Camera Field of View

[Kanemano]

Hello! I'd like to post a question/suggestion to the Devs. Can we have an option to set the Field of View (FOV) of the camera to be greater than (what appears to be) 45 degrees?

It would give us greater visibility of the area without having to pull our camera all the way out, and/or assist in tightly cramped areas where we are unable to pull our camera out.

Something along the lines of 75 degrees would be extremely beneficial, as it would allow us to have greater peripheral vision, as well as lend more to the immersion in the world.

Thanks!

[kyuven]

PS3 limitations

[Kanemano]

I can see the PS3 being a limiting factor, as increasing the FoV would potentially increase the number of renderable objects, ALTHOUGH with a hard cap already instituted to how many character models can be viewed, I really don't see this as an issue, especially when your own settings are customizable via the Character/System config.

I already know the engine is capable of dynamically changing the FoV live; we can see it happen during quite a few live cutscenes post 2.0. All that we're missing is the ability to actually change it ourselves.

[raelgun]

Yes it is a PS3 limitation, having the ability to change the FOV in a slider on the pc client is a huge advantage however I actually have this advantage anyways, 21:9 screens, considering the hardware market that pc gamers have anyways dunno why they just dont provide the settings anyways, we can already get around it.
People with 3 monitors already have this gigantic advantage anyways but I would also like to have the camera to pan out more since I actually like to keep an eye on people from further away.

Also yes, a greater FOV does mean more objects in render on your screen from a gpu horsepower point.

At 2560x1080 21:9 on a nvidia 780 gpu, I dont break 100 fps but on a standard 16:9 1080 p that wont be a problem and my settings are pretty much maxed, though in instanced content I never drop below 60 FPS and that includes ST.

[Kanemano]

Right, but that doesn't preclude any rendering caps that might already be imposed on the ps3 in order to stay at a particular level of performance efficiency (I work in games): the cap on a particular number of objects can still be the same regardless of FoV.

Also, thinking about RAM, whether you have a viewfield that's 45 degrees or 90 degrees, your render output will still be whatever your set screen resolution is (so no increase in RAM specifically for screen rendering), and the object render cap will still be the same cap set at either FoV as well. Textures loaded for either case should still be identical seeing as you can rotate your camera 360 degrees at any given moment.

The biggest drawback for ps3 users is that you'd probably have a decrease in draw distance in open areas, of which i'm assuming there are already LOD assets for and/or a limit on how many objects are rendered (characters), so this may or may not even be noticeable.

[raelgun]

You would think the amount of items rendered be the same so the performance shouldn't take a hit, but a 21:9 screen which gives you extra FOV alone is a FPS hit in it self, but the game might cull what you arent looking at.
But if you want extra FOV anyways and FF14 is a game you play a lot, I really do recommend a 21:9 screen anyways, check for online reviews, its an added extra cost but its one of those things that brings a smile to your face when you are using it.

[Kanemano]

Yeah I saw that, it's pretty much exactly what i'm looking for, although I'd rather have the FoV on one screen (I like having a second window open on the side). I'm wondering though if your particular performance hit is mainly due to having to render 3 hi-resolution screens (6 simultaneous frames in buffer on top of whatever render passes are needed per scene, which is at least 2 for UI and environment, not counting any extra stuff and post-process effects you might have toggled on, ie; ambient occlusion, real-time shadows etc).