Does FOV affect aim?


(Black) #1

Just a quick question because It seems like I’m the only player who actually has their FOV set all the way up high.
I honestly don’t know how players play with low FOV, it just looks ugly and bulky and your at a disadvantage view wise.

But somebody ingame told me having a high fov can hinder my aim especially at long ranges because low fov supposedly makes people bigger.

Is that true?


(Rhyno) #2

Yes, low FOV makes the models of other players larger.


(Litego) #3

Of course that is true. Higher is not always better as some people seem to think. FoV is a preference, it’s not about getting an advantage. Personally I like it somewhere between 105 and 110 horizontal FoV (75ish vertical).


(CCP115) #4

The higher your FOV, the more things are stretched. However, 120 on Dirty Bomb seems fine, if you try 120 on Minecraft, shit gets real.


(avidCow) #5

Yes it affects aim. Everything at the center of the screen is bigger, and tracking targets feels much different. That said, If you can aim well at 120 compared to 80 you have an advantage, especially in close up fights indoors where people hide in corners.

If you are playing on a small screen (such as a small laptop, like I was) high fov can really hurt your experience (and your eyes) by making everything at the center of the screen tiny. High FOV on a big screen is excellent.


(Szakalot) #6

squeezed you mean.


(Zenity) #7

You can think of it this way:

A smaller FOV is no different than to zoom in with a sniper rifle (or iron sighting).

Does zooming in make it easier for you to hit enemies on a distance? The answer is probably yes. At the same time, being zoomed in makes it harder to get your bearings or to react to enemies running up to you.

Choosing your default FOV comes with the same tradeoffs, so you will have to find the setting that work best for you. Top players generally seem to favour long range aiming though.


(Littelboy) #8

Not to be a party pooper but what’s POV? :#


(Szakalot) #9

PoV : point of view

FoV : field of view. How much of the in-game world you can see without looking around, in degrees. 360 would mean you have eyes all around your head.


(sinKrin) #10

Compare it with films that are the old 4:3 standard next to a 16:9 widescreen. You’ll get a bigger overall picture.
When it comes to games though it really is personal preference, although your hardware will see an increase in processing, as there’s more data to render.


(Black) #11

[quote=“sinKrin;15132”]Compare it with films that are the old 4:3 standard next to a 16:9 widescreen. You’ll get a bigger overall picture.
When it comes to games though it really is personal preference, although your hardware will see an increase in processing, as there’s more data to render.[/quote]

Would that decrease my fps?


(bumbertyr) #12

it was hard to find a FOV that didn’t give me a headache, definitely took a while.


(Szakalot) #13

[quote=“brazenRoyalty;15352”][quote=“sinKrin;15132”]Compare it with films that are the old 4:3 standard next to a 16:9 widescreen. You’ll get a bigger overall picture.
When it comes to games though it really is personal preference, although your hardware will see an increase in processing, as there’s more data to render.[/quote]

Would that decrease my fps?[/quote]

it could. Its comparable to increasing resolution


(INF3RN0) #14

Too high and you’ll have issues with tracking precision visually. Too low and you’ll feel like you’ve got tunnel vision. I recommend going for the mid-ground between 70-80 FOV, which will give you the most benefits. Your aim itself will be unaffected, but it’s more to do with how well you can see what you are trying to aim at.


(Sagan on Roids) #15

Also, it depends a lot on your play style, i.e. the optimal distance between you and your targets. For example, if you want to be shotgunning people point blank then a higher FOV (90-120) will let you work around enemies easier. Conversely, if you want to pick people off from a distance then a lower FOV (65-75) is most likely going to make it easier to track targets.


(sinKrin) #16

It depends on how well you fare in other games with their FOVs. I personally find it difficult to play with anything less than 90. 100-110 is usually the sweet spot for me. Anything lower than 90 and I feel like I’m playing with blinkers on.
@brazenRoyalty It will slightly decrease the FPS as Szakalot mentioned but will depend on how high you boost it and your graphics options. I usually turn some down if I’m seeing big drops.


(Litego) #17

90 horizontal is pretty awful to be honest. But it depends how the game calculates FoV as well. For example, 106 FoV in UT3 (probably the same in DB considering it’s the same engine) is the same as 90 in CSGO and 76 in BF4, assuming you play in a 16:9 aspect ratio that is.

UT3 just looks at the horizontal FoV of your monitor, pretty straight forward.
BF4 just looks at the vertical FoV of your monitor, also straight forward.
CSGO is kind of retarded and looks at the FoV in a 4:3 aspect ratio. So with 90 FoV in 4:3 on a 16:9 monitor it will extend the FoV to 106 even though you set it to 90. Because 16:9 is wider than 4:3.


(sinKrin) #18

@Litego Thanks for that. I wasn’t aware how the UT engine calculated the FOV. Nowadays with most of the sliders I tend to whack them all the way up and work downwards.

BTW, are there any console commands to change the FOV on the fly?


(Zenity) #19

90 horizontal is pretty awful to be honest. But it depends how the game calculates FoV as well. For example, 106 FoV in UT3 (probably the same in DB considering it’s the same engine) is the same as 90 in CSGO and 76 in BF4, assuming you play in a 16:9 aspect ratio that is.

UT3 just looks at the horizontal FoV of your monitor, pretty straight forward.
BF4 just looks at the vertical FoV of your monitor, also straight forward.
CSGO is kind of retarded and looks at the FoV in a 4:3 aspect ratio. So with 90 FoV in 4:3 on a 16:9 monitor it will extend the FoV to 106 even though you set it to 90. Because 16:9 is wider than 4:3.[/quote]

I thought it was changed to use vertical FOV, which would make it identical to BF4. This would certainly match up with my experiences (and incidentally I use a FOV of 90 right now, it does not seem awful to me at all).

Also I didn’t know that you can change your FOV in CS:GO. Or are you talking about the FOV that only affects the weapon model?


(Nail) #20

DB uses vertical