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[irR4tiOn4L]

Reread the post, ive added a lot.

Originally Posted by Wolf_Rider

well, if you want to use real binoculars to zoom into the narrow FoV (as selected) of the (any) computer game as displayed on your monitor and view the pixels real big... go right ahead.

Ahh now that is an interesting point - I COULD use binoculars to increase the APPARENT SIZE of the monitor FIRST, and thus make pixels BIGGER in apparent size!

But what am I reallly doing? I am actually increasing the portion of my retina that is taken up by the monitor! And even more interestingly, I am actually changing the real world angle/field of view that the that the monitor occupies and thus need to change the FOV ingame if I want to maintain the same apparent size of objects ingame! Do you see now?

Originally Posted by Wolf_Rider

With regard to the (any computer) game and selecting a narrow Fov, and using in sim (assuming the game has them available) binoculars, you'll find that changing the FoV and zooming in or out are not the same thing.

Ah but they are!

Let's think of the typical game binoculars. When you 'activate' them, your whole view is suddenly taken up by a simulated 'view' from them. Here is an example;



So what's actually happening?

Well, let's break this down.

First, there is a UI texture being applied that creates the 'binocular' outline itself. That's the black bit around the edge. Its basically just a texture like this;




But objects clearly appear larger when you use the ingame binoculars! So what actually causes the magnification of the image?

You guessed it! FOV!

All the developers do, apart from this black outline texture, is lower the FOV!

Look at what this 3D Game Programming guide for example has to say;

Page 515
Typical first-person point-of-view games use a 90-degree FOV and often have a 60-degree FOV (or even smaller) zoomed-in view for their sniper scopes or binoculars

http://books.google.com.au/books?id=...culars&f=false

Yep, that is all there is to it!