Camera and FOV (field of view)
The great level of ignorance of the people telling the DEV what will and will not suffer.. blows my mind.
I’m sure if it would cause no harm they would do it.. you don’t think they test this sort of thing?
The only ignorance here is the one you are displaying.
We are talking about FOV, not some magical, abstract concept that only the people in the development circles know about.
You do know that this would require a complete reworking of the system they use to cull objects and players.. further exasperating the issue with players not popping in.
So yeah, I did my research.. .yet I’m ignorant.
People have already presented the FACTS that people with triple monitor setups already enjoy a higher FOV.
On top of that, the FOV increases automatically when you engage a Boss like the Shadow Behemoth.
So when you try to say that they have to completely rework some parts of the game, even though the game easily support an increased FOV is displaying your ignorance.
Plus, THANK YOU, for telling us the REAL reason why ANET wont increase FOV, I really like the fact that you pretend to know more about ANET reasoning than an actual ANET representative.
Why don’t we just delete you OP and put in what you’ve said?
As many have pointed out these arguments are a bit silly and you really should fix the fov.
1. Many people can play with a good framerate still.
2. I’m willing to sacrifice that minor thing in excange for adjustable fov.
3. People with 3 monitors are still getting the advantage. And remember that you could disable the option in sPVP.
I recall reading a while ago that Arenanet had gone from being a company primarily comprosed of programmers to one based around the artists…..with the result that we are seeing many decisions which represent “form over function”, this being one of the more in-your-face examples. (The other, for anyone interested, are the non-gameplay related UI elements. In brief “PvP locker” as a prime example).
I also recall reading that Anet are listening to us. We are telling Anet that the ability to change FoV without investing in a 3 monitor setup (or use 3rd party hacks) is important to us. It would be nice if we felt like we were being listened to…
1. There is a big difference between the odd player doing it and giving every player the tools to do it. They have stated that it puts a strain on the server for each player each client renders. One person with 3 monitors.. not a big deal. A million players with higher FoV and well.. you get the idea.
Uuuuugggghhh…. please stop talking, you’re embarrassing yourself.
I find myself agreeing with this guy right here. If a dev did come out and say that, ( and im sure they didnt), they should be fired on the spot and without question.
Gotta say this is a poor response on Anets side. To allow people with two or more monitors to continue using a higher FoV while not offering all users an option is supporting exploitation of the system. Sad Anet, sad.
This is the first time I’ve logged into the forums since beta.
I, personally, have never really experienced any problems with FoV, but I want to express my disappointment and strong disagreement with ArenaNet’s response by Jon Peters. As others have said (some more politely and elegantly than others), the reasons offered by Mr. Peters are complete bunk.
Performance and art quality being diminished by altering a graphics setting are normal things that are always left up to player’s discretion. You know what else decreases FPS? Increasing the quality of shadows. But we have the option to do so. Players understand that increasing the quality of one graphics setting will likely negatively impact something else. PC gaming has ALWAYS been about a balance of performance and beauty. Many people prefer one over the other. It’s important to provide OPTIONS.
As for competitive edge, see everybody with triple monitors.
+1 for adding a FoV option.
Remember the warning about personal attacks please… I stopped using them. I suggest you do as well, lets keep this discussion about the FoV.
I’m not telling you any real reasons, It is just that to me their explanation makes sense after thinking about it and the past reasons we had issues.
Rather then us go back and forth disagreeing. Why don’t you tell me why you think Anet is out to screw all of us over by not putting in an FoV slider if it does not fit into those three reasons they mentioned?
Hi,
Again, we would like to ask everyone to keep this friendly and constructive. We are seeing a number of posts that engage in personal attacks.
Thanks for you understanding
Remember the warning about personal attacks please… I stopped using them. I suggest you do as well, lets keep this discussion about the FoV.
I’m not telling you any real reasons, It is just that to me their explanation makes sense after thinking about it and the past reasons we had issues.
Rather then us go back and forth disagreeing. Why don’t you tell me why you think Anet is out to screw all of us over by not putting in an FoV slider if it does not fit into those three reasons they mentioned?
People have explained it… multiple times!
The great level of ignorance of the people telling the DEV what will and will not suffer.. blows my mind.
I’m sure if it would cause no harm they would do it.. you don’t think they test this sort of thing?
Seriously. But don’t you know that game devs are all idiots and the players always know more and better?
@ Naminator.9316
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blZUao2jTGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1XsPYPGcl0
Perfect videos and explain the problem with GW2’s FOV perfectly, Anet should really watch these 2 videos.
Zarturo: Elemental – Desolation.
Seems like most people here don’t seem to understand the difference between using 3 monitors or windowed mode versus artificially increasing FoV in a fixed aspect ratio. They are NOT the same, and all of the issues Jon raised are alleviated when you increase the aspect ratio but are all painfully apparent when you don’t.
Increasing the aspect ratio by using 3 monitors or windowed mode gives you a naturally-greater FoV. But to get a greater FoV without increasing the aspect ratio it’s necessary to distort the image to get it to fit, leading to all the issues Jon discussed.
Let’s try and least have some idea what one is talking about before one starts complaining and calling Jon a liar. Cause otherwise one just looks foolish.
The fact that the FOV is increased during boss fights without any of these supposed “ill effects” you seem to claim exist provably refutes what you are saying.
I know for a fact that is false, I have written camera systems before and there’s nothing remotely like you or Jon is talking about going on, it’s nonsense.
Remember the warning about personal attacks please… I stopped using them. I suggest you do as well, lets keep this discussion about the FoV.
I’m not telling you any real reasons, It is just that to me their explanation makes sense after thinking about it and the past reasons we had issues.
Rather then us go back and forth disagreeing. Why don’t you tell me why you think Anet is out to screw all of us over by not putting in an FoV slider if it does not fit into those three reasons they mentioned?
Because the reasons don’t matter. The entitlement brigade just wants what they want and don’t like being told no. The reasons are irrelevant, because even if Jon said “if we did this the game will crash every 10 minutes” they would still call him a liar and insist they should include it anyway.
Everyone, we are all disappointed with Arenanet at this point and I’m sure none of us will stop posting until they’ve fixed this issue, and yes it’s an Issue.
However, please try to keep it civil because I fear that they will use this as an excuse to lock this thread, to somehow try to force us into not discussing this anymore.
I wouldn’t doubt that a second considering the arrogance of their attitude regarding FoV.
I don’t see any arrogance from Anet but a lot from the players. ArenaNet noticed the players were concerned so they decided to let us know their thoughts on it and what they were doing to fix it (fixing bugs with the camera). They are being helpful, informative, and rushing out a patch to make players happy. All the players are giving in return is attitude.
ANet is more communicative and helpful than most gaming companies, they post on the forums a lot, and they implement fixes to things fairly quickly.
Because the reasons don’t matter. The entitlement brigade just wants what they want and don’t like being told no. The reasons are irrelevant, because even if Jon said “if we did this the game will crash every 10 minutes” they would still call him a liar and insist they should include it anyway.
I agree with this. Players need to take a step back.
The biggest nail in the coffin on the whole “FoV is detrimental to gameplay or performance” contention is the fact that myself and many others use triple monitors to obtain an enormous FoV with almost no negative impacts to game experience.
Why would it then not be possible to increase FoV for single screen users with less powerful graphics cards and just have them decrease shaders or textures if performance is that much of a concern, makes no sense.
I saw this many times, and I can’t have the same experience as other friends of mine cause I don’t have 3 monitors? PLEASE come on.
I may be wrong here, but doesn’t using three monitors just increase the aspect ratio and not the full FoV?
Not using three monitors for gw2 I’m not sure how this game handles it.
Seems like most people here don’t seem to understand the difference between using 3 monitors or windowed mode versus artificially increasing FoV in a fixed aspect ratio. They are NOT the same, and all of the issues Jon raised are alleviated when you increase the aspect ratio but are all painfully apparent when you don’t.
Increasing the aspect ratio by using 3 monitors or windowed mode gives you a naturally-greater FoV. But to get a greater FoV without increasing the aspect ratio it’s necessary to distort the image to get it to fit, leading to all the issues Jon discussed.
Let’s try and least have some idea what one is talking about before one starts complaining and calling Jon a liar. Cause otherwise one just looks foolish.
The fact that the FOV is increased during boss fights without any of these supposed “ill effects” you seem to claim exist provably refutes what you are saying.
I know for a fact that is false, I have written camera systems before and there’s nothing remotely like you or Jon is talking about going on, it’s nonsense.
Yeah, it’s all nonsense. Suuuure. But you’re still not getting an FoV slider.
It just looks to me like the camera zooms out further than normal in boss fights. Which isn’t the same as increasing the FoV. But you should know that considering you’ve written camera systems before, amirite?
The FoV does increase during boss fights as well as the camera zooming out.. he is not wrong there.
However Anet programmed that instance so I see them working through the potential bugs during the area in which that encounter occurs.
I may be wrong here, but doesn’t using three monitors just increase the aspect ratio and not the full FoV?
Not using three monitors for gw2 I’m not sure how this game handles it.
It does indeed increase the FoV, significantly.
I don’t know what the dev guy john is talking about. I like this game as a whole, but it has the worst camera I’ve ever seen in a modern mmo. Its NOT comparable to WoW’s. Its more comparable to N64’s golden eye.
I also don’t understand the fanboys defending this either. Its like saying you’re saying you want this otherwise good game to continue have N64 golden eye’s camera.
The camera needs work, they know it, and now they’re making excuses to not have to do that work.
The biggest nail in the coffin on the whole “FoV is detrimental to gameplay or performance” contention is the fact that myself and many others use triple monitors to obtain an enormous FoV with almost no negative impacts to game experience.
Why would it then not be possible to increase FoV for single screen users with less powerful graphics cards and just have them decrease shaders or textures if performance is that much of a concern, makes no sense.I saw this many times, and I can’t have the same experience as other friends of mine cause I don’t have 3 monitors? PLEASE come on.
Because making the screen wider by adding more monitors or shrinking the window is not the same as squeezing more information into a fixed viewport.
And it’s the inability to understand this that makes it clear people who are calling Jon a liar really do NOT understand anything about FoV despite what Naminator thinks.
I don’t know what the dev guy john is talking about. I like this game as a whole, but it has the worst camera I’ve ever seen in a modern mmo. Its NOT comparable to WoW’s. Its more comparable to N64’s golden eye.
I also don’t understand the fanboys defending this either. Its like saying you’re saying you want this otherwise good game to continue have N64 golden eye’s camera.
I want the FoV to be higher honestly. I just think that calling BS on a devs reasoning behind not changing it atm is not the way to go about things.
I disagree that they should keep the FoV. I would love a slider and I think it should be something they work in. But again calling BS on the reasons a dev gives is not going to acomplish anything…. It’s not like the dev is going to be like “got me guys! I lied!”.
Jon is probably 100% correct.. but that doesn’t mean it’s not something they can work on if enough people want it.
I may be wrong here, but doesn’t using three monitors just increase the aspect ratio and not the full FoV?
The vertical FOV is fixed, so changing the aspect ratio (in this case “increasing the width, but not the height”) will change the horizontal FOV.
The camera needs work, they know it, and now they’re making excuses to not have to do that work.
Did you miss the part in the OP where he said they were fixing some bugs with the camera in the next patch?
I may be wrong here, but doesn’t using three monitors just increase the aspect ratio and not the full FoV?
The vertical FOV is fixed, so increasing the aspect ratio (“increasing the width, but not the height”) will increase the horizontal FOV.
Yeah that makes sense, Thanks!
1.)
Performance is a moot point. GW2 has Supersampling which is a very high intensive feature, but you dont hear anyone saying “performance will suffer” about this effect. Because its OPTIONAL. Only the people who have systems that can utilize it, will, and if you do not you can always dial back other settings like Shadows and then increase it. FOV wouldnt cause performance issues.
2. This one isnt as nearly bad as it seems. You CAN change the FOV currently in GW2 using windowed mode and resizing the game till its something along the lines of “1920×725”. Of course what youre left with is a beautiful FOV, but a very awkward window to play with. However this DOES NOT cause fish eye or stretching problems as long as its kept at reasonable levels. Basically higher FOV can work, without distorting perspective and stretching in game art and geometry.
3. I think this is a cop-out answer. Its easy to say “combat will suffer” and make it sound right, but how will it suffer? GW2 requires positioning? So does every other game(MMOs) and they allow you to zoom out much further to boot. With a higher FOV, you can see more of the game world around your character, all this does is allow you to see players on the side of your screen that were otherwise not rendered in your view. Is that really so game breaking? Currently all it takes is a simple camera turn and they are shown. Showing the environment and models around your character is not a bad thing. The game shouldnt be made “difficult” by limiting your view of the battlefield, thats just a cheap way to make it seem hard.
And it’s the inability to understand this that makes it clear people who are calling Jon a liar really do NOT understand anything about FoV despite what Naminator thinks.
Watch the 2 videos he posted on page 2, they explain the issue with the current FOV perfectly and it’s very hard to argue against what’s in the videos as it’s all based on actual facts.
Those two videos don’t work for every game system out there, even more so not mmos. They explain why it is important but do not explain how FoV would effect the server side culling system.
I see those videos tossed up by many people, and while they are very educational they are not the final word in how FoV is programmed into a game.
The camera needs work, they know it, and now they’re making excuses to not have to do that work.
Did you miss the part in the OP where he said they were fixing some bugs with the camera in the next patch?
Issues with the camera is more than “fixing some bugs.”
I may be wrong here, but doesn’t using three monitors just increase the aspect ratio and not the full FoV?
After reading through this thread, I was kind of wondering myself if all the FoV sliders in other games only affect horizontal.
Personally, I set the FoV of any game to minimize distortion. Some people claim the distortion doesn’t matter because it’s in your “peripheral vision”, I say your peripheral vision is weaksauce, and even slight amounts are noticeable and disorienting to me.
…or maybe you sit way too close to your monitors. =P
It all depends on your screen size and distance from the monitor.
If you are gaming on a 15-17 inch monitor or laptop then the FOV will not bother you. I game on a 27 inch monitor and this FOV is a pain in the kitten
People seriously need to watch the 2 videos I posted, the person explains thoroughly how FOV works and even draws examples in real time to help people have a better understanding.
The fanboys in this thread defending ANET with their wall of ignorance seem to not understand the ISSUE with the narrow FOV and why it causes certain people to have motion sickness.
For me, I don’t get sick, my eyes however start to strain after some time.
It’s the same effect as when I play BF3 on my monitor through my console, my eyes start feeling strained, but when I load up my PC version of BF3 with 90 FOV, I can game all day long without any issues.
“They have stated that it puts a strain on the server for each player each client renders.”
Clients are rended on the user end O.o What gave you the impression the server renders anything? The server plops down where you are, and sends all nearby information to you (in case you move quickly) – this is why you can note allies around you at all time. It would not do any added strain on the server to increase FoV. LoS in the sense of how far away you can see yes, but not LoS FoV.
You compare the FOV to WoW…..WoW lets you zoom out more than 3 inches….
Anyway… if you guys can send me a check so I can buy 3 monitors that would be great… Thanks.
1. There is a big difference between the odd player doing it and giving every player the tools to do it. They have stated that it puts a strain on the server for each player each client renders. One person with 3 monitors.. not a big deal. A million players with higher FoV and well.. you get the idea.
This would be a valid point except there is enforced “player culling” in the client already. The game client has a maximum number of players it will render, which is a huge problem in WvW.
So, from what we know, the reasoning that FoV will be a drain on server resources due to drawing more players on the client can’t be true since there is already a cap imposed.
(edited by InterSlayer.5821)
This is a sad day… I don’t think I’ll play much more of gw2 if the fov stays like this
1) performance suffers greatly because of how things are built and view distances
Please dont tell me a senior developer actually said this. This is CLIENT side performance. Not serverside. If it is indeed serverside, then the engine itself really should be overhauled.
The fact that the game ups the FOV when in boss fights proves these claims completely false anyway. We know for a fact it works just fine. It’s in the game. It already exists, and players with triple monitors don’t have to use a low FOV, why should single monitor users suffer? It makes no sense and the excuses provided are demonstrably false.
I’m sorry, but those are some really bad excuses.
Your first point has nothing to stand on. This is a PC title, where we have graphical settings. If something we like or feel we need (such as FOV) is causing FPS loss, we can just turn something else off, or simply play with less FPS. You aren’t making a console game where everyone has the same hardware, so I don’t understand why you even bring this argument up. Besides, people with triple monitors report no notable FPS decrease.
The art style looks bad using something other than a tunnel vision camera? If I was an artist on your team I’d take that argument as a direct insult. We can’t even see the world properly with this current camera and bad FOV combination, most of the time I am forced to look at the ground, exactly because of your third argument. Further more, having seen triple monitor setups and 3rd party tools that affect FOV, this is again an argument that holds nothing, other than the personal opinion of Arenanet which players do not agree with. You think the game looks bad outside of tunnel vision camera, yet I’ve seen no player that uses 3 monitors or a certain 3rd party tool that also claim this, or infact even the opposite, as the worlds looks better when we can actually see more than the ground. The “fisheye” effect is just an opposite extreme that only happens when using very large FOV settings on smaller resolutions.
Your final argument that it is needed to force positional awareness actually directly conflicts with your second argument regarding a tunnel vision camera making the art look better, as it forces people to look at the ground in a tunnel vision to watch for circles and other gameplay elements, such as targetting. Positional awareness does not change because you have a normal FOV (~90), you still have to pay equal attention, you still have to move and react to the situation, but you can instead do this without having a bad feeling. People with triple monitors can do this, I don’t see why everyone else has to suffer because you cannot seem to agree with your playerbase.
Edit: Just as a note, this goes for both horizontal and vertical FOV. Both are equally important. Increasing for example only horizontal FOV will cause the “fisheye” effect you speak of. Personally, I am actually mostly annoyed with the current low vertical FOV and rarely being able to see more than the ground because of it.
Thorny Scrub – Thief
Desolation
(edited by Raap.9065)
The biggest nail in the coffin on the whole “FoV is detrimental to gameplay or performance” contention is the fact that myself and many others use triple monitors to obtain an enormous FoV with almost no negative impacts to game experience.
Why would it then not be possible to increase FoV for single screen users with less powerful graphics cards and just have them decrease shaders or textures if performance is that much of a concern, makes no sense.I saw this many times, and I can’t have the same experience as other friends of mine cause I don’t have 3 monitors? PLEASE come on.
Because making the screen wider by adding more monitors or shrinking the window is not the same as squeezing more information into a fixed viewport.
And it’s the inability to understand this that makes it clear people who are calling Jon a liar really do NOT understand anything about FoV despite what Naminator thinks.
Jon pretty much said that the game engine can’t handle a greater FoV.
I can understand that he hesitates to plainly admit that, but that’s pretty much how it is.
“We cannot change it because we cannot change it…”
I followed this topic since BWE1 (and suffered) and with all regard to Arenanet’s behaviour – limitations of the game engine are the only reasonable explanation to this issue.
So regardless how much rage they will receive from the playerbase, this won’t probably change during this millenium.
PS. a couple of players with 3 monitors or doing some tricks to enhance FoV didn’t hurt performance that much as opposed to an option which will be used by thousands.
window mode it is then. game is a million times better when I can actually see kittenz
If you are gaming on a 15-17 inch monitor or laptop then the FOV will not bother you. I game on a 27 inch monitor and this FOV is a pain in the kitten
Huh, that makes sense. I was thinking about 1080p monitors (since that’s what HD movies get up to, which I notice for… reasons).
What’s the native resolution on that monster, 2560×1600?
Also, apparently I’m trolling. Such a good one not even I noticed. Whatever. It can’t possibly be that I’m actually questioning how people dealt with distortion, since I spent a good hour trying to minimize it when I played TF2.
(edited by Dark.6083)
I agree with most of you, the FoV is horrible. But that really isn’t my biggest gripe. The most annoying aspect to the camera is it’s reaction to the environment. Putting platforming aspects into the game and having the camera react or be interrupted by the landscape is a horrible problem. This even more so when apparent when the character models are vastly different sizes. While my Asura doesn’t seem to be as bothered, my human female is pretty heavily impacted, filling the screen with a transparent body doesn’t help matters either. The camera really needs to ignore the environment.
Re: OP
While this is disappointing to hear, I appreciate the communication and explanation as to why FoV customization isn’t happening.
I suspect the positional-awareness-in-combat argument is far and away the most important of the reasons given for this not happening, but oh well. If you guys don’t wanna do it this way, start looking for others to let us take in more of the world.
I wanna look at the sky more often and more naturally.
Priorities, what to do?
Spend hours with dye
I am very saddened by this response. Hopefully the camera smoothing corrections will address the headaches and nausea I get from playing the game.
Aside from that, the problem of not seeing as much of the art as I’d like is also a problem for me. Hopefully, changes to the camera angle (if they ever happen) will address this issue as well.
Until then, it looks like any money I would have put into the gem store will most likely go to dramamine and aspirin.
As a side note, I want to point out that this response feels a bit lackluster (not just because it wasn’t what I wanted to here) because of the fact that individuals with a 3 monitor setup have a higher FOV.
Hi Jon, thank you for addressing the community on this.
The error in your thinking about FoV has been adequately pointed out by others in this thread, but I’d like to point out that your ability as a game developer will be limited as long as you continue to be as adamant about enforcing your vision on the playerbase.
Finally I’d like to recommend to ArenaNet in general to add a fov slider and/or say it’s okay to use some of the excellent fov mods out there.
It’s not a limitation in the game engine, I know that for a fact. It changes your FOV just fine during boss battles, when changing the aspect ratio, and the illicit FOV camera tool works without any problems from all reports and videos. So sorry but it’s simply a variable in the game’s memory that can easily be attached by a slider except that for some reason it’s acceptable for only a small portion of the player base to have a playable FOV while the rest of us plebes suffer with the garbage FOV in the game currently.
Also, trying to claim it’s impossible to change the FOV in a modern 3D engine is absurd. No triple A developer worth anything would ever have some sort of fixed FOV scheme and it’s proven that’s not even the case in the game right now, so I think we should just lay that whole “argument” to rest (and I have to use that term loosely since in this case the “argument” consists of only verified false information).
Fov needs to be adjustable, all you need to do is google FOV and there is this same exact issue with every game that won’t let you adjust it. It’s not a hard concept. I don’t even need Diminishing Returns to not make me play, I got FOV to deal with.
Please, please ANET, watch these two vids. This is common knowledge for most enthusiast gamers these days, but some developers are oblivious to it.
For the player that has their screen set up right (60 cm/2 feet away), they will not see any distortion at 90 and often even at 100 fov. Really, please go watch those vids, if you haven’t yet. It’s really important stuff, especially for us people that have 30" screens.
I personally don’t get nauseous anymore. I used to get headaches back in AQ2 days, when I’d run around in permanent 2x zoom with the sniper rifle, but I played like that for so long I got used to it. But it still feels very disorienting/claustrophobic/annoying due to the low fov coupled with a large (who am I kidding, 24" is standard nowdays) screen.
For the time being i’m using a custom res via nvida custom res.
From 1920×1080 to 2194×1080, sure it has small bars at the top and bottom – but it requires no hacks and it doesn’t require window mode, simply select the new res ingame (no breach in any rules whatsoever).
Top pic standard 1080p, bottom pic custom 1080p. Given the choice of the current FOV without bars and the custom res FOV with bars, i’d rather have the latter – in saying this though i have a 32" monitor so the bars mean nothing really.
Zarturo: Elemental – Desolation.
(edited by MajorMelchett.6042)
This response is disappointing and it insults our intelligence. ArenaNet, you have built a solid foundation of being upfront, honest and thorough in your dialogue with the fanbase/players. Please don’t start changing your ways now.