I have a 3-monitor setup. With P3D it was fairly simple to open a separate window on the main monitor and drag it to one of the others and get a view out of one of the cockpit the side windows. I haven't tried it with MSFS 2024 yet., and I'm not really sure how to do it with this sim. If any of you are doing this, how do you set it up? I always run in the full screen mode for all the monitors. Thanks.

MY BIGGEST PET PEAVE IN SIM WORLD, the default views are atrocious... my videos to fix the situation

 

 

 

I know you can toggle views. What I was asking was, is there a way to drag a separate view of the cockpit from the main monitor to another monitor so it can be viewed and modified to see out the aircraft side window without having to use the keyboard to look left or right. This was possible in P3D. Thanks.

Now that I have Chaseplane, I wonder what settings should I use for zoom. I'm not sure I can use Developer Mode for reading a FOV set by CP. Has anybody tried so?

Edited March 20Mar 20 by Luis Hernandez

1 hour ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Now that I have Chaseplane, I wonder what settings should I use for zoom. I'm not sure I can use Developer Mode for reading a FOV set by CP. Has anybody tried so?

Yes, you can bring up Developer mode and the Camera Blend display to see the FoV as per the OP while using Chaseplane.

I just did it based on this thread as I wanting to try it out. It's not pretty as the Developer Mode text hovers over everything, but you can see the FoV value while adjusting the Zoom in the camera position for the pilot/co-pilot/etc.

15 hours ago, tamba765 said:

I know you can toggle views. What I was asking was, is there a way to drag a separate view of the cockpit from the main monitor to another monitor so it can be viewed and modified to see out the aircraft side window without having to use the keyboard to look left or right. This was possible in P3D. Thanks.

It's under 'experimental' at the bottom of the settings menu. It's very easy to do. The following video shows it for MSFS 2020 but I think it's just the same in 2024.

 

17 hours ago, mmcmah said:

Yes, you can bring up Developer mode and the Camera Blend display to see the FoV as per the OP while using Chaseplane.

Thank you, it works! While I don't follow a exact FOV (my 24" screen is rather small and I have no plans of upgrading, currently), at least it works for setting the same FOV I have set with P3D and FSX. Now I'll have to check with all my other aircraft and redoing all CP profiles, but I'll do it at cruise.

On 3/20/2026 at 12:57 PM, Noel said:

Of course, all of this is well understood but for me, again, it's a net loser.  Perhaps with TrackIR it might be useable.

It may not be well understood for new simmers to flight sim who are wondering what to set the FOV too.   They may assume an unrealistic FOV is normal in a sim.

20 hours ago, Luis Hernandez said:

Now that I have Chaseplane, I wonder what settings should I use for zoom. I'm not sure I can use Developer Mode for reading a FOV set by CP. Has anybody tried so?

Check my guide here for Chaseplane

26 minutes ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

It may not be well understood for new simmers to flight sim who are wondering what to set the FOV too.   They may assume an unrealistic FOV is normal in a sim.

There is a reason why an unrealistic FOV is default in this sim, in P3D and FSX as well and IMO it is because ultimately it is a favored, superior view largely because of the relative small size of displays, relative to actual size of especially commercial airliners.  Side to side width for example of the A320 is over 11 feet.  

I use CP and adjusted my view to .47000 zoom which for my setup (65inch TV at 93cm to eye) gives me a realistic view point... so much easier to do in CP...

5 hours ago, Noel said:

There is a reason why an unrealistic FOV is default in this sim, in P3D and FSX as well and IMO it is because ultimately it is a favored, superior view largely because of the relative small size of displays, relative to actual size of especially commercial airliners.  Side to side width for example of the A320 is over 11 feet.  

My concern is that this wide-FOV habit teaches new simmers the wrong lesson. Because the whole cockpit fits on screen, they assume that is what ‘realistic’ looks like, when in fact it’s a compromise forced by the limited width of a monitor. You are not reproducing real cockpit vision, you are compressing it.

For casual use that may be perfectly acceptable, but for serious simming it matters. A too-wide FOV makes the outside world look too small and too far away, which affects the runway picture, height judgement, and flare cues. So yes, you can fit the whole A320 cockpit onto the monitor, but only by distorting the scale of the outside view.

That is why I doubt the default is chosen to fit a cockpit into the width of a monitor. I think it is chosen because it looks impressive to a newcomer, in the same the same way TVs in shops are set to unnaturally vivid colour. It sells spectacle, not accuracy.

Is the FOV basically for setting up in cockpit or should external views be adjusted, as well? Can external views be adjusted and saved? As far as I can tell, they can not. At least least not as far as, FOV goes.

Edited March 22Mar 22 by 0stones0

17 hours ago, MrBitstFlyer said:

My concern is that this wide-FOV habit teaches new simmers the wrong lesson. Because the whole cockpit fits on screen, they assume that is what ‘realistic’ looks like, when in fact it’s a compromise forced by the limited width of a monitor. You are not reproducing real cockpit vision, you are compressing it.

Of course you're compressing it because it actually IS compressed.  What would be 11 feet across in my example A320 is actually 34".   No one in their right mind believes that is an accurate representation of reality and so yes, it's done because ultimately it's a more satisfying experience for the desktop user.  And that is far more important to the majority of desktop users who are not obsessed with trying to pretend 34" is 11 feet.  While the accurate FOV creates more realistic size of the external world you're squished into point blank range in your 34" cockpit so again, that is exactly why zoomed out is default.  

Question:  what do believe the downside is of your concern?  I think in some ways zoomed out would be a superior learning opportunity because for starters the external world moves faster visually than it would in reality such that when one went into the RW flight deck the external world would be moving slower relative to what one was used to, and that would give one a more relaxed sense of sequencing, whereas the opposite would create anxiety to suddenly note things are moving faster than anticipated.  Put another way:  make the training scenario more challenging, not less.   

Just a different POV 😉

Edited March 22Mar 22 by Noel