Viewmodel FOV

Viewmodel field of view is essential for a proper first person perspective in video games.

Incorrectly configured, it can completely cripple a game experience by inducing discomfort, causing motion sickness, and agitating the internet.

Standard vidya gaem FOV typically represents the horizontal view angle, drawn from the player to the edges of the viewscreen. In meatspace, your basic human has about a 180 degree FOV. When viewing a screen from sitting at a desk, the FOV angle should be around 90 to 100. With a couch and TV the FOV should be lower, 70 to 80. A FOV value should shrink as the observer is placed further back from the viewscreen, as the angle between observer and screen edges becomes smaller. The most common occurrence of FOV misconfiguration is when it is too low, and manifests as a feeling of looking down a tunnel or wearing blinders.

Viewmodel FOV operates on the same principles as standard FOV, but it only represents the visible portions of the player character. So in most cases, arms and guns. Most importantly, arms and guns should remain proportional to standard FOV. The laziest console ports barely implement the ability to change the standard FOV, so viewmodel FOV is neglected. The result is disproportionate weapons that are massive, obstructing most of the player's view.

Fallout 4 required a fair amount of non-interfaced configuration to look playable. Editing INI files increased the default FOV from 80 to 100. However, the viewmodels still appear off:

As it turns out, the viewmodel FOV is accessible only with the in-game console. Here it is at a matching 100:

As full multiplatform support has been trending, FOV and viewmodel FOV violations are highly prevalent. This is generally a result of consoles being targeted first, for obvious hardware limitations, alongside irresponsible willful negligence. Personally, it is a non-negotiable -2 points on any title and renders it unplayable until resolved. But I'm just an angry old man.