vision range is pretty much low def.

go ahead right now and stare straight ahead, then look at your peripheral vision.

now look at how shitty and low def it is.

pretty funny right?

The only way this is possible is if you haven't played something that offers extremely high FOV, and then you play something with low field of view. Playing fisheye Quake at 150fov than putting in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for PS3 or Halo 2 is seriously trippy.

I agree that console games need a higher field of view on average but I don't think they need a 90 degree standard. 70 to 80 degrees is fine on a console. My solution? Don't play games with a cramp field of view on consoles.

The counter argument is that console gamers sit far away from their TVs in Living Rooms. Well I want to actually know how many. How many core console gamers play games from a far? A lot of us play console games in our own rooms and not quite as far from the TV as advertised.

I guess. I really never mess with any FOV sliders, always played on the default. I'll give this a shot next time I fire up a shooter.

I agree, infact adjustable everything. I want to tailor the options so they fit my preference not the devs. Consoles need to look at pc to see how it's done.

Ugh, I've never understood the mechanics of that argument that sitting father away justifies it. It makes sense, to not sit as close, when you are playing a game with low resolution because then everything looks really block-y and pixel-y, but not when everything is in 1080p (or higher).

Oh and I sit as close as possible to my TV as I can (far closer than the manual for my TV says I should). I actually downsized my TV to allow me to put it on a desk at eye-level so I can sit even closer. I'm willing to accept that I am an anomaly though. I grew up on PC and handhelds, and I may just be conditioned to do that at this point.

Games with low FoV give me a headache. Developers like to use low FoV because most console games are oblivious to the concept and it lets them "optimize" the game.

Your eye can adjust focus in fractions of a second. If you stare at something, then immediately stare at something else in your peripheral vision, it will already be in focus. I don't have a problem with how they have it in games currently. Although I do like the "blur" effect that COD and other ADS games implemented where aiming causes objects not at the same depth to be blurred.

Yes! I consider this thread a success if one person realizes the advantages of higher FOV. I'll even accept someone becoming (?) aware of the mechanic as a success.

Console games have an FoV that is suitable for roughly 10 feet away from the screen. 70+ gives a slight "fish eye" effect and shrinks object sizes that has a real big impact on the game when you sit at 10 feet or more away.

High FoV + farther viewing distance = vision issues. Simple as that. If you want a higher FoV because you're playing closer to the screen, get a PC and play on that. Console games are built around standards that makes them plug-and-play to the best of their ability. This means as few adjustable settings as possible.

100% correct. Console FOV is fine.

The real problem is when you have a PC FPS without a FoV slider; set to an unchangeable 60FoV. Which is the case with upcoming Overwatch ...unfortunately.

Blizzard Rep Talks About (Disgustingly) Low FoV In Overwatch

OneAmongstMany talks in-depth about Overwatch. Thoughts and Comments!

@remiks00: I don't think PC FPSs need FoV sliders, they just need a decent sized FoV. 60 is too low. 60 is was most console games run at and it became more or less the standard for games as multiplats became the most common format for games.

Higher FoVs do give people an unfair advantage. Always have. That was the arguments back in the 90s and early 2000s. It was always best to have one set standard and be done with it rather than allow people to unfairly increase their peripheral perception and then overcome the shrinking size of the in-game objects with a higher resolution monitor. Times have changed, PC gaming has gotten a little weird since then.

The biggest problem is when you got too low of an FPS. That's issue #1. Setting an FoV to 70-75 horizontal is usually the accepted "standard" for a PC game. Console games get lower FoV for the reason I stated above, but there is a good argument to limit FoVs in a competitive environment.

We also saw other limitations put into other competitive games before. In C&C Red Alert 2 you could actually limit the resolution of people in your match so nobody had extra pixels and could see more than the set size. More screen space in a 2D game means more of the environment is shown since you do not scale 2D games like you can with 3D games. The camera's view space increases in a 2D game when you up the resolution. Not a problem in Star Craft 2 as if you jump the resolution up you simply increase the object size. You get more details but the camera's view space stays the same.

So that kind of thing is really not anything new to competitive PC games. Limitations have to be accepted when you're trying to make a highly competitive game.

So PC gamers don't jump on me for that one. Just saying how it used to be.

I use higher FoVs in BF4 but not super high as I don't like playing with a fish eye effect. I run with about 100 FoV on my 1440p monitor. My usual 90 was too low for the resolution bump.

your peripheral vision is still low def and out of focus and it will always be that way.

what turning your head or eye is doing is bringing the hi def part of your vision to what you are looking at.

what peripheral vision is evolved to do and is excellent at is detecting motion.

oh yeah and light detection too. i forgot about that for a sec.

it's why you can go outside at night and see faint stars in your peripheral vision that your "main" hi def vision can't.

FOV isn't an issue on consoles because generally console games are played at a larger distance from the screen. Sorry OP.

I don't have any sisues with FOV in PC games but I usually crank it up to 90-100 just to have a more realistic peripheral vision. Although, in more cinematic titles I like to keep it at default because the smaller the FOV the higher the tension.

Nah man, no one is going to jump you lol. It's all about the perspective of the facts/opinions. You always give very informative posts that even I learn from. For that, you're highly respected from me, even if I ever disagree with you.

In the case of the FoV in Overwatch, I just didn't want it to be too low. Not having a slider is fine with me as long as the FoV isn't too narrow. I guess my FoV complaint stems from non competitive pvp games like Fallout 3, where it did not include a FoV slider.

The weak hardware can't support it without dumbing down graphics. If you want decent FOV PC is your only option.

As someone who plays consoles on my computer monitor as well, I steer well clear of console shooters. Not that I will ever find them enjoyable playing a shooter game with a unwieldy controller.

Okay so I finally understand the distance argument now, but I still disagree about having it be anywhere in the 60 range. It makes combat in tight spaces look ridiculous because you have to quickly adjust your view around so much to find an enemy within arms reach of you.

EDIT: **** it. I just tried playing a game at 70 and I hated it. I'll take the distorted view that comes with 90+ thanks.

That could be something to do with the MASSIVE gun taking up half the screen.

@GhoX: FoV has nothing to do with performance. The amount of pixels rendered does not change which is by far the most demanding part of the rendering, the shading of each pixel. The amount of objects and polygons on screen does not increase by enough to have an impact on performance. Try it with any PC game, you won't see any performance differences between FoV levels unless you start going well into the 100s. In those cases you may see a 1-2 fps drop at the most. It's not like bumping the resolution or messing with the LoDing of objects.

FoV is 100% a useability thing. At a further distance from the screen you need a lower FoV otherwise objects get too small and the game becomes more difficult to play.

@EPICCOMMANDER: Console games are still console games, they are built for a controller and the lower FoV. If you're trying to play a PC game at a lower FoV you may have some issues depending on how it was made.

Since consoles are meant to be played far from the screen, lower FoV makes sense.

Did someone say this already?

The only game I ever had an FoV problem with was Unit 13 on Vita, there was something very off about it there

Console gamers tend to play on bigger tvs and sit further away from them than PC gamers. Devs use a "sweet spot" FOV that I'm sure they've tested to death.

Absolutely.

Im playing on a monitor, don't even own a tv anymore so 90 fov would be a huge welcome to me. But of course if you're sitting far away (20+ feet when using Xbox One so 720p graphics looks decent) then 90 fov wouldn't be needed.

Never have had an issue with it to be honest. I think everyone having the same field of view keeps things equal in terms of a competitive nature. That's my opinion anyway.

You've never experienced a good foc

PC Master Races poster child game (Star citizen) only has field of view of 50 currently..... yet another classic "CiG have no idea what they are doing with the game" red flag.

I've never understood the FoV thing. I play all of my games, PC and console, close to my 27 inch monitor. Never had a problem with sickness or headaches.

what's a good foc

Wouldn't it be hard to see certain things on screen when you're sitting back from your television?

I love the FOV on PC games with my nice monitor, but I don't think it would work well with consoles.

Low FOVs are annoying as hell. I think FOV is lower is console games because they expect people to sit far away from TV. FOV should always be adjustable when console game is ported to PC. Giant texts and low FOV look so ugly.