How to change fov in tf2

How to change fov in tf2

This will be my first guide, very sorry if it isnt visually pleasing as most are.
I explain how to change the Field of View in TF2.
I have seen alot of friends that had never changed their FoV and I honestly don’t know how I played without my higher FoV.

Lets get started.

There is a simple way to get FoV (Field of View) higher, and one of them is right in the menu settings.

First you want to click the Options tab (Usually located near the bottom fo the screen as a Gear Icon)

When opened, your screen should look like this:

There is a tab at the top of that menu called «Video«. Click it.

When you click it, an option called Advanced should be clickable.

There should be a slider that is called Field of View

Drag the slider all the way to the right, your FoV should have changed to 90.

If you DO NOT KNOW HOW to enable the developer console, it is very simple.
Instructions at the bottom of the guide.

First step is to open the console.

Now, there are 3 commands that I recommend to type into the command line.

fov_desired 90
viewmodel_fov 90
tf_use_min_viewmodels 1

fov_desired changes your players view angle,
here is a comparison between LOW and HIGH fov.
Remember, fov_desired is capped at 90.

This can make a difference in what you can see, and is very easy to get comfortable with.

viewmodel_fov changes the fov of the weapon and hands, the higher the better.
The gun can take up alot of space, and if the gun is smaller and looks further away, it can make the game easier to see.
Here is another comparison.

Default Viewmodel FOV (70)

Higher Viewmodel FOV (90+)

tf_use_min_viewmodels 1 makes the gun take up much, much less space by minimizing the viewmodel of the gun.

Here is a single picture that explains the rest. Making the gun even smaller can allow better sight overall ingame.

Dont forget to type each command into the console one at a time.

fov_desired 90
viewmodel_fov 90
tf_use_min_viewmodels 1

How to change fov in tf2

This will be my first guide, very sorry if it isnt visually pleasing as most are.
I explain how to change the Field of View in TF2.
I have seen alot of friends that had never changed their FoV and I honestly don’t know how I played without my higher FoV.

Lets get started.

There is a simple way to get FoV (Field of View) higher, and one of them is right in the menu settings.

First you want to click the Options tab (Usually located near the bottom fo the screen as a Gear Icon)

When opened, your screen should look like this:

There is a tab at the top of that menu called «Video«. Click it.

When you click it, an option called Advanced should be clickable.

There should be a slider that is called Field of View

Drag the slider all the way to the right, your FoV should have changed to 90.

If you DO NOT KNOW HOW to enable the developer console, it is very simple.
Instructions at the bottom of the guide.

First step is to open the console.

Now, there are 3 commands that I recommend to type into the command line.

fov_desired 90
viewmodel_fov 90
tf_use_min_viewmodels 1

fov_desired changes your players view angle,
here is a comparison between LOW and HIGH fov.
Remember, fov_desired is capped at 90.

This can make a difference in what you can see, and is very easy to get comfortable with.

viewmodel_fov changes the fov of the weapon and hands, the higher the better.
The gun can take up alot of space, and if the gun is smaller and looks further away, it can make the game easier to see.
Here is another comparison.

Default Viewmodel FOV (70)

Higher Viewmodel FOV (90+)

tf_use_min_viewmodels 1 makes the gun take up much, much less space by minimizing the viewmodel of the gun.

Here is a single picture that explains the rest. Making the gun even smaller can allow better sight overall ingame.

Dont forget to type each command into the console one at a time.

fov_desired 90
viewmodel_fov 90
tf_use_min_viewmodels 1

How to change fov in tf2

also here is a little tip for another kind of fov : fov_desired 90
it will basically make your view bigger and you can see more, competetive players use it too.

also learn how to reply.

does this works too for TF2? and btw can i also use autoexec file to save the fov?

but my fov is 90 and seen videos of people having fov of 90 but is different to mine if you know anything tell me plis

type viewmodel_fov
and set it higher then 75 which is stock fov

Isn’t the fov scaling capped at 108 fov for a single monitor, though? If you try to scale your aspect ratio to make it go past 108 fov, it just shrinks your vertical fov instead.

Just did the math and yeah, 108.437 degrees is the maximum with normal server settings, with 16:9 giving you 106.260 degrees. I’m just too used to saying 110 to change it though :/

fov=2arctan((3/4)(aspectratio)) is the equation for fov in radians (then just convert to degrees) for anyone wondering.

How to change fov in tf2

also here is a little tip for another kind of fov : fov_desired 90
it will basically make your view bigger and you can see more, competetive players use it too.

also learn how to reply.

does this works too for TF2? and btw can i also use autoexec file to save the fov?

but my fov is 90 and seen videos of people having fov of 90 but is different to mine if you know anything tell me plis

type viewmodel_fov
and set it higher then 75 which is stock fov

Isn’t the fov scaling capped at 108 fov for a single monitor, though? If you try to scale your aspect ratio to make it go past 108 fov, it just shrinks your vertical fov instead.

Just did the math and yeah, 108.437 degrees is the maximum with normal server settings, with 16:9 giving you 106.260 degrees. I’m just too used to saying 110 to change it though :/

fov=2arctan((3/4)(aspectratio)) is the equation for fov in radians (then just convert to degrees) for anyone wondering.

How to change fov in tf2

Most of you probably already know what FOV is, but for the few that don’t know let me explain it real quick. Your field of view is how much you see of your environment ingame.

TF2’s default FOV is 70 I believe and you can change it up to 90 via the advanced options and console commands.

What we’re going to discuss in this guide is how to get your FOV beyond 90 on official Valve servers.

Before I tell you how to actually get a higher FOV, let’s talk about what exactly makes it kinda difficult to achieve a higher FOV in TF2.

There is this little convar called «sv_restrict_aspect_ratio» which restricts your aspect ratio’s field of view. It has 3 different values. 0 which means it’s off and won’t restrict you in either fullscreen or windowed mode, 1 which means it will restrict any aspect ratio above 16:9 for windowed-only and lasty 2 which means it restricts both windowed and fullscreen.
You can run TF2 in for example 1920×700 in windowed via the launch parameters, but your horizontal FOV won’t increase at all plus your vertical FOV will actually be smaller.

Currently all Valve servers run «sv_restrict_aspect_ratio 1» which means only windowed mode is restricted.
Usually in Valve games you can just use the «mat_setvideomode height width 1» command to change your game to an ultra wide ratio (to get a higher FOV) and have your FOV scale alongside it.
But that command doesn’t work natively for TF2 nor would it help since it’s windowed only.

If you want to have a higher aspect ratio such as 21:9 on a 16:9 monitor fullscreen you’re out of luck since most games won’t allow it or support that.

Let’s talk about the fix.

It’s actually pretty simply to let the game run a different, higher aspect ratio in fullscreen mode. All you need to do is set a custom resolution via the nvidia control panel.

Oh also if you’re not using a nvidia graphics card you’ll have to use other methods of changing your resolution, I’ll link them at the bottom of this guide.

First off, go to your desktop and right click. Bring up the nvidia control panel from the list.

Then go to «create custom resolution».

Change vertical lines to whatever you like and leave everything else be. I personally play at 1920×700 which is around 24:9 and gives me a FOV of 130. Side note, TF2 doesn’t seem to like anything lower than 1920×600. Never got anything below 600 to work. Anyways after setting the vertical lines click on «test» and then confirm. After that it should show up in your custom resolution list. Back out to the main control panel after that.

Now in the main control panel you can see your new custom resolution at the top. You don’t have to change your resolution right now, just leave it there and launch TF2.

Now at the main menu go to the options and then to the video tab.

After opening the list of available resolution you should be able to find your custom resolution. Now just select and apply it.

Congrats, now you have a wider aspect ratio and correctly scaled higher FOV.

Q: Can I get banned for this?
A: No.

Q: Why not just use windowed mode and not fullscreen?
A: I explained that in the guide, a convar restricts windowed mode at the moment and only fullscreen users can take advantage of aspect ratios above 16:9.

Q: Why even use an ultra wide aspect ratio?
A: It’s the only way to increase your FOV in a legitimate way since for fullscreen users the FOV scales with the aspect ratio itself.

Q: Does this make you a better player?
A: Yes and no. For example some professional players on CS:GO still play in 4:3 stretched. They have a lower FOV than players who play at a 16:9 ratio. You need more things than a high FOV to be good at a game, but for certain people having a higher FOV sure helps a lot.

Q: Having those letter boxes isn’t nice to look at.
A: Black letter boxes aren’t for everyone, but I personally prefer a 16:9 monitor with letter boxes over an actual ultra wide monitor anytime. For my normal desktop activity I stick to 16:9 of course.

Q: Will Valve fix this?
A: Nothing to fix here and I also doubt that Valve will do anything about this. All they can really do is somehow force TF2 to always use your monitor’s native resolution upon detecting a custom resolution or just restrict wider aspect ratios for everyony including people with actual ultra wide monitors and multi monitor setups.

Q: I heard that this is kinda cheating since you can see through walls at the edge of your screen.
A: Having a higher FOV isn’t cheating. Even 180 which isn’t possible (in TF2) nor feasible wouldn’t be a huge advantage. Having a high FOV is about having some sort of peripheral vision (like in real life) plus having better spacial awareness in the game.
Hang on there is more coming.
Also TF2 is actually optimized for higher FOVs unlike other source games like L4D2. In L4D2 it’s very easy to see a good bit through walls if you’re right next to them while in TF2 that will basically never happen in first person. It does happen in third person in TF2 (while taunting for example), but the way how maps and players are rendered in source games this is completely useless. You won’t be able to see players across the whole map since they aren’t rendered. You can potentially see enemies who are in a room/area right next to you, but at that point you can already hear them. Plus TF2 already has a shadow wallhack bug, which is much more severe.
Here check my video out and see for yourself.

Time mark is 9:02

I personally only used Custom Resolution Utility once myself and don’t know much about it, but it should work pretty much the same way. Also AMD might have some sort of control panel similar to nvidia, so you could also use that if you have an AMD card. So CRU would only really be for Intel users.

3kliksphilip also used CRU in one of his videos as seen here.