Field of View (FOV) Fix for Flight Simulator X (FSX)

— Gaming

I recently fired up Microsoft’s FSX a few days ago to try it out with my Eyefinity setup. I hadn’t done any virtual flying since before I purchased my third monitor, so I was looking forward to a more immersive experience.

Unfortunately when I started FSX I noticed that the field of view (FOV) was too narrow. Instead of having a wider view out the sides of my aircraft, I had less of a view above and below me. This is a classic sign of a vert- FOV, which unfortunately is all-too-common when running games in widescreen and Eyefinity resolutions.

Screenshot of default FOV for FSX in Eyefinity
This is the default field of view in FSX when running a triple monitor Eyefinity setup. As you can see the image is cropped on the top and bottom rather than letting you see more to the left and right.

Even using the built-in zoom feature in FSX doesn’t allow you to expand the FOV enough for a true Eyefinity experience (although it does improve things quite a bit).

Screenshot of zoomed out FOV in FSX using Eyefinity
This is the largest FOV you can achieve using the built-in zoom controls in FSX. It's an improvement, but still hinders visibility.

The fix was very simple once I found it in a forum post on Tom’s Hardware. I found the fsx.cfg file (located in C:/Users/[username]/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/FSX/ in Windows 7) and opened it with Notepad. Then I found the line that said “WideViewAspect=False” and changed it to “WideViewAspect=True” and saved the file. I started up FSX again and the FOV was fixed! The view now expanded on the sides instead of cropping the top and bottom.

Screenshot of fixed FOV in FSX using Eyefinity
Now that the FOV fix has been applied, FSX provides a gorgeous widescreen view without cropping visibility. The built-in zoom controls can still let you expand or reduce the FOV to your preference, but at least now you're starting from a good middle ground.
Screenshot of exterior view with fixed FOV in FSX using Eyefinity
With the correct FOV, exterior views provide expansive panoramas.

Comments

  1. Cerrar el juego, para aplicar cambios. ir a la carpeta especificada, abrir el archivo fsx.cgf con el bloc de notas, hacer el cambio que indica el compañero y guardar. arrancar el juego y todo funciona perfectamente a vista panoramica. Saludos
  3. Thx for the simple but intuitive solution for Flight Simulator X - eyefinity 3 monitors fix setting! Now the flight is much more real and panoramic ;-)
  4. Tried this using a GTX 660i with 3 27" monitors. I didn't notice a change. Any other suggestions?
    1. I'm not sure what else you could try. Did the change get saved? Can you double-check that the correct file was edited?
      1. I had the same Problem. My Solution was if FSX.cfg...There are two instances where your graphics card is listed the first one ends with 0 and the second with 1. On the first instance( with 0 at the end you need to change the resolution to that of your Eyefinity. I hope this helps....
        1. Hi I'm having the same problem.. I change the FSX.cfg file but, no change at all! :( can you please explain that? ^^ A little tutorial how I do that? Thanks
  5. Hi Josh. Can you explain please in more details regarding the fsx.cgf and step by step how to do it. Thanks. Cheers. Bill
    1. Fantastic trick for Eyefinity multiscreens and FSX. Thank you Josh. Bill
  6. One simple thing some users may overlook, Please make the changes to fsx.CFG whilst fsx is not running, otherwise fsx changes the cfg file back to the previous setting (False) when you restart it ;-)
  7. Fix problem for me with EVGA 780 gtx and 3 27 inches monitor Asus Ve278q. Search in a lot of site and few people said no compatibility or need second gpu unit etc Thanks! Pierre Montréal. Québec, Canada
  8. Thanks for this - however I tried both using the true and false settings and it makes absolutely no difference - they both look exactly the same (ie. too zoomed). Also I don't have two instances of graphics card in the cfg file as "Prospector 42" says above.
      1. Thanks for taking time to reply! It has been closed completely and I've also tried forcing loading the .cfg file in the settings area but it's waaay too zoomed in. This screenshot shows my actual view with the view zoomed all the way out with "-" and as you can see it's still way too tight. I have WideViewAspect=True set in the .cfg.
        1. Oops - screenshot; http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v647/horrgakx/temp/FSX3screenszoomed_zpsb66321b8.jpg
        2. Something is still not right, but I'm not sure what else you could try. If you do figure it out, please leave another comment and let me know!
        3. Thanks. Is there any way that I can actually test that FSX is reading the FSX.CFG file? I'd like to see if changing something affects the game.
          1. There's another line that looks like it controls the resolution the game uses. Mine currently says Mode=5860x1080x16. You could try changing that to 1280x720x16 or something to see if the game uses the lower resolution. Are you sure you're editing the .cfg file in your user profile folder and not someone else's (if there are multiple users on your computer)? Beyond that I'm not sure what the issue might be. I haven't actually played FSX in a long time. You might have better luck posting in some of the FSX forums.
  9. Thank you !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love you, dude!!!! I've spent a lot of money with my "cockpit" and had been disappointed. Now Everything is fine! Thanks!
  10. Thanks for the simple fix. This has made a world of difference to my enjoyment of the simulator. Now all I have to work out is how to get rid of the windows tool bar at the bottom of my screen.
  11. Hi Josh. I will appreciate your expert opinion in two FSX problems. First, after fix VOF problem, now the sound goes paused at intervals whilst running FSX, and comes back only pushing the left mouse click. Second, unable to display the instruments panel in 2 D view, even with the FSX aeroplanes. Thank in advance for your advice. Regards. Bill
    1. I had the sound issue too. However I didn't get the FOV sorted out and I ended up uninstalling the damned thing and getting on with other things. A shame as I had loads of scenery disks and other addons. Just wasn't worth my time in the end.
  13. Did you notice that the side monitors are a bit streched out? if you look out the main monitor its sharp and crisp. If you look out the side its slighly larger and blurry. Im trying to find a fix for this

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