I have the PC version (MS Store version) of MSFS. I want to know why I can not zoom in/out the camera view (internal an external views) with the wheel mouse. What the wheel mouse does is to change the FOV, and this is something that nobody wants to do because it makes a deformation of the world. So FOV is not desired, but ZOOM is necessary to place the view in the right distance of the plane (WITHOUT ANY DEFORMATION).
I really don’t understand how this game makes this decission. FOV should be blocked and only be changed in the option menu (if somebody wants to do such thing), not by accedent in the middle of the flight.
I also want to remove the mouse acceleration when using the mouse to free view (in the interior and exterior cameras). I don’t use trackir, I just use the left hand to the Joystick and the right hand to de mouse, and mouse is most of the time in free camera to look around. Mouse acceleration makes the movements of the camera unconfortable.
In the cockpit and outside, there are two options to “move” your wiev position. One is your wiev position, where your eyes are and the second are zoom like in a tele zoom lens. The latter (zoom) are the one that distorts the wiev, not moving your wieving position around.
Try and go into showcase mode. Try and set zoom at fx 12% and move with the arrow keys furtherback and forth. The image becomes distorted. Then try and set the zoom at fx 80% and move with the arrow keys. No or only slight distortion.
In external wiev you cannot move in or out only zoom which leads to massive distortion, as seen in many many YouTube videos.
In the cockpit I find that mostly 60% zoom is just right and then I move the wievpoint to where I want it.
What you call fov is in fact zoom.
External wiev are of limited use because you cannot move in or out…only in showcase wiev.
The reason that many want their wiev quite wide (large fov) are that they have a smaller screen and no trackir.
If you ever wondered how pilots in real life read the dials in the cockpit without having to lean forward to see better is because they are much closer to the dashboard in real life, but at the same time they have perifiral sight and can move the head around.
I have a 49 inch screen but even that is like looking through a small slot compared to real life peripheral vision. I also have trackir and could not fly without.
Never tried VR, though.
Zoom is FOV. That’s literally all zoom is or ever has been - narrowing or widening the FOV (it is subtlety more complicated if we were talking about a physical zoom lens assembly, but we’re not). And yes, it always comes with some distortion, because it’s impossible to map a wide angle view of 3d space onto a 2d screen without distortion.
If what you want is to move the camera/pilot’s head forward or back to be closer or further in distance, that isn’t zooming, that’s… well technically “translating” in game design speak. And there are default keybindings to do that in the sim. Try pushing the UP and DOWN arrow keys while holding R ALT.
But personally I would HATE it if the mouse wheel did that. It would be so disorienting to be always flinging myself forward and backward like that. No, the current behavior - focusing or widening my view from a fixed point - is correct.
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Ok, let’s say that what I am asking for is “translating” (diferent than ZOOM/FOV). In my opinion mouse wheel should be for translating, instead of zoom (that is my personal preferece). Some times by error I use wheel and the world deforms, and that is something I never want to do. In the other hand, there are many players not using TrackIR, and usually need to go forward and backwards without distortion.
But the most usefull thing is for external view, because some planes are designed with a very closed distance (or maybe the contrary). The thing is that I can not “translate” my view without a very nasty distortion that, as I said, I never want to have. At least this feature should be as an option, but it isn’t apparently.
I just want Right Alt+cursor to use in external view (apparently there is no possibility to do it). And the possibility to use with mouse wheel in the internal view (I don’t know if that is possible, I will try).
There’s a few headtracking options available including one that uses your phone instead of TrackIR, maybe that’s a viable option?
Mouse wheel should definitely be for zoom, not translate by default. There is a way to translate and if you could bind it to mouse wheel that’d be cool but… mouse wheel is basically always zoom, in everything. I’d prefer it stay that way.
I don’t want to use any headtracking method that implies to move my head. I just feel confortable looking at the screen with my head in the right possition. That is why I prefer to use the mouse to look around.
I stay 90% of the time in external camera view, and there is no way to move the distance of the camera forward and backward, and many times the distance by default is totally wrong.
And I insist…, the zoom option is something just unusefull for me, it just makes a deformation in the world, and I don’t even want o have that possibility present because sometimes I change the zoom by error (when playing with the map for example). This simulator uses A LOT of unusefull keys, and something so important for many users is not even considered.
While it’s possible that it’s not that important to many people as your post is the first I’ve seen on the subject, I see what you mean about flying externally. I would definitely prefer a translate versus zoom in external view as well. I’ll poke around but it sounds like you’ve already confirmed it isn’t possible.
Zooming, external views AND OF COURSE REPLAY are all years behind the competition, there is absolutely NO excuse to have such a non-intuitive viewing interface and the idea of still not having any good, NATIVE replay function 17 months after the launch is unbelievable!
Sure, but it’s not as extreme in real life. If you have a zoom lens it won’t magically turn from a narrow field of view to a fisheye when you zoom in and out. In MSFS it goes from a narrow field to almost a full 180° fisheye just by scrolling the mouse wheel, and that ■■■■ has been annoying for decades.
I can understand zoom into the cockpit (maybe usefull to see instruments with more detail). But zoom using external camera is a complete deformation of the entire world, and that is something very nasty that I suppose nobody desire.
If I use mouse wheel by accident in external camera (it may happen, as I fly with my left hand on the joystick and the right hand all the time on the mouse to move my view), I soon correct the nasty effect.
This external camera management error gets worse when the plane places the pilot in the tip of the plane, because the external view rotates around the head of the pilot (not the plane). So the deformation of the plane is big because camera is too close to the tail, and the only way to separate the camera from the plane is introducing the zoom DEFORMATION of the world.
I think this is A BIG problem in this simulator, unless, of course, you are always inside the cocpit and don’t care about external view (that is not my case, I fly more time using external view).
Why is this external camera zoom problem happening?
I guess it is becuase devs created the zoom feature thinking on watching the instruments inside the cockpit in detail, and they just run into a problem when moving to the external camera. Probably they just let this problem be as it is. I can not think on another reason, I can not imagine anybody taking advantage of this deformation of the world when flying in external camera.