Camera settings explained - Rocket Science #2

07/17/2016 Last revision: 10/14/2023

Today we're going to talk about the scientifically proven best camera settings. Well here they are. I'm kidding of course. There is no such thing as the best camera settings but what we can do is explain all the different options and what you can change to find your own personal best camera settings.

Camera FOV

Let's talk about camera FOV first. FOV is an acronym for field of view. The field of view tells you h ow much you can see on the screen. Look at this top down view of the car. If you have your FOV at 90 you can see everything in a 90° cone in front of you. If you're at 110 FOV you can see everything in a 110° cone in front of you. Psyonix allows you to set the FOV anywhere between 60 and 110 but please don't even think about setting it below 90. So what should you set your FOV at? 110 is technically the best because it gives you the most information of where everyone is on the field. However there are 2 reasons why you might not want to set it to the maximum. The first reason is precision. Because your car looks smaller at a higher FOV you might not feel like you're able to hit your shots with the same precision. A possible solution to this problem would be to move your monitor closer to you. If you do this, your car will look just as big but you will still be able to gain the extra information in your peripheral vision. I do realise though that this is not necessarily an option for everyone. The second reason is distortion. When the game tries to render a 110° view and put it on a flat screen, there ends up being quite a bit of distortion close to the edges of the monitor. There is nothing you can do about it. If you can't get used to the distortion keep the FOV at lower levels.

Camera distance

The other camera setting players usually try to change to view more of the field is camera distance. However it isn't able to change much in that regard. Look at how the ball stays on screen the whole time even when comparing extreme distances like 400 to 100. What it does a good job at is giving a better view of the space around your car. Keep in mind that once again a closer camera might make it easier to hit a precise shot with the corner of your car. When dribbling with the ball though, it may block your entire view if the camera is too close. I would suggest keeping this setting somewhere between 220 and 350.

Camera height & angle

Then there is camera height and angle. Most players barely change these at all. They use either 100 or 110 height and a 3-5° angle. If you increase the camera height alot you can certainly gain some overview of the field but you'll always have to keep in mind that your car is not at the center of your screen. It's kinda like playing a shooter with a crosshair at the bottom of the screen. Low camera height certainly makes bounce dribbles or timing a powershot alot easier. If you chose to set your camera very high you'll need to increase the camera angle to make sure your car stays on the screen. The slider goes to 45° for some reason. You should keep it below 15° however because otherwise there are some situations where the ball isn't even on the screen anymore, even with ballcam on.

Dynamic camera FOV

Now before we get to camera stiffness I want to talk about something that's related to it but doesn't get changed by any of the sliders. Dynamic camera FOV. The camera FOV is actually dynamic. If you're standing still you will be at the FOV that you set in the camera settings. Once you start to accelerate however, your FOV will smoothly increase by 5° depending on how close you are to maximum speed. When you reach supersonic it will get bumped up by an extra 5°. I feel like we should be able to set this somewhere in the settings since the rather extreme change when you reach supersonic can definitely throw you off at times.

Camera stiffness

So let's go on with camera stiffness.

What does it actually do?

Camera stiffness does 3 things.

Only 2 of those have an effect if you have ballcam on.

Those are dynamic camera distance and angle.

The distance smoothly increases based on how close you are to the maximum speed while the angle decreases.

The maximum values at 0 stiffness are +100 distance and +2 angle.

Keep in mind the angle is a negative value. For example it would go from -5° to -3°.

You can calculate the camera distance at supersonic with this formula:

supersonic distance = distance + (1 - stiffness) * 114.7

If you drive towards where the camera currently is the distance gets decreased.

When you turn ball cam off these things still apply but we get another major difference that fits the actual term "stiffness" the best.

At 1 stiffness the camera stays in the same position related to the car all the time.

If you lower the value it will smooth out motions and add a delay.

This happens on the ground aswell as in the air.

It would be easy to conclude that 1 stiffness is the best

nd I do recommend using it if you're trying to learn how to dribble as it makes it easier to tell the exact direction the car is facing.

But here are some points to consider.

If you land on the ground with the camera facing a different direction than that of the car the camera will turn around really fast at high stiffness.

This can be quite disorienting at times.

The second point is drifting.

When you drift the delay on the camera makes it seem like you're turning around the front of your car

while at 1 stiffness it's anchored to the back.

I personally think it's alot easier to judge when to stop drifting at low stiffness if I'm close to the ball

but you should test this yourself.

Camera swivel speed

For the last slider we got camera swivel speed. This setting just allows you to set the turning speed of your camera. At 1.0 it takes 1.3 seconds to turn 90°. The slider is linear so at 10 it's going to be 10 times as fast.

Camera shake

Last but not least, camera shake. Camera shake litterally shakes your camera whenever you boost, you dodge, or you hit an object. This really provides no advantage at all as it just distorts the information on the screen. The only reason to have it on is that you really like it. Oh and of course if you want to piss off Jamesbot.

Outro

Alright that wraps up this episode. If you have any questions or found any mistakes post them in the comments and leave me suggestions for what I should test in the future. I will try to incorporate them in videos where they fit the topic.