Step 1: Measuring your physical setup
Single Monitor:
Sit in your normal racing position and measure the shortest distance from between your eyes to the surface of the monitor.
Then measure the width of your monitor both with and without the bezel (the bezel is the thin frame that runs along the outer edge of the monitor).
Triple Monitors:
Sit in your normal racing position and measure the shortest distance from between your eyes to the surface of the center monitor.
Then measure the width of your monitors both with and without the bezel (the bezel is the thin frame that runs along the outer edge of the monitor).
Then measure the angle between your monitors. A value of zero degrees would mean your monitors were in a straight line. For curved monitor users this angle is the measure of the additional angle between your side monitors beyond their natural curve (for example if the curve of all three monitors was continuous the angle between screens would be zero).
Virtual Reality:
Measure the distance between your pupils. Getting this measurement right is the most important part of ensuring your VR experience is not distorted. There are a number of cellphone apps that can measure this.
Step 2: Configuring the sim monitor options
Single Monitor:
In the simulator, go to the Options screen and select the Graphics tab. At the top click the Monitor button.
Enter the values you measured in step 1, along with if your monitor is curved or flat. Then click Calculate.
Triple Monitors:
In the simulator, go to the Options screen and select the Graphics tab. At the top click the Monitor button.
Enter the values you measured in step 1, along with if your monitor is curved or flat. Then click Calculate.
Virtual Reality:
The value you measured in step 1 must be input in your selected VR software. It will typically be called the Interpupilary Distance and will be abbreviated to IPD. For some headsets this is a physical adjustment.
Step 3: Adjusting your horizon and driver height
Single Monitor:
Sit in your normal racing position and get in a car of your choice. This is a global setting so any will work.
Hold Shift and press [ and ] to shift the horizon up and down. When using these functions a red bar will appear to indicate the exact level of the horizon. Look straight forward and move this line until it is at the natural height of your eyeline.
Once the horizon is set, hold Ctrl and press [ and ] to adjust the driver height. For immersion you will generally want to adjust the height to put your steering wheel in roughly the right place compared to your physical setup.
Triple Monitors:
Sit in your normal racing position and get in a car of your choice. This is a global setting so any will work.
Hold Shift and press [ and ] to shift the horizon up and down. When using these functions a red bar will appear to indicate the exact level of the horizon. Look straight forward and move this line until it is at the natural height of your eyeline.
Getting this value correct is essential to minimizing warp between the center and side monitors.
Once the horizon is set, hold Ctrl and press [ and ] to adjust the driver height. For immersion you will generally want to adjust the height to put your steering wheel in roughly the right place compared to your physical setup.
Virtual Reality:
Sit in your normal racing position and get in a car of your choice. This is a global setting so any will work. Press the Recenter HMD button to ensure your headset is localized correctly (by default this is the ; key).
Hold Ctrl and press [ and ] to adjust the height of the driver view. For immersion you will generally want to adjust the height to put your steering wheel in roughly the right place compared to your physical setup.
Step 4: Fine tuning per car
You may feel that your seating position in-sim is too far forward or back. This can be adjusted on a per-car basis. This process is the same no matter what type of monitor/VR setup you use.
Enter the sim and then enter and exit your car.
From the session screen select the Cockpit camera, then press Ctrl+F12 to open the Camera menu.
Here you can use the X, Y, and Z offsets to shift your view. Think of these as adding or removing seat bolsters to fine tune position. These can be used to fine tune the positioning of the steering wheel in-sim to match your physical setup.
When you are done configuring your camera select Save Car at the bottom of the Camera menu. Leave the name as car.cam and select Save to set the new default camera file for this car.