Camera FoVs

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Hey,

Can anyone tell me the FoVs for the cameras in RE1, 1.5, 2, 3 and REMake?

Thank you

[Deathlygasm]

What exactly is an FOV?

[Jimmy_Jazz]

It's the camera's Field of View, usually given in degrees.

There's something about RE's that always feels right, where as other titles' FoVs feel too narrow or wide.

[MeganGrass]

Hey,

Can anyone tell me the FoVs for the cameras in RE1, 1.5, 2, 3 and REMake?

Thank you

208.4688

...no clue about remake, though.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

What is that measured in? I was expecting something like 45-60 degress

[MeganGrass]

It corresponds to a h-fov of 60° and a v-fov of 75° for the PSone, respectively.

The value 208.4688 is based on a conversion method that CAPCOM used, where 1.0 = 4096.

Either Gemini or Sonic would be much better explaining this.

[Deathlygasm]

I do agree that remake NAILED the camera angles.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

It corresponds to a h-fov of 60° and a v-fov of 75° for the PSone, respectively.

The value 208.4688 is based on a conversion method that CAPCOM used, where 1.0 = 4096..

Thank you very much

I do agree that remake NAILED the camera angles.

I must admit I prefer 1-3 over the REMake. I get the feeling that the latter's are narrower, and certainly feels more cinematic, but I find them too restrictive, especially when you're dealing with Crimson Heads.

[Undead Sega]

Surely you can use the camera exporter and find out the info about each camera right?

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Thankfully the FoVs for all room cameras within each game are unified. I'm not sure about FMVs.

I don't have any of the PS1 ROMs of RE1-3 to look at them though.

[Vixtro]

I never really thought about the FoV in the older games, but come to think there's certainly a big difference in 1,2,3 when compared to REmake & Zero, in the latter two it seems much smaller since the character models tend to appear larger in most areas. I assume it's because of the fact that the graphics were especially impressive for the time (still hold up well today) and they wanted to show it off.

The only game in the series where I've had to mess about with the FoV was REvelations on PC, the FoV even on max ingame is pitifully low for a PC game, I had to use a program to bump it up to something like 75. It messed up the sniper scope and made it so it couldn't zoom, but that's a small price to pay for a decent FoV.

[Rombie]

The GC titles were more of a stylistic choice to match the depth/style of more traditional cinema, with narrower view fields and also a shallower depth of field as well. It's something the REmake was a little ahead of it's time on as a lot of that sort of thing wasn't considered by developers until later in the same gen or until the next (PS3/360 era) when more and more games were doing 'cinematic' style than before and aping the sort of things you'd see in films.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

Unfortunately alot of PS3/X360 titles were using narrower FoVs to gain framerate, by drawing less objects. PC titles would have wider FoVs by default and frequently include FoV sliders.

FoV should take into account gameplay, and I find everything from 4 onwards to be too narrow, and it's an issue in faster paced, open area'd (yup, making a word up here) combat sections of those titles. The Last Of Us has both a wider FoV, better story telling and a more cinematic feel than those games.

[Rombie]

I think it's bit unfair to say PC titles have wider FoV's by default as if this is taken always into account. Part of it has been the support for widescreen over 4:3 has existed in PC gaming slightly longer than consoles, which was part of the issue, because it was harder to support wider views with more restrictive screen space to begin with. Indeed graphics rendering and framerates are another issue not usually as much of a problem on PC, but many games have a fixed rate across all platforms they appear on - and it's really mostly only in recent years developers have let people change them. And oddly enough with the line between PC's and consoles getting constantly blurrier each year it seems this is indeed more likely to happen in a 50:50 split (more controls on more platforms, or fixed on all platforms).

Last Of Us (and the Uncharted games as well) are indeed great and interesting examples because ND get the idea of what makes gameplay and cutscenes so different. Their cutscenes use cinema lens style and the narrower field and depth to great effect to really sell the cinema angle - along with quite a wide variety of camera framing, zooming, and movement and sometimes wider fields when needed - where as the gameplay, as you mentioned, is usually quite wide constantly and open allowing much more to be seen in shot. And anyone say what you will about the story content of Metal Gear as well, but Koji Pro is also another developer who gets this concept quite well as well.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

I think it's bit unfair to say PC titles have wider FoV's by default as if this is taken always into account.

Yet it's true in many cases (not all - I did just say "alot"), although mainly for first person titles. Have a hunt through the past few years of multiplatform game comparisons on the Digital Foundry. It's also common for games to feature an FoV changer on PC even if the defaults are the same as console.

Prior to the last gen, many console & PC FPSs would have 90 degree FoV for 4:3 and higher for 16:9. The earliest example of this I can think of on console is Goldeneye, which had an FoV of over 100 when in 16:9 mode. But at that point we weren't seeing many cross platform FPSs (Red Faction on the PS2?). That changed early on with the PS3/X360 gen.

Part of it has been the support for widescreen over 4:3 has existed in PC gaming slightly longer than consoles, which was part of the issue

The opposite is true, with Widescreen being supported in PS1 and Saturn titles. There was even a 16" widescreen Sony TV early in the PS1's life that was promoted as the perfect companion to the machine. Widescreen monitors didn't really start taking off until LCD monitors became the norm.

When HD became standard, so did Widescreen. And devs were used to supporting it by that point on both PC and console.

but many games have a fixed rate across all platforms they appear on

It's rare for console & PC games to have a fixed framerate. We tend to have a target to aim for that we try to achieve for as much of the game as possible. However, with fluctuating framerates now being an issue it's increasingly common for console titles to offer you an uncapped framerate or a locked 30fps.

and it's really mostly only in recent years developers have let people change them.

People have been definitely changing FoV widths, V-sync and framerate caps in games since Quake 1, and I wouldn't be surprised if they did it before that - I've never tried playing with Doom's FoV. IF anything, it's only Valve's titles that I can think of that stop you from adjusting the FoV whilst in MP, widescreen or 4:3.