What frame of view (FOV) gives the most realistic sense of speed?

I've always used values from 65 to 70 degrees, but found that the sense of speed is exaggerated compared to when I'm driving the same speeds in my real life car.

Not that it's that bad because I'm a speed freak. But lately I'm more interested in realism.

So now I'm using 55 degrees and it seems more realistic to me.

My favorite camera is Hood camera. And you can change the FOV permanently in the jbeam files for most internal and external cameras. The FOV variable is usually in the vehicle's associated body or frame jbeam file.

What do y'all think about this? What's your favorite FOV and camera location?

 

In regards to the title, a very valid question in the simulator space good sir. However I feel not many that reside on this forum are equipped to provide an educated answer, or know what their Field of View is set to.

There is no specific FoV value that will satisfy your question, it is dependent on multiple variables such as the distance you sit from your monitor in your rig, the dimensions of the monitor, and even as far as the vehicle you drive.
Ultimately the best method of arriving at an appropriate FoV is trial and error - but there are still tools that may aide you on your journey by providing a baseline. Personally I skip the step of using an FoV calculator given the nature of my rig and angled triples, but for those of you on a flat display it may be a useful starting point.

Once you've established a baseline you feel is close, you make small adjustments which alter the perception of speed, rotation, and visibility until you're happy. If you're unfamiliar with how your view alters those, here's a concise video by someone I chat with occasionally that covers the matter. Although it is for another simulator, the concepts/examples still apply here and anywhere else you may find yourself in a cockpit.

If you have any further questions regarding the concepts of FoV, feel free to inquire.

 

Oh I Google'd and found a trustworthy dude that said that the most realistic FOV is between 45 to 55. So I guess my visual testing was fairly keen since I initially guessed/chose 55 degrees.

Now I'm making a mod that changes all of the cars Hood view to 55 degrees FOV.

But of course I have some gripes about the inconsistencies and bugs in the BeamNG.drive code.

Gripe #1: The code apparently only reads the Hood FOV for the vehicle that is currently set as 'default.pc'. And then no matter what vehicle or map you load after that, the FOV is set to that value. They 'sticky' that value without letting you know. This of course seems like a useful thing at first because all I have to do is make sure that the vehicle I have as default.pc has a 55 degree Hood FOV and then every car I use during that session will have a 55 degree FOV. But if you ever set a car to default.pc that does NOT have a 55 degree FOV in its jbeam files then you'll be stuck with another FOV for that session. So still the only alternative is for me to go through every car's jbeam files and hard code the Hood camera FOV. Unless I can figure out an easier way to do it through LUA or something.

Gripe #2: The devs were kind enough to allow real time FOV setting of the Driver camera, and then that setting gets 'stickied' for every car. Why can't they do that for every camera? Also, other hard core simulations give you complete control of each camera's position. Well you can do that in BeamNG but only through hard coding the jbeam file's x, y, and z locations. Which causes a lot of unnecessary trial and error. Just let us position the cameras in-game and then save our settings!

It just seems like the leadership and dev team is trying to turn BeamNG.drive into some kind of Forza Horizon type experience, when I think they should focus on making ME happy! Lol I just want a realistic driving experience that allows for extreme amounts of customizing that experience without having to code.