WHAT IS FOV?
By definition, the Field of View is the extent of the observable world that is seen at any given moment. Put simply, it is the line of sight from your eyes or the viewable area in front of your face.
FOV is always measured in degrees and is the arc of visible space in front of you. In relation to sim racing, or any game for that matter, the screen or monitor should act as a continuation of your line of sight, without any unrealistic bending or shaping of view.
Field of view can be measured in two planes: the vertical and the horizontal. As humans, we have a wider FOV in the horizontal plane, which is the reason why TV screens are rectangular. In AC and ACC, FOV is measured in vertical degrees and not horizontally like in other platforms.
The best way to understand FOV is to imagine the screen as a window. Imagine yourself sitting in your car with your monitor on the dashboard. If the monitor were to act as a window, everything you see past that window is your effective field of view. If you move your body closer to that window, you can see more out of it. If you move further away from the window, you see less out of it. Essentially, FOV is there to replicate the view you would have if you were sat in the car in real life.
There are, however, a few variables with your sim setup that will affect your FOV and these are covered in more detail below, but the following list is all the measurements you need to know before you can adjust your FOV
- Monitor Size – single screen size (even for triple monitor setups, ACC uses single screen size)
- Aspect Ratio
- Distance from your Eyes to the Monitor
- Eye Height in reference to your Monitor
WHY IS FOV IMPORTANT?
FOV plays a key role in judging the sense of speed and distance in-game. Your natural field of view helps the body determine where it is in relation to its surroundings. In terms of sim racing, the correct FOV will help you hit apexes and raise awareness of your cornering speeds.
The obvious question is, why don’t you set the FOV to its maximum setting so you can see more on-screen? The problem here is that with a larger FOV setting, items in the far distance will appear to move much faster than is natural. Yes, you will have a better view of the cockpit and your close surroundings, but your sense of speed will be much faster and unnatural.
A better way to visualise how FOV works is to imagine you are driving down the middle lane of an empty highway at 70 mph. Items in the distance pass you by slowly. Now imagine doing 70mph down a busy city centre, with buildings and traffic nearby. All of a sudden 70mph feels a lot faster. It’s the exact same concept with your field of view settings.
To try this for yourself, use both of your hands and try covering the sides of the looping video below from the outside to inside so that you see less and less of the full video and, as a result, can only see the centre of the screen.
WILL FOV ADJUSTMENTS MAKE ME FASTER IN ACC?
In a nutshell, yes. With correct FOV your spatial awareness will be greater. Your ability to reach apexes and hit braking points will increase. It does take some getting used to, so do not expect to be instantly faster on your first lap, especially if you have always played with the FOV on its default setting.
HOW TO SET FOV IN ACC
Luckily in ACC, you do not need to worry if you use single or triple-screen setups, this is because the FOV setting will apply to both.
If you are using VR then ACC will set FOV automatically and there are no adjustments to be made.
As mentioned above, you need to know:
YOUR MONITOR SIZE
Monitor size is usually measured in inches and is a diagonal, corner-to-corner measurement of the panel.
ASPECT RATIO
The Aspect Ratio can be found by doing a quick Google search of your monitors’ specs.
DISTANCE FROM YOUR EYES TO THE SCREEN
This is a measurement in either centimetres or inches from your eyes in your normal seated position to your monitor.
EYE HEIGHT IN RELATION TO YOUR MONITOR
This is the height your eyes sit when viewing your screens (see image). If you were to draw a level line from your eyes to your monitors, your eye line should sit in the middle of your monitor. If possible, adjust your seat position to make your eyes level with the centre of the monitor.
The maths behind calculating the perfect FOV is fairly complicated and is explained in detail in our other FOV article here. For this article, however, you will be using a FOV calculator from Dinex86.
FOV CALCULATOR: Check it Out Here!
This calculator is really simple to use and will show your FOV setting for Assetto Corsa which is also transferable for Assetto Corsa Competizione
It is important to understand that there is no magic setting for FOV that will work for everyone. Due to the variables listed above, everyone’s field of view will be slightly different so it is crucial to follow these steps for best results.
HOW TO SET FOV IN ACC
When out on track, you can pause the session to open the pause menu and select ‘View Settings’. This will open another tab where you can change the ‘FOV’ to the degrees unit found in the calculator ( https://dinex86.github.io/FOV-Calculator)
There is also the option to assign a shortcut key to adjust FOV up or down while out on track. This can be used to make finer adjustments but once you have your calculated setting we recommend sticking with it. FOV only needs to be changed if any of the listed variables above have changed.
CONCLUSION
So now you have FOV set correctly and you can go ahead and test it. If you have only ever played the game on the default setting, then the new FOV might take some time to get used to. Most likely, the car will now feel much slower but this should be a more accurate representation of speed.
Watch your lap times slowly creep down with this very simple change.
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