Pros and cons of screen viewing distance ?

[ValseTriste]

Has anyone else noticed that screen viewing distance greatly affects our perception and therefore immersion REGARDLESS of optimised FOV and cockpit camera settings ?

I've tried extremely close, far away and everything in-between and have come to the conclusion that because a screen is 2D and perspective is naturally compromised that our brains, no matter how immersed in the action, still identify its distance from us. So basically if you put the screen where the dash would be the cockpit sensation is more immersive but the exterior environment is perceptively small whereas if like in many pro simulators the screen is really quite far away the track environment is more immersive but the cockpit is perceptively large.

Personally I now find that my screen is best viewed from a distance of about 130cm since its the perfect compromise roughly representing the bonnet of the car, a real world point between the virtual interior and exterior of the vehicle.

So the fact that "technically" a very small close up screen will have the exact same FOV as a very large screen far away doesn't actually help in terms of immersion. Interesting no ?

 

[Deleted member 197115]

But there's another annoying problem. My monitor is always a little bit too far away, or the text is too small when i race in VR.

Often i find myself being strapped in the seat trying to restart a program or adjust a profile without seeing it clear enough, leading to all sorts of trouble

Try new custom scaling in Win10, works really great retaining fonts sharpness.
Unless you mean in VR text.

 

[ValseTriste]

Cheeky, I’m not that old!

I’m don’t think it’s just the distance because I can read my phone just fine closer, it’s more when something that large and bright is right in my face I find it hard to focus.

It could be to do with looking at a direct light source, something humans have evolved without doing, especially not at the sun ! Cinema being projection is different as its indirect and tiny screens like smartphones and tablets are less of an issue but exposing your eyes for long periods of time to a large screen very close-up or even more so in VR is maybe something to think about, if it works for you great but maybe best in moderation

 

[actarusss]

I'm playing in my home theater room, so my eyes are at 80" (200 cm) from my screen.......................but the screen is 120" (300 cm) about 6 feet high by 9 feet wide

according to https://andyf.me/fovcalc.html my FOV need to be pretty large and the immersion is nice.

I was thinking about triple screens but I'll lost the sound of my theater and trust me it's done a lot in the immersion too.

 

[ValseTriste]

I'm playing in my home theater room, so my eyes are at 80" (200 cm) from my screen.......................but the screen is 120" (300 cm) about 6 feet high by 9 feet wide

according to https://andyf.me/fovcalc.html my FOV need to be pretty large and the immersion is nice.

I was thinking about triple screens but I'll lost the sound of my theater and trust me it's done a lot in the immersion too.

40 to 46° FOV in AC must be great on your setup ? At first like on my setup you probably find the scale of the interior too big but once you're focused on looking where you should when racing the 3D illusion kicks in and everything makes perfect sense

 

[actarusss]

40 to 46° FOV in AC must be great on your setup ? At first like on my setup you probably find the scale of the interior too big but once you're focused on looking where you should when racing the 3D illusion kicks in and everything makes perfect sense

yes exactly , the interior is a bit big but the immersion is #1 , in Dirt 2 it's really great

 

[maelstrom]

I messed around calculating the correct distance for my 32” screen but after trying it for a while I just set the FOV to what worked best for me! It may not be hyper realistic but I can see more of what I need to and I got used to it very quickly.

 

[Soulstoner]

26" away from my 49" ultrawide. Results in a 28 degree FOV in AC and it feels great!

 

[Spinelli]

If you can, depending on your monitor setup, use a 1:1 FOV. You'll want the monitor/s as close to you as possible so that you can get the biggest FOV as possible while retaining the 1:1 FOV.

To feel even more natural and immersive, make sure to set the game's camera/view/seat so that dead-centre of the screen is located at the point where the driver's eyeball is - the imaginary driver inside the car in the videogame. The game's view/camera/seat setting only has 1 correct position and that's located dead-centre between the eyeballs of a driver in the virtual car you're using. This has nothing to do with where you sit in real life despite what some people say/think. Then, sit in a position so that you're real-life eyes are as close to dead-centre of the screen as possible.

A further step to make the view feel more natural is to adjust the camera/view/head/seat pitch. Most games/sims, especially until a few years ago, tend to have the camera/view/head/seat pointed way too downwards (and placed too high).

To make things even more natural (a huge step more natural), use 3D (VR headset, Nvidia 3D Vision, etc.) but that requires additional hardware.