Cockpit size and field of view on 4K TV

Hi,

I am thinking about getting a 4K TV instead of my current triple screen setup some time in the future. Have read a lot about it on the forums and have seen some videos, however it seems that getting a 4K TV will just make the Cockpit and the whole picture very, very large and not increase the actual field of view. I know there are lua files that can be edited to increase the FOV (which I have done for my triple screen setup), but this will sometimes distort the picture to some extent. What I basically want is the similar size of the cockpit as on my current triple screen setup (where the cockpit is basically on the middle screen like it would be for a single screen setup) and just more viewable area around the "normal sized" cockpit on the 4K screen. What I have seen so far seem just very big cockpits on screen. Hope I could make clear what I mean. Does anyone have such settings for his 4k setup or do all of you have "just very big cockpits" on your screen?

to increase the FOV you need an ultrawide monitor :>

The FOV is not so to say dependent on the resolution but the aspect ratio. In other words, if it's a single FullHD or 4K monitor you'll have the same FOV.

Since you have 3 monitors it's quite easy to imagine how the FOV works - you add more monitors to the side so your horizontal FOV increases. Also the aspect ratio changes as with 3 monitors the overall image is much wider than toller. I could imagine that with a big 4k TV while sitting close you could zoom out a the view (increase the FOV) but most probably achieving a result comparable to 2 rather than 3 FullHD monitors horizontally.

Here is a FOV calculator that will also give a suggested (not mandatory) FOV for a monitor setup: http://www.wsgf.org/fovcalc.php

I run 4k using a large TV 16:9. In dcs I zoom out to increase horizontal fov. I also sometimes simulate an ulta wide experience by using a custom resolution window within the 4k display (black bars top and bottom).

Personally I think extra large 4k single panel 16:9 with modified fov is my preference.

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I don't know what the first two responders were smoking but the FOV has nothing to do with aspect ratio. I personally think 21:9 is the sweet spot for aspect ratios since our vision is more horizontal than vertical, but the FOV you see isn't determined by that.

So what I gather you're trying to ask is "can I use a single big monitor and have just as wide a view as my triple screen setup, but also see more of the cockpit/gauges without more distortion"?

TLDR: A 16:9 4K will change the ratio, but you can set the FOV to whatever you want.

1) The horizontal FOV is set in one of the config files and you can set it to almost anything you want. Due to the way GPUs draw a scene, as you approach 180 degrees the sides of the image stretch to infinity. So that is why making your FOV larger to see more vertically of the cockpit makes it even more distorted.

2) There is a way around this by changing it to 3 monitors in DCS settings. This will render 3 different views which each stretch as they independently approach 180 degrees, but you only need 120 degrees each to get a full 360 FOV. The downside is it costs a lot of GPU power to do that, so it comes at a loss of FPS.

3) The reason you see "bigger cockpits" on bigger monitors is simply that people haven't changed the FOV. The FOV you want to use depends a lot on the distance you sit from the screen. If you get a 50inch screen to play DCS but sit 10ft away, it just looks like a 24inch and using a wide FOV will make it hard to see anything. The size of the screen means absolutely nothing regarding how much you see, how the FOV is set is what determines it. So if you get a big 16:9 and want to see more than a bigger cockpit, then just increase the FOV.

4) The ratio of how much horizontal to vertical FOV you have is quite simply the aspect ratio. You have 3 X 16:9 screens so you see 48:9 or 16:3 (too wide in my opinion). For the same FOV that you are using now with your triple monitors you will see 3 times as much vertically with a 16:9. You will likely find that to be too much so you might want to lower the horizontal FOV. A 21:9 (or 7:3) will give you a little more than twice as much horizontal view as vertical which is a good compromise, but monitors of that aspect are fewer and more expensive and also available in limited sizes. I think Samsung makes a super ultrawide which is basically two 16:9 screens glued together (32:9).

5) The FOV of DCS does not change automatically, so if the default is 80 degrees and you change from 16:9 to 21:9 you will actually see the same horizontally and less vertically. Likewise if you replace a 1080p 24 inch monitor with a 50 inch 4K TV, DCS doesn't know that and still uses the same FOV (bigger cockpit). You need to change the FOV yourself.

6) If you double the FOV (manually) on a 4K screen you will get the same # of pixels to degrees as a 1080P screen but naturally have twice the vertical and horizontal view. Again, distortion becomes a problem (80 X 2 = 160) but it would mean that if your screen was physically twice as big, the center would look almost EXACTLY like it did before on the smaller screen, but with 50% more view in each direction.

7) Again the ratio of horizontal to vertical pixels (which is the aspect ratio) determines the ratio of horizontal to vertical FOV. Stupidly named 4K (3840 X 2160) is the same ratio as 1080P (1920X1080) and thus doesn't change anything other than the number of pixels per degree. If you want to use a really wide FOV on a really big 16:9 screen than you want to use 4K so that you can maintain or improve the resolution of for example the cockpit instruments. That is not a problem for a triple monitor setup because you've already tripled the resolution (5760 horizontal > 4K) for what would likely be less than double the FOV.

8 ) Games in which you cannot change your FOV (FPS shooters) are often fixed at a certain vertical FOV so a 21:9 screen will see the same vertically but more horizontally than a 16:9 . Some older games or RTSs might use a fixed horizontal FOV in which case you see less vertically and the same horizontally. None of that matters for DCS because the FOV can be set to anything you like < 180 degrees.

I don't know what the first two responders were smoking but the FOV has nothing to do with aspect ratio...

Since you're comming out offending others I'll only say that you should educate yourself about how the 3D programs work. Read about the view view frustum and projection matrix and maybe you'll understand a bit more.

Since you're comming out offending others I'll only say that you should educate yourself about how the 3D programs work. Read about the view view frustum and projection matrix and maybe you'll understand a bit more.

Uhhh sure... I understand plenty. I'd rather not spread false information.

Since you have 3 monitors it's quite easy to imagine how the FOV works - you add more monitors to the side so your horizontal FOV increases.

That is not how it works in DCS. Your horizontal FOV is always whatever you have set. 1 monitor or 17 in a line and your horizontal FOV will always remain whatever you set it to.

...That is not how it works in DCS. Your horizontal FOV is always whatever you have set. 1 monitor or 17 in a line and your horizontal FOV will always remain whatever you set it to.

You're reading it incorrectly. I didn't write that it increases automatically. You have an opportunity to increase it since you have more horizontal space to display the image on. It's obvious that you have to change the setting by yourself as otherwise the resulting image would seem as extreamly zoomed in. Or being more specific the same, horizontal size image from a single monitor now would be displayed on 3 monitors. Trying to keep the proportionm, DCS would now display only ~1/3 of the image vertically comparing to what you had seen on a single monitor.

And this is only because of the aspect ratio changed, not the resolution.

- change the aspect ratio, for instance by moving from FullHD to ultra wide monitor and you have to adjust the FOV.

- keep the same aspect ratio - in example changing FullHD monitor to 4k or 8k you'll see the same image with the same, correct proportionts.

Yes, that is correct and I believe is the explanation the OP was looking for. A wide FOV like he has with triple monitor but with more visibility vertically, not just a "big cockpit" requires editing the FOV. Which he can achieve with any setup by adjusting the horizontal FOV until he gets what he wants vertically.

One more tip for the OP.

First you should try the 3 monitor option in DCS to see if the result and performance is acceptable to you.

Otherwise, I assume like most people you have your 3 monitors angled towards you \ __ /. You can increase your FOV to see more of the cockpit and place your monitors flat __ __ __ or even turned slightly AWAY from you and move them closer (probably no more than 2 feet away) with the 1 monitor option in DCS. This will reduce the distortion seen on the side monitors because you are seeing them the way the game is rendering them (it basically thinks they are 10ft to your left and right). I hope your screens are IPS as I think that might look pretty bad on a TN panel.

Thanks guys, your right that I turned the two outer monitors to me. Currently I am quite happy with my setup. I also tried to... well somehow mimic a 4K TV and was experimenting a bit with a single FullHD monitor (same aspect ratio as normal 4K) trying to get the look that I want. Just as a test since everything would be too small on this screen, but to get an idea how it would look on the big screen and to see if I got the result that I hope for. Right now I did not achieve this result, but I did not go into much details with the FOV settings (I tried the aspect ratio settings in the options of DCS, not really getting what I wanted) Looks like I have to do some more testing in the coming weeks! :)

Thanks guys, your right that I turned the two outer monitors to me. Currently I am quite happy with my setup. I also tried to... well somehow mimic a 4K TV and was experimenting a bit with a single FullHD monitor (same aspect ratio as normal 4K) trying to get the look that I want. Just as a test since everything would be too small on this screen, but to get an idea how it would look on the big screen and to see if I got the result that I hope for. Right now I did not achieve this result, but I did not go into much details with the FOV settings (I tried the aspect ratio settings in the options of DCS, not really getting what I wanted) Looks like I have to do some more testing in the coming weeks! :)

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I already do that, but in my current 3 monitor setting I am already zoomed out to the max. However, this is something that I also thought about. Looks like this requires a loot of tweaking with FOV, zooming and head position. :crash::D

Back to the times when I used monitors my main two goals were: having enough of FOV and keeping the size of cockpit controls close to the real ones - very hard to combine :)

Immersion

Your goal is a sense of immersion. Dont underestimate the effect of a single monitor plus trackir. I have a scale sim pit with a single 39” monitor just a few inches behind where the hud glass would be. Once in game and track ir running I have no issue with fov or any sense of lost peripheral vision.

My vote: Keep it simple!

I have a 4K main screen which is 3840x2160 (16:9 aspect ratio). My main image looks a little squashed and tires aren't round. Is there a way to manually adjust the horizontal FOV to correct this?