What field of view should I choose in a first person shooter?
What field of view should I choose in a first person shooter?
What effect does this have on aiming?
It makes aiming a bit harder as more things are squished into the same screen size, but you get the advantage of being able to see more. Generally you want to be able to see more so long as it doesn't have too much of an impact on your aiming/movement. It is up to you to decide what the best balance is for you. In Unreal Tournament 2004 I know some people played with the FOV higher than I did, but anything over 100 degrees for me became harder to aim and more confusing to sense what directions things were in, so I stuck with that.
In addition to the answers already posted, I'd like to add that some people feel motion sickness when playing a 3D game with "unsuitable" FOV settings (and "fixing" the FOV makes the motion sickness go away), while some people are a lot more tolerant. This is related to how brain and the body of the person behaves.
If you play on a monitor that is near your eyes, a higher FOV is naturally expected. This means that PC gamers usually should use higher FOV than console gamers. FZDSCHOOL explains it very well in EPISODE 29 FOV in Games video (see also part 2).
Really it's all about preference. The max FOV offers more vision of things around you, but at the cost of skewing everything so it's like looking through a tunnel. If you don't mind that tunnel effect, turn it up as high as you want.
Depends on the aspect ratio of your display.
With the aspect ratio of 4:3 the optimal FoV would be 90°.
With wider screens the FoV can be comfortably cranked up: 100°-110°.
Lower FoVs shouldn't be used for several reasons:
- Low FoV feels unnatural;
- Low FoV limits what a player can see;
- Low FoV is unrealistic;
- Low FoV can cause motion sickness (arguably, the most important reason);
Thorough analysis: Why higher Field of View is important in First Person Shooters