useful tip Correcting Visual Distortion in Camera Views in MS2020

[renault]

I hope that the following may be of use to fellow members who are having issues with display perspectives ,basically the "fish eye"  effect in 
MS2020. 

 

Although all my description is for external views  this change also will work for internal cockpit views as well.  You may have to adjust your zoom levels slightly from the values 

that I describe. This was a "bug" in previous versions of MS2020, and it was fixed around 2 updates ago I believe.

 

Interestingly it is a standard problem in real life drone photography because the lens field of view is wider than the camera sensor. Normally correction of the visual distortion in the recorded drone video  is done in post procession photo editing software.

 

I hope this is is of interest/help to you

Cheers

Pete

 

 

The correction involves two steps;

 

1) Editing the FlightSimulator.cfg file entry "WideViewAspect=0" by changing the value of 0 to 1

 

2) Secondly adjusting the zoom levels in both the External and Showcase (drone) view when you start MS2020.

 

This setting is designed for wide view aspect monitors (21:9) , but I have found it also works nicely with a standard 16:9 aspect ratio monitor.

 

Some users have reported that the change is not permanent and that it resets either when exiting from MS2020 or when changing any graphics settings 
in MS2020.  I have not encountered either of these issues personally , but of course individual mileage may vary.

Step 1 Changing the setting

 

Locations of FlightSimulator.cfg

 

MS Store Version

 

DRIVE:\WpSystem\S-1-5-21-1087062051-3801548924-420289015-1001\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

 

or

 

C:\Users\<userid>\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.FlightSimulator_8wekyb3d8bbwe\LocalCache

And for Steam users

 

C:\Users\<userid>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft Flight Simulator

 

The parameter is on line 30 of the FlightSimulator.cfg file as shown below.  Simply change the parameter value from 0 to 1 ,save the file and exit.

 

 

Step 2 Camera Settings 

 

Although the above modification works well with the default zoom settings of 50%, I've found that changing them slightly for me was preferable.

 

Unfortunately , I have not been able to find a way to permanently save these these settings. Worse yet, they will revert back to default settings
if one terminates a flight and starts a new one without shutting down MS2020. I have reported this to the Microsoft Flight simulator Zen desk.

 

I should mention that these settings should be viewed as starting points. You may like them or wish to change them slightly depending upon
your personal preference.

 

A) External View

 

For external view I found a zoom setting of 60% works very well , eliminating any tendency for  visual distortion due to the wide viewing angle, except under
screenshots where the camera is placed at ground level and facing upwards.  This distortion can be controlled by increasing the zoom level slightly.

 

These were taken on a standard 16:9 aspect ratio monitor.

 

EGLC - London City Airport

 

 

 

KSBA - Santa Barbara Airport

Taken to illustrate complex aspect ratio character

 

 

Viewing angle is not affected by light levels as shown below

 

 

Please note that some distortion occurs in external view depending on viewing angle. This does not occur in the showcase (drone) view

This still can be corrected by increasing the zoom factor to around 65-70% , or simply by raising the camera viewpoint slightly

 

 

For showcase views I found a zoom setting of 70% gives me a result I am happy with. However, the showcase (drone) camera works slightly better
than the external view camera and even the default zoom value of 50% works well.

 

In this case, once the zoom level is set, I use the second joystick to zoom in and out.

 

Please remember to turn the drone Autofocus setting on when using a joystick toggle to zoom in and out. In this case, I have found the camera works 
perfectly with no visual distortion regardless of the actual zoom setting.

 

The following screenshots illustrate this scenario.

 

These two screenshots illustrate a basic zoom out in showcase (drone mode). Autofocus is on and the actual zoom level is set at 70%
The joystick toggle is used to control zoom level. No visual distortion is present

 

 

 

These are alternative views at the zoomed location, obtained by simply panning the drone camera at the last zoomed location

 

 

 

And progressive zooms using the drone camera at a constant zoom setting of 70%

 

 

 

These next two screenshots show that at 50 % zoom (showcase default) there is no visual distortion. In the showcase (drone) view, the configuration file

setting is the controlling parameter for setting the aspect ratio.

 

 

 

Personally, I prefer the visual look at a 70% zoon and using the joystick controller to move the camera away from the subject.

However, the combination of the two settings gives a lot of versatility to the actual perspective and there is no right or wrong answer.

 

This is a screenshot at the same physical distance, as above, but with a different zoom value 50% (default) increased to my preferred 70% value

 

 

Lastly just some perspective screenshots , which again illustrate the lack of visual distortion

 

 

Viewing angle does not introduce distortion in the showcase(drone) camera view as it does in the external view

 

 

 

 

[MarkH]

7 hours ago, renault said:

there is no right or wrong answer

 

Well, that depends on the question. If you are trying to replicate what a human eye would see from the same position, there is a right answer because by and large all human eyes are the same.

 

On the assumption that WideViewAspect does the same in MSFS as it does in all the previous versions, I confidently predict that it makes no qualitative difference to the view, but only affects how the 'zoom' numbers are mapped onto what you see. I haven't followed all of your examples in detail, but I expect what you are seeing is that zooming in reduces distortion at the peripheries so it is less noticeable, which is how it has always been.

 

P.S. I note that your screenshots are 16:9, which means the distortion will in any case be relatively minor even in extreme (low zoom factor) cases. Distortion has never been a real problem except for ultra-wide displays.