3 Monitor FOV

[Bob Luneski]

I have a 3x24" setup @ 5760x1080 and am wondering what FOV are people with 3 monitors using? I've had some problems with strange artifacts in some of the alternate driver views.

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Péter Bártfai]

I would try 47-50%. I think that's a value where you get ~180 degrees horizontal FOV, then if you sit close enough it can be pretty much awesome. Though I have no 3 screen setup, so this is only a guess.

 

[Rupe Wilson]

Give this a try, looks complecated so it must bo good http://www.thewayiplay.com/mainforum/index.php?topic=1826.0
Ive been looking at 3screens but i cant justify the expence just yet...
60 inch plasma
3x30inch
hd projector
3 options all going to kost money, theres about 2000 Euros in total with a pc upgrade

 

[Jim Cole]

Regardless of field of view, you are going to see stretching on the side monitors. The reason is unclear, but the games that are out were not designed to use multiple monitors for display purposes, only a single flat screen. Hopefully Simbin and other companies address this with their new releases as more and more folks are gaming with multiple monitors now.

 

[Glen Kabis]

I personally run it as low as the game allows me too, side monitors are still oddly stretched but its still useful. I also turn off "real seat positions" and use the mouse to drag my view as far back as possible. (Anyway to make this default somehow in the .plr file?)

Is there anyway to not have the HUD be cut off (lap counter, speedo) when running a bezel corrected resolution of 6040 x 1080?

Also anyone know what numbers to change in the XD! config file to get the data in the center of the screen?

 

[Jim Cole]

The areas you need to concern yourself with for adjusting XD are:

; MoTeC HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
MotecPosX=auto
MotecPosY=auto

; Standings HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
StandingsPosX=auto
StandingsPosY=auto

; Session-Info HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
SessionPosX=auto
SessionPosY=auto

Remove the word auto and put in the value that suits your setup. A value of 0 for both x and y would be top left of your display setup. You are basically going to have to play with numbers to find the correct setup to get them to move where you want them. I haven't adjusted mine yet or I would give you an example that would be close to what you are looking for.

 

[Jim Cole]

After playing around with positioning, this is my setup on a 5040 X 1050 screen setup:

; MoTeC HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
MotecPosX=1400
MotecPosY=800

; Standings HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
StandingsPosX=auto
StandingsPosY=auto

; Session-Info HUD postion:
; Default: X = auto, Y = auto
SessionPosX=1690
SessionPosY=950

 

[Glen Kabis]

Thanks for the info Jim, I'll be messing with it after work.

 

[Jim Cole]

After having played around with FOV I have decided that I like my FOV around 85. The reason for this is because I like to be able to see more than what I did on a single monitor when I am running with 3 screens. With the FOV set to the minimum which would presumably be similar to sitting in the car I can't see the right side mirror and am limited to what I can see on the left.

With the FOV set to 85, I can see both mirrors and I am able to see what is around the car better. The reason I am running 3 monitors is to increase my visibility not keep it limited like it was on a single monitor. I drive in cockpit view exclusively so getting strange things to happen in other views doesn't really affect me.

 

[Beef36]

Hi guys,

I'm upgrading from single to triple screens, but I wanted to do some testing first and understand the difference between three 1920*1080 and three 1920*1200 monitors, and play with the FOV.

On my single 1920*1080 screen, I want to run GTR Evo in windowed mode in the following resolutions:
- 1920 * 360 - to simulate 3 1920*1080 screens; and
- 1920 * 400 - to simulate 3 1920*1200 screens;

In the game's config.exe, I can't figure out how to create custom resolutions such as above. I've checked GTR Evo's ini files both in the game folder and the documents/simbin folder, and I can't find where to manually change the resolution.

How do I set a custom resolution in GTR Evo?


Thanks

 

[Jim Cole]

Not sure about how to make a custom resolution, but when you get the triple monitors, you can adjust the FOV easily while in the car by holding down the alt and left mouse button, and then moving the mouse forward or back.

If your wondering if it is worth getting 3 monitors that have a vertical resolution of 1200 instead of 1080, well your only talking about 120 pixels difference per screen, but the extra pixels will increase the load on your graphics card or cards. That difference adds up to just over 690,000 pixels that have to be rendered on the larger screen displays each frame.

 

[James Woods]

The problem with Race07 is it doesn't support triple screens like the other sims do. By this i mean the "multiview" setting, which uses three individual and centred cameras - one for each screen. This affectively removes any side distortion you get. In other sims you can also edit came files to have low (i.e, proper) FOV's. In race07, the lowest you can go is 40.

The lack of multiview pretty much destroys this sim for serious triple screen play. I still play it, but oh do i moan about the lack of multiview for the first 15 minutes each time )

 

[Jim Cole]

Very true about Race 07 and the lack of setting proper field of view and lack of multi-view. I have been playing around with FOV in rF2 and am quite impressed with how things look in that sim compared to Race. With my setup I tend to have 25 degrees FOV in rF2 and that just isn't possible in Race.

BTW for screen resolutions on triple screens, it won't just be 3 times the width as you have to do some bevel compensation as well which adds to the total width of your display. For mine, it amounts to about 120 pixels more to width. This would change the width from 5760 to 5880 total.

 

[Glen Kabis]

I don't notice any difference with the "multi-view" setting checked in other rFactor engine games? (rFactor, Simraceway, Game Stock Car). The side monitors still look stretched and distorted like RACE 07 compared to something like iRacing.

Has anyone come across some kind of article as to why more companies can't or don't do what iRacing does? Especially FPS games, they are such an eyesore and headache with how they handle triple screens.

 

[James Woods]

@Glen, you can get it to work well, but you have to try the following:

1) try a 45 degree angle for the side monitors
2) use a low FOV of about 28 (this is key).
3) turn on multiview

The difference between the two will be noticeable on how the dashboard looks as you go from the middle monitor to the one showing the passenger side. Without multiview the angle is clearly incorrect, whereas with it they follow perfectly.

@Jim, just saw your post about 1080 vs 1200. You missed out one important point. If both monitors are, say, 24-inch, the 1080 screens are 16:9, while the 1200 ones are 16:10. There is about a 2.5cm difference in screen height between the two:

24" 16:9 = 29.8 cm
24" 16:10 = 32.3 cm

You can argue whether you think that extra vertical screen size is worth the extra cost, but for me a decided it was. With over 1.5 metres of horizontal screen size, i feel i'd like as much vertical size as i can get!

I think the best setup would really be three 32" or bigger TV's, so you gain a huge amount of vertical size. I'd love to see more above and below of the cockpit, it would be so immersive )