[Galemp]

We know it has been discussed over and over how FS ships don't look like they're the right size; everything seems smaller. This has been brought to a boiling point recently when the Star Wars mod people realized a Star Destroyer at 1.6 KM long appears really small in the FS2 engine. I'd like to petition the Source project to fix the perspective and field of view issue somehow to make ships appear their true size.

[RandomTiger]

As long as its optional

[Bobboau]

well what would you sudgest

[RandomTiger]

Currently Im not sure about exactly how to do it.
If we ever get HT&L done we can just change the view angle to be smaller.

However changing the perspective this would have the effect of being able to see a lot less on screen in general and might have a few gameplay side effects.

[Fury]

Would it be possible to make a screenshot that shows current angle and perspective of FS2 and same scene with angle and perspective changes?

I am not really into this stuff so I would like to SEE what kind of changes we are talking here.

[KARMA]

the point for us is that the same fighter at same distance seems 1/3 and probably less than other swgames
far now we doubled the size of our ships, thinking at this solution like a good compromise between appearance and gameplay, and we will continue that way even far capital ships, but on the other hand this will cause obviously some distorsions, so before continuing we thought it was better to ask if there is a possible code solution, as sandwich suggested us
personally i think that even the standard fs2 ships appear too small, considering their sizes....fighters are very big (20+ meters), they are like small houses but at collision distance they appear like a car
a good example may be the colossus: to find such a gigantic ship we have to look at the superstardestroyer from xwa...well the ssd of xwa is 6 km long if i remember well, make a confrontation between the appearance of the two ships...  
Btw, i can understand that not evryone may like to play with the rendering "zoomed", since it will probably affect the whole game appearance (and feeling)...maybe in a better way, maybe worse
best solution would be to have it as a custom option inside the option menu, or maybe with a command line (fs2.exe -2x and/or -3x), but i have no idea at all if this is a thing that can be changed and with how much efforts

[Killfrenzy]

One of the problems is having visible window-lights. That gives you a sense of scale, and with your view area, it's all wrong.

[an0n]

Make the FOV really small to make stuff look more realistically sized, or make it really big to give accurate views when compared to speed of your craft (ie, travelling at 80m/s, small stuff gets really big, really fast). FS has a balance between the two, so you can either sacrifice one or stop yer *****in'.

[mikhael]

Originally posted by an0n
...ie, travelling at 80m/s, small stuff gets really big, really fast...

Not all that fast, and given the already arcadey physics, if 80m/s is too fast, you should probably turn in your stick and go back to turn-based-strategy.

Fix the damn perspective and make things look they way they should.

[IceFire]

Maybe I misunderstood...but 20 meters isn't a bad size for a spacefighter...if we compare to current day fightecraft.  I think its FS2's fisheye view of the world thats making things feel a little wonky.

[Killfrenzy]

I think the crux of the matter is that the FOV is simply too large.

To quote an example, the Gencore Phoenix Intercept Figher has four weapons mounted at the base of the wings. The edges of the cockpit are about a meter further in that that (if you get my drift).

Now, presumably what you see on the screen is what you would see if you were in the cockpit, with the edges of the screen being the cockpit edges.

If that is the case, then tell me why the weapons for the Phoenix fire from a point very close to the centre? And it's not because I've got the eyepoint wrong.

That's the problem with FS2's FOV. It's too damned big! It NEEDS to be a LOT smaller.

[Solatar]

The FOV really does need to be smaller. I mean, aren't the Ulysses/Herc 1"s guns beside the cockpit? Not shooting from it?

[Killfrenzy]

My point exactly. The gunpoints are wrong in relation to the HUD.

90% of all guns on FS2 fighters are mounted behind the cockpit, so the energy bolts should be flying past your window. They shouldn't be shooting from some point ahead of you.

Look at the X-Wing games. Totally Games paid attention to cockpit positions, sizes and their positions relative to gunpoints.