Console FOV has been a hot topic for the last couple years. But to understand the news regarding it, let’s first understand what Console FOV even means.
What is “Console FOV”?
FOV stands for Field of View. It basically allows you to see the world from either a zoomed-in or zoomed-out perspective. Lower FOVs (60-90) and Higher FOVs (90-120) have an extreme impact on gameplay and performance. With 120 FOV, you can see up to 4 times as much on your screen, compared to Lower FOVs. This, of course, comes at the cost of everything being a bit zoomed out – making spotting enemies at ranges moer difficult. But the cleaner view, less visual recoil, affected FOV and feeling generally “faster” is definitely worth it. That is why playing on 120 FOV is extremely popular amongst Pros, Streamers or regular players.
However, this is only available to PC users. Players on PC have an option to change their FOV from 60-120 using an FOV Slider. They also have the option to toggle between independant and affected fields of view, another crucial setting to have. On Consoles, 80 FOV is the only option. This is the reason people have been asking for “Console FOV” for such a long time. Also, the FOV restriction applies to both old-gen and new-gen consoles. Meaning that the majority of the playerbase is stuck playing on 80 FOV and having a disadvantage against PC players.
Here is a comparison between 120 and 80 FOV.
Why do they not implement it then?
Well, it is more complicated. Raven Software and Activision not adding FOV Sliders to Consoles has nothing to do with lazyness or incompetence. The main problem is performance.
Remember how we said that FOV impacts not only gameplay, but also performance? Turns out that playing on 120 FOV is much more heavy for the system. Seeing more means more objects need to be rendered and processed. While PCs can handle this somewhat smoothly, PS4s, Xbox Ones and other old gen consoles will crumble trying. According to the COD Developers, it would significantly impact old-gen console performance and cause drops in FPS and stability.
The MW2019 Engine, otherwise known as “IW8”, is extremely heavy and demanding. Warzone is already barely keeping 60FPS on old gen consoles. With an FOV Slider, this number could drop to 30 or even 20 FPS. And that is nothing compared to issues like the console overheating or crashing as a whole. So the console players have to pick between a high FOV with extreme instability and frame drops, or low FOV with somewhat stable performance.
How about New Gen Consoles? They can run 120 FOV, right?
Well, it is once again, complicated. In theory, it is possible for the New Gen Consoles to run 120 FOV. We do not know the exact reasoning behind this, but it is thought that New Gen Consoles don’t have FOV Sliders because it would be unfair towards old gen players. In a nutshell, old gen players are the majority of the playerbase, and that majority would have to deal with even more 120 FOV users if new gen gets an fov slider. This would make them very upset. So in a way, the logic is “The Less FOV Users, The Better for the ones who don’t have the opti”.
So what now? Will we never get an FOV Slider for Warzone?
Our opinion? No.
BUT! This does not mean that we will never get a Warzone with FOV Sliders for everyone. Warzone 2 is coming soon, and with it and its engine being designed for PC and New Gen exclusively, it is extremely likely they will implement a Field of View option for every platform. As for Warzone Pacific, the developers have stated that they “have no plans to implement an FOV slider for consoles at this time”. The “at this time” in the end probably means nothing and tries to keep us hyped for Warzone 2.
We hope you enjoyed reading about the whole Console FOV situation! Stay tuned for more informative reports and information breakdowns – fresh from the oven! (also, dont forget to try warzoneloadout.games – our loadout themed website too while you’re at it).
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