The best FoV (Field of View) for Team Fortress 2
The best Field of View in TF2: FoV cap, Viewmodel, Minimal HUD, Restrict aspect ratio, FoV on ultrawide monitors. Find out pros and cons brought by a wide FoV.
Generally, there is not a “best” setting for the field of view, but it comes down to your personal preference, the size of your screen and how close you are to it.
You may think to the FoV as a camera zooming in and out. When you increase the FoV, the camera zooms out, improving your peripheral vision.
FoV pros and cons
According to the PC gaming myth, a high FoV value is always the best choice in FPS games because you are able to look at a wider area, which helps to spot any incoming enemy.
The truth is that a high FoV brings both pros and cons.
A high FoV makes targeting more difficult. The wider the FoV, the smaller the enemy on the screen, so you need to be more accurate to hit them.
A low FoV helps your focus. Everything on the screen is bigger, so it is easier to focus on where you are aiming.
I suggest using a very-high FoV if you have a great sight and reflexes. Generally, playing on a wide FoV also requires a higher mouse sensitivity in order to move faster across the screen, so you need a solid aim as well.
Instead, If you struggle at spotting and aiming enemies at a mid and long range, a lower field of view value will benefit your gameplay.
Very-low FoV values can also bring motion sickness and issues in close quarters combat as it is harder to keep a fast-moving target on your screen.
With a high FoV it is simpler to spot and keep track of enemies. Usually, you also feel like you are moving faster, which is a nice effect.
Finally, if performance is an issue, be aware that increasing the FoV will impact negatively your FPS because your PC must work harder to render more on the screen.
Valve capped the FoV to 90
The minimum FoV value in Team Fortress 2 is 75, and the maximum is 90.
You used to be able to increase it further via console commands, but nowadays this setting is locked on official servers and on most community ones.
To change the FoV, launch TF2, select Options at the bottom on the screen, go on the Video tab, press Advanced, and select your Field of View.
I have surveyed about 50 players on their Field of View preference in Team Fortress 2: everyone uses the maximum FoV allowed by the game.
Note: I do not claim that all the players worldwide are using 90, but the great majority surely does.
Restrict aspect ratio FoV
The field of view in Team Fortress 2 is affected by your aspect ratio. Depending on your monitor, you will be able to see more content horizontally and/or vertically.
Reddit user Gamecube762 tested the “sv_restrict_aspect_ratio_fov” command. It allows server owners to enable/disable FoV restrictions on monitors wider than 1.85:1 (slightly wider than 16:9).
He shared the following images showing how the game looks when the FoV is restricted/unrestricted on an 21:9 display.
Unfortunately, the FoV is restricted on official servers and on almost all community ones. AFAIK, Valve servers run “sv_restrict_aspect_ratio 1“ which means only windowed mode is restricted. Nevertheless, ultrawide monitors are still affected by a reduced vertical vision, as illustrated in the section below.
Minimal HUD and Viewmodel FoV
To access the HUD Options, launch TF2, select Advanced Options at the bottom on the screen, and scroll down to HUD Options.
Enable Minimal HUD
This setting helps to improve your visibility because it makes the HUD smaller.
I don’t think it has a great impact on our gameplay as the default TF2 HUD is already very minimal.
Viewmodel Field of View
This is the Field of View used when drawing the first person view of your active weapon. Larger values will make the weapon smaller on the screen, and vice versa.
Some players prefer larger values as there are pretty big weapon models in Team Fortress 2, such as Soldier’s Rocket Launcher. IMO, this setting doesn’t make a substantial difference, and the default 54 value is often the best choice because many weapons are ugly at larger ones.
The Viewmodel FoV goes from a minimum of 54 to a maximum of 70, and it doesn’t affect your game field of view.
FoV on ultrawide monitors
I play on a 34 inches ultrawide monitor at about 50-60 Centimeters / 1.6-1.9 Feet of distance, so I can share with you my personal experience.
Team Fortress 2 works with ultrawide monitors, but the implementation is not perfect. Your vision extends horizontally, however, the game also crops it vertically by about 20-30%, which leaves out info you would be able to see with a 16:9 monitor.
Losing vertical vision can be a little troublesome when facing enemies placed on high grounds (such as a sneaky Sniper) but overall I think that we still gain a small advantage with the extra horizontal space.
Valve’s ultrawide implementation is much better than the one utilized by Blizzard. In Overwatch, the game engine zooms in the image, so you lose vertical space, and horizontally you can only see as much as a standard 16:9 monitor.
FoV at 16:9 and 21:9
Below, you can find images of the same scene at 75 and 90 FoV, both in 16:9 and 21:9 aspect ratio.
The 16.9 monitor is a standard 24 inches one with a resolution of 1920x1080, while the ultrawide one is a 34 inches display that runs at 2560x1080.
I took the screens on Badlands, Mountain Lab, and 2Fort.
16:9
21:9
Header image: Valve
