Hello,
first of all sorry for my english, it is not my mother toungue language.
I kindly asked a moderator if i could open a thread about this subject. I didn't recieved any reply, so I am assuming that silence gives consent.
I think the following is a very serious thing, and need more investigation and hopefully some answers from Playground Games as well.
Foreword:
Field of view (a.k.a. FOV) and seat positioning (a.k.a. POS) are the most important factors for any racing hardcore videogamer (those who play with a wheel peripheral device and using the cockpit view).
They are as much important as it would be the A.I. of the enemies in a first person shooter.
The FOV is the lens aperture size of the point of view, we can say, in a half-mistaken and approximate way, it is like a zoom factor. Increasing FOV the view will be wider, like you are shooting a panoramic picture with your mobile. Decreasing it the view will be tighter and your sight will be focused on a smaller area of the track. It also helps a lot to get a better speed effect. To be super-meticulous there is also an arithmetical formula to calculate the right FOV degrees, in relationship of the screen size and how far it is from the wheel and your eyes.
POS is easier to understand, it is simply the X, Y, Z position of the driver's eyes in relation of the car itself.
The point:
During E3 2016 Playground Games showed a demonstration of FH3, with a setup on a mechanical moving seat, with a top notch wheel device. In all likelihood the hardware was a PC. It was outstanding to play, literarly jaw dropping.
For a better immersion they setup the in-game FOV and POS in a perfect way to play with a wheel.
Here is a picture that clearly shows it:

Link to the video:
https://youtu.be/Ktdo_XNYpws?t=5m38s As you can see, the FOV is wide enough to get a good sense of speed and track view. The POS is perfectly positioned in such a way that the real wheel is the actual wheel. There are no in-game wheel, nor the driver's hands. This is the way a racing videogame is meant to be played with a wheel device. And if during E3 they choose to show it this way, ofcourse this means they know what I just said is the truth.
Now let's have a look at the demo came out last days.

Link to the video:
https://youtu.be/oQV-sjdCLiY?t=2m22s Here the cockpit view is the Forza classic one. FOV is thighter and the POS is way much more on the back.
The result is that you can see the wheel in-game, the driver's hands and FOV is thighter which gives you a bad sense of speed feeling.
This setup is good to play with a gamepad. Not with a wheel. For hundreds of reasons that I am not going to list, but developers know very well (I mention just one which is not the most important, but the most obvious: it is absolutely lame to play with a wheel device, and see the wheel in the game and driver's hands... :-) ).
It is a demo, ok, and only for the Xbox One at the moment, but in all probablity this will be the same view of the final game, on Xbox and on PC. Without the possibility to change FOV and POS, as every Forza game since the first one.
I also would like to mention the fact that users are forced to play the game with Xbox One compatible only wheels, even on PC. One could think "well ok, let's buy a new wheel for FH3, at least they will put more effort in developing wheel specific options"...
Someone here told me that Playground Games did adviced people that was a unique view setup only for the E3 demo and the final game will be different. In my personal case it wasn't said to me. And I can't find this information nowhere on the internet, not even via official channels ( here:
http://forzamotorsport.net/en-us/news/fm3_e3demo or here:
http://forzamotorsport.net/en-US/news/FH3_Announce ). And when I asked "please could you kindly show me where this information is?", I got no answer.
My hope is that adjustable FOV and POS will be a feature in the final version (as for sure many other players hope).
This feature was always, and forever will be, a deal breaker for me, and for many other players. There is the option, I buy the game. Otherwise, I pass it with ease. No matter the goodness of the game.
And after this events, after we have seen something at E3, and something else extremely different in the demo, I honestly and humbly think that maybe we deserve a better explanation and some answers from Playground Games.
So, I kindly ask Playground Games if they can say just some words about this.
Thank so much for your attention, and have a nice day.
Edited by user Thursday, September 15, 2016 6:53:30 AM(UTC)
| Reason: Not specified