FPS tournies and FOV

[BaconTastesGood]

Anyone recall the rules for changing FOV for major Quake/Unreal tournies? instant0 and I are having a discussion about this and I swore that fov was one of those commonly restricted client side variables.

[instant0]

I'll add that I have not been in any tournament or major LAN since 2000 so the rules may have changed since that date due to whining. :-)

Edit: I'll check with some friends of mine, one of them still plays "pro" so he might know. =)

I remember you could have a lot of fun with rocket-jumping and changing your maxFPS so you could get a double rocketjump, and also with the grappling hook in Quake2 to enter through windows that were closed, they were 'tricks' that could be performed. Probably illegal Although I dont see why since it was just a few scripts in your config. :-)

I think Half ILfe servers with "#&"Tbuster and their ilks can enforce a FOV setting though.

[BaconTastesGood]

Probably illegal Although I dont see why since it was just a few scripts in your config. :-)

I definitely remember at QuakeCon back in 1999 that all entries had to have their config files approved and that if you had a different config file than was approved you were disqualified. That was possibly the last time I can recall a lot of people using floppies.

[pg]

I don't think even now it's commonly restricted in Quake. In the old days I know for a fact it wasn't restricted in Q1-Q2-Q3. IIRC Q4 only supported a FOV up to 110 until the last patch, and many players have used higher than that for years in older Quake games. FOV basically is one of those things that is very minor to a very experienced player. Many top players use FOVs ranging from 67 to 140 that I know of in the Quake series(90 is default). Basically whatever you are comfortable with is best, which is generally whatever you have used the longest. Arguably high FOV is more helpful in TDM, CTF, FFA, or wherever there are lots of players, as it lets you see more increasing your awareness.

My opinion is I would let players use whatever they like as long as it doesn't lead to a huge advantage. The more people customize their CFGs the more variety it can lead to in their play styles which is very interesting. Some players love low FOV so they can rail whore, while others prefer higher FOV and relying on RL. No FOV is obviously better than another except at extreme ly high or low values where the game is very hard to play.

BTW, famous QW video on DM2 near quad showing how low FOV can hurt you. With just a little higher FOV he would have seen them...

http://www.challenge-tv.com/index.php?mode=demodetail&demo=27563