I’ve taken a few minutes to figure out what Zoom Level represents what FOV (field of view) in game.
Based on your monitor size, and distance of your eyes to the screen, this should give you an accurate representation of what you should actually be seeing while sitting in the cockpit (if you had your screen in front of you).
It’s not for everyone - Some like to have the super wide FOV, or fly in external view, and that’s ok. I however, enjoy making it as real as I can.
Step 1 - Have diagonal screen size and aspect ratio of screen.
Step 2 - Measure distance from screen to your eyes.
Step 3 - Plug those numbers into This Site to get your horizontal FOV.
Step 4 - Use the chart I’ve made to find the FOV number you got, and see what MSFS Zoom value you should use:
| FOV |
MSFS Zoom Level |
| 30° |
100 |
| 36° |
95 |
| 41° |
90 |
| 46° |
85 |
| 51° |
80 |
| 56° |
75 |
| 60° |
70 |
| 65° |
65 |
| 69° |
60 |
| 74° |
55 |
| 78° |
50 |
| 81° |
45 |
| 84° |
40 |
| 87° |
35 |
| 90° |
30 |
| 93° |
25 |
| 96° |
20 |
| 98° |
15 |
| 101° |
10 |
| 103° |
5 |
| 106° |
0 |
Step 5 - Change your MSFS Zoom.
Step 6 - Enjoy!
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The only drawback at this moment is that with a higher zoom level you are getting too much zoomed in into the distance.
With a 2x 43” front view I need to use 80 otherwise the buildings just in front of the plane are bending backwards.
But with 80 looking down at 5000 ft looks like looking down at 3500 ft…
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So you are using 2 x 43" screens as your front display?
Exactly . The left one is the main view and the right one the Extra added view .
Yeah, in your particular setup, MSFS does not have the settings you need yet.
Cool. Thanks for this information. I do have one question. How did you derive the FOV-to-Zoom mapping? These numbers seem roughly in line with what Russ Barlow showed at 5:26 of his video: MSFS MULTI VIEW SU10 First Look - YouTube
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I have to thank Photosbykev for posting the calibration airport on flightsim.to
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I’ve found that MSFS sets a consistent vertical field of view (based on the zoom level setting, one assumes), while the horizontal field of view is scaled according to the window’s aspect ratio. This may throw off the FOV → Zoom Level chart if you’re not on a 16:9 screen.
This could be true, I got all of my data using a 16:9 screen, using hFOV (horizontal field of view) as reference. I just went back to the FOV site I posted, and looked at what vFOV (vertical field of view) it says I should have, and it is also accurate according to the testing location I’ve used.
I would welcome anyone else that has a different aspect ratio screen, to do the same tests, and see how the numbers differ.
There could be a different Zoom Level according to what aspect ration screen you are using.
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I am very grateful to my flight sim buddy clockstopp3r for the time invested and I am also glad to be a part of practical development and testing of this tutorial. It helped a lot to me personally and all of my flights are more immersive and more realistic now.
Thanks for all the effort buddy! Cheers and happy flying!
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Thanks for that chart. I´ve achieved similar results, with visuals checks between XP11 and MSFS. I use 75 FOV into XP and the closest was 51 zoom in MSFS.
MSFS needs badly to change that into FOV settings. It´s much more easy for simulation realism.
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Glad you find it useful! And I agree MSFS needs to add actual FOV options.
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Thanks for the chart.
I set my FOV for my 65 inch TV to 65 per your chart.
It was set to 50 by default.
I like the new FOV.
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Is there a way to just set a field of view like in X-Plane where I can still use the scroll wheel to zoom but when zoomed out it stays at like 85 and not go all the way back to that weird default field of view? (wth is that btw?? who in their right mind at Asobo looked at that and thought, yep, thats very natural and realistic looking)
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The best I can advise is use the translate back. You can “slide your pilot seat back” and it doesn’t change the FOV. However, some aircraft are limited on how far you can slide your pilot back. I agree, the multi monitor functionality needs some major updates.
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As far as I know there’s no way to prevent zooming out while also supporting zooming in and zooming back out to default but no further.
I find though that I simply never zoom in the cockpit to begin with; I cycle through the instrument cameras or pan and translate the view myself.
Also keep in mind there’s a control binding to reset the view, which will reset the zoom (and thus FOV) to the default.
It’s yet another thing that’s making it hard for me to “like” this simulator 
I figured out setting a default view does revert back to the original zoom but for some reason I have to press it twice, as it reverts to a random view first before the default one I assigned? I like to manipulate the cockpit from the seat in the same way a pilot would, and I like to zoom in as if I’m leaning towards the button or having a closer look and then zoom back out.
Sometimes I really don’t understand the logic or thinking when it comes to certain functionalities of this simulator, does anyone know if it’s planned to be able to set a fixed field of view? it’s little things like this that break it for me, I’m on my third install, really trying to enjoy it but it’s so frustrating.
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I agree, we need this big time. The workaround is crude.
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