Optimal viewing distance from screen?

[StillBlaze]

Did a quick search and couldn't find anything specifically PC related and non console, so i decided to post!

What is the optimal distance to be from your monitor (24 inch) while playing FPS games, for both mouse/hand to eye coordination and best viewing of the screen.

I have for the past years sat with the monitor very close but often see many great players playing much further away. pros cons, anything or all preference? Reason i ask is that i have issues with hitting my mouse on monitor base and would like to correct if possible but i tend to lose all connection to what im doing when i move my monitor back.

[aeliusg]

Did a quick search and couldn't find anything specifically PC related and non console, so i decided to post!

What is the optimal distance to be from your monitor (24 inch) while playing FPS games, for both mouse/hand to eye coordination and best viewing of the screen.

I have for the past years sat with the monitor very close but often see many great players playing much further away. pros cons, anything or all preference? Reason i ask is that i have issues with hitting my mouse on monitor base and would like to correct if possible but i tend to lose all connection to what im doing when i move my monitor back.

Can't cite you any sources right now, but from all of what I've read it's preferable to limit your monitor's angular size to about 30-40 degrees to keep everything in your crosshair in the fovea and everything else including HUD elements within your mid- to near-peripheral vision. I find a larger and one-to-one field of view helps in racing sims, in contrast.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peripheral_vision

Obviously, there is an adjustment period if you have been playing with the monitor very close, and this assumes you have 20/20 or better corrected vision.

Edit: Here is a calculator for viewing distance vs visual angle: http://myhometheater.homestead.com/view ... lator.html

I should also add that reducing your viewing angle improves your visual comfort especially with fast-moving and/or blurry scenes such as may be with your usual 24" LCD nowadays.

[StillBlaze]

good information and read, presuming i am doing it correctly, being 1 foot away from a 24 inch screen is roughly 80 degrees viewing angle so optimal would be closer to two feet!?

Sounds kind of far to me, im going to play around a little with stuff and see how feels.

[aeliusg]

Give it a try for a day or two, remember it will take time to adjust when first changing your configuration.

[spacediver]

I think this question is best answered through experimentation with different viewing angles. As aeliusg alludes to, there's a tradeoff for acuity requirements with larger viewing distances, and this interacts with the individual, and the game.

I play quakelive at a very competitive level with my FW900 about 2 feet away.

[Sparky]

I make no claims about it being "best", but right now I'm using a 24" and a 19" monitor and they are about 22" from the front edge of my desk, which puts my eyeball about 26"' to 30" away. I find my self turning my head to look at the second monitor, but just moving my eyes to look at something on the same monitor. So my viewing angle for both monitors would be about 70° and for my single 24" monitor would be about 40°