Adjust exponential POV?

[Keeper]

I couldn't find any past posts on this topic.

Is it possible to adjust the zoom POV? For example, so you can see the Moon from the Earth realistically and so on? I'm sure the current setup is legacy from the original Frontier and back when computers couldn't handle having multiple planetary objects in view at a time. For some with modern systems, though, it should be all right, so it'd be nice to have a realistic POV to where you can see the Sun at the size you should see it in reality, and see the Moon from the Earth, vice versa, and likewise various moons of other planets.

Since the sizes of the bodies and the distances otherwise seem to be correct, I'm assuming it's just an exponential zoom factor or something built into the rendering code. I'd be curious to try modifying it and see how performance is, if I knew where to look.

[nozmajner]

It is possible, but only by editing the config file. Look for FOVVertical line in the config.ini (Documents/Pioneer)

Yes, the body sizes are correct. The current zoom level isn't related to performace at all, it's mostly an ergonomic question I think. You could adjust it to be closer to what you experience in reality, but it will feel quite narrow on most screens. For my laptop for example, it would be somewhere around 10-15°, which is quite limited.

[Keeper]

Tried it. It looked awesome, but for the background "Milky Way" texture being zoomed in and of course the edge of one view being nowhere close to the edge of the next -- plus the front of your ship seemed to be much farther forward than it really was. I wonder if some kind of "focal length" change can be made without creating too much distortion, to make it feasible.

[nozmajner]

With the FOV you are actually adjusting the focal length indirectly, since they are tied to each other. And to the screen size.

[Keeper]

Played around with it some more today. It really does look spectacular with a realistic FOV, apart from the skybox and the icons not being placed correctly (drawing of HUD icons assumes the 65-degree FOV is being used, apparently -- if this can be changed too, that'd be great!). It can be difficult to find something with the camera (even a big ol' planet around which you are orbiting). This is where a head tracker would be handy.

I took a bunch of screenshots, such as this one as I passed the Moon on my way to Saturn:


Links to full-size shots below.

Sunrise over London.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 113911.png

View of the atmosphere and the curvature of the Earth, looking much bigger at this FOV. Here you see how the skybox is a splotchy mess, however.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 114510.png

Looking back at the British isles.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 114810.png

Full-size shot of the thumbnail above, passing the Moon, with the Earth in the background. Here you can see how the UI icons don't match up, unfortunately.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 120826.png

Passing by Saturn, with Dione, Tethys and Rhea all visible too.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 121110.png

Entering the brilliant atmosphere of Titan.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 121423.png

Looking at Saturn from the surface of Titan. You can see a bit of the cockpit (which is only visible if you turn your head) and the antenna from a nearby building.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 122213.png

The size of other ships on the pad are more impressive too.
http://www.keeper1st.com/pioneer/screen ... 122242.png

After taking these shots, I made a skybox with 4096x4096 textures, but even then the stars in them become giant smudges in the sky. A skybox that is just "gas" without any individual points seems to be the best possibility with a field of view like this.

[FluffyFreak]

That's interesting, i don't know why the skybox would look like that, might be a bug

[FluffyFreak]

What settings are you using for all of this? The FOV for example so I can try it out?

[nozmajner]

It makes sense to me. FOV is practically zoom, and the more you zoom in, the smaller portion you'll see of the skybox.
I can't remember the resolution of it, but I'm sure it's not large enough for that ki d of FOV.

[Keeper]

Those screenshots were at 15 and 10 degrees vertical. As nozmajner says, it's just a matter of the texture being too low of a resolution to look good at that FOV. They're 2048 pixels high. Even a cube map I made from native 4096-pixel images didn't look good. The only way to do it without an enormous texture but still looking decent would be some built-in smoothing engine. (Evochron Legacy does some pretty amazing things with rather low-res textures for its sky and planet rings, for example.)

The bigger concern for me is the HUD icons not lining up. I looked through some HUD code but didn't find anything about adjusting to FOV. Maybe it's in the compiled source, which I haven't investigated yet. With FOV being adjustable (even if currently requiring a manual text file edit), the HUD icons really should adjust to what FOV the user has selected. Then maybe an FOV adjustment option can be built into the graphics menu!

I think I'll continue playing with a reduced FOV. Maybe not as extreme as I have it now, but certainly less than the default 65 degrees vertical (which on a 16:9 monitor means about 120 degrees horizontal, rather excessively wide).

[Keeper]

Hmm, interestingly, having calculated that the ideal vertical FOV for my setup is between 20 to 25 degrees, I set it to 24, and the HUD icons all match up now. Maybe the problem before was caused by changing the value and re-starting the game without rebooting. Maybe some values were staying loaded.

And a 4096-pixel cube map skybox doesn't look so bad at this FOV, as long as there are no big stars built in. I'm using one that's just "gas" basically, and having the game draw random stars itself.