You're right. But it would be much more usefull if the picture wasn't a simple half cut of the central mirror. A dedicated view on side mirror would show you cars that are on you rear side almost on your side, when it's now only show those who are on your back.
Yes, that would be more useful. But I get by with the current option ok and can't say I ever noticed that the side mirror was just a copy of the center mirror until you pointed it out. Usually by the time they've left my side mirror I can actually see their nose in my side monitor so I still know where they are (well, on sims with proper triple screen support anyway. In R3E this only applies to the one side of the car I can see out of).
I don't have triple screen but sometimes I found that I cannot see at all when an opponent is on my rear side. If I turn head (via a button on my wheel) I can see my side view and my side mirror. If the opponent is on my side I can see it, but if he's a little bit on the back there's nothing that shwo me that, while I should be able to see him on the mirror. There's a big blind spot because of this...
Have found once proper FOV was dialed in (Tri-screen) I couldn't go back now, everything just feels right and I find it's corner exits just as much as apexes that are easier to judge and as for judging the competition all around, wheel to wheel duels are so much easier to deal with. Saying all that though, luckily the human brain is so, so clever it will adjust to just about everything we throw at it, so in conclusion however you want to view it, just do it!
This is me playing Project Cars in triple screens with a pretty low FOV. I use similar settings in Raceroom (0.7 I think). I haven't done much investigation or research on finding the best FOV for my setup, this just feels natural/immersive and that's what's important to me.
I tried it and it really is something else. Maybe I'm used to having a very relaxed sitting position in real life (and admittedly I'm rather tall so my seat's always in the back-most position), but for me such low of a fov doesn't look/feel realistic at all. Feels more like being straped onto the bonnet belly-down, you know, like those maniacs doing skelleton. Maybe if you're driving like this irl it reassembles reality better.
Without a doubt, it needs time to adapt to a lower (more realistic) FOV. It's not just trying for a few laps and instantly feel comfortable. It needs some time, and it really helps to reduce the FOV step by step. BTW ..... i really recommend to watch this video about it. Nevertheless ..... everyone has the right to drive with the FOV he/she likes most, even if it's more or less realistic.
You can use the "FOV Calculator", if you want to have a FOV like in real life. http://www.projectimmersion.com/fov/index.php?m=1 You only need the distance from your eyes to the screen and the monitor size (diagonal). I have a 23" Monitor (16:9) and a distance of 62 cm to the screen. The results: Raceroom = 0,5 (I use 0,6 and seat almost completely moved to the front) Assetto Corsa = 27,2° (I use 30° and seat slightly moved to the front) Project Cars = 47° (I use 65° and seat completely moved to the front; I have to use the very high value of 65° to prevent too dark cockpits in Project Cars and that's really annoying) As you see, I use slightly higher values, to see a little bit more from the left and right side in front of me, because I have only one monitor. It's just a compromise. A very important thing is, that the monitor should always be as near as possible, to be able to use a larger FOV. Just make a test and sit down in your own car and think about where the monitor would be and what you would see. With a 23" monitor with 62 cm distance in my own car I would not see the rear view mirror, the instruments and the wheel of my car. The monitor would be on the instrument panel just before the windscreen. That' the reason, why I always play with deactivated wheel and arms in Raceroom and Assetto Corsa. I think it's more realistic, as I already see my own wheel and arms in front of me. Only in Project Cars I have to activate the wheel and arms due to the very high value of 65°. That's the most important reason, why I don't like to play Project Cars at all. The video above shows a perfect explaination for my results.
Well I tried for two days now and tbh, it still feels like watching the first few minutes of that video you posted. Maybe it's just me not being able to process all that info, but watching and trying to listen to what he says and trying to read what he wrote is giving me nausea. I get the difference when it comes to distances but the point about how much you see, how close or far away you are to/from the track??? Of course it looks different (seeing more of what's around you) but then you can adjust your seat position. Which is what I did in high fov (seat further to the front) and what I had to do in low fov, I had to push the seat way back to see anything really. I'm not trying to say you're wrong about anything here. As a former maths teacher I'd never dare to question the numbers. It's really just about what feels comfy and somewhat close to my rl driving experience for me.
Just make a test in your own car and think about where your monitor would be and what you would see. That helped me a lot to understand the FOV problem.
Well, that's hard cause the monitor fails to replicate the eye movement you're constantly making when driving. When concentrating on the road you don't (actively) see the dashboard or side mirror but you don't need to move your head to look at them. So for me those have to be on the screen... And as I said I'm almost lying in my car, seat way back and tilted a fair bit, so I (passively) take in lots of what's around me when driving... It's a strange matter for me and I'll definitely keep trying cause what's been said about elevation and so on does make sense.
That's the approach I take, and IMO Jeneric's video above looks pretty spot on. The dash looks to be in the correct place, the side mirror looks to be where it would be on a real car, the A-pillars seem to be about the right distance away, looks real similar to how my sims are setup. I'll be honest, it took me a week or two before I got used to using this kind of FOV but once I adapted to it I can't go back to the zoomed out FOV. I'm always making small adjustments to FOV in all my sims, but once it gets zoomed out too far I start missing apexes and have a harder time judging distances, that's when I zoom it in a couple notches.
My point as well. I don't have them in direct sight, but I want to be able to just glance at them like in the real world without turning my head or press a button. Have tried to lower the fov one step to 0.7, and it feels good though. Have my seat back so I almost see the whole left side mirror. And I do notice that the environment are easier to take in. Just like someone said, it might work to adapt if it's done with small steps.
If you want to see the rearview mirrors with the correct FOV, you need a 3 monitor setup. I've tested the Raceroom simulator with 3 BenQ 21:9 curved monitors at the Simracing Expo at the Nürburgring 4 weeks ago and it was fantastic. But one monitor costs about 1200,- €. It's a little bit too expensive at the moment. http://gaming.benq.com/gaming-monitor/xr3501 So I use buttons to look left and right and the virtual mirror in the cockpit. But since we have "Chrew Chief" with a spotter, it's not so a big problem anymore for me, not to see permenantly, what happens left or right. But also in real life, the driver's sight is limited by the helmet and the seat. At the last DTM race 1 at the Nürburgring there was a little accident with Pascal Wehrlein after the start at the first corner, because he didn't see another driver at his right side. That's real life.
I have a single monitor and use a high FOV to help see the turn in and other cars. Best response I read was someone said, "there is only 1 perfect/exact FOV setting that matches real-life but you don't need to use it!" I would guess triple-screen setup one could use the perfect/exact FOV without any problems. : )
Yes, it's more difficult to use a "proper" FOV with a single screen. But you should be able to find a happy medium that's not too close and not too far. But even with a single monitor you'll be able to better hit your apexes and judge distances with a FOV that's close to "proper" than with a zoomed out FOV. It took me a couple weeks to get used to using a close FOV even with triple monitors, but once I adapted it now feels very weird to use a high FOV and it negatively affects my driving. But in reality, the 1 perfect FOV is the one you're comfortable with and enjoy using. Here's what mine looks like.
Thanks for the kind words. As I previously said, I have done no research whatsoever on this topic, I just played around until it felt right. I've achieved similar results in most of the sims I race and it never takes me very long to set up.
I just switched monitor configurations (triple to single screen) revisiting this old thread. what is the standard of measurement when they talk about .5 fov or .57 fov? What is the standard fov for raceroom? Raceroom 1 = .5? Raceroom .7 = ? (what I used with triple screens). 46" monitor + 110cm (40") distance to monitor = equal to .53 according to fov calculator. But I currently use Raceroom's 1.3 fov to see my mirrors.