How to Change Your Field of View (FOV) in FiveM

FOV that feels balanced on one monitor can feel wrong on another because field of view perception changes with the physical angle your monitor occupies in your vision. A 32" monitor at a close seating distance already fills more of your field of vision than a 24" at the same distance.

How to read this table: The ranges are starting points, not hard limits. Start at the middle of your monitor's recommended range for your primary playstyle. Run the test loop in the next section, then nudge up or down by 2–3 points until it feels natural.

Ultrawide monitors already present a wider horizontal view than a standard 16:9 panel, so you need less FOV adjustment to achieve the same peripheral benefit. Starting above 90 on an ultrawide often produces more distortion than gain.

Safe Testing Routine Before You Lock In a Value

Do not pick a number and walk away after a five-minute session. FOV affects your comfort across multiple contexts, and a setting that feels perfect on foot often reveals problems the moment you get into a vehicle or raise a weapon.

Run these three checks in sequence:

1. Sprint through a populated area — check whether camera shake or edge distortion draws your attention away from the center. If you find yourself reading screen edges instead of the action, the value is too high.
2. Drive a standard sedan and a large SUV — dashboard readability, A-pillar clearance, and mirror visibility should feel natural. If the dashboard is clipping into the bonnet or steering wheel geometry looks wrong, drop back 3–5 points.
3. Enter first-person combat or ADS — your weapon model should occupy a reasonable portion of the lower center without blocking your target view. A model that feels bloated at rest usually feels worse under fire.

If all three pass, you have found a solid value. Most players cycle through 3–4 values before settling. The most common mistake is testing only on foot and discovering the vehicle problem 20 minutes into a patrol.

Vehicle FOV and Interior Camera: What You Can and Cannot Control

This is the most misunderstood part of FiveM FOV. Here is the honest breakdown:

What profile_fpsFieldOfView does and does not affect:

The profile_fpsFieldOfView command controls your on-foot first-person camera — the perspective you get when pressing V while on foot. It does not directly control:

• The first-person view inside vehicles (the cockpit camera with dashboard visible)
• Aim-down-sights zoom level when scoped or using iron sights
• Cutscene cameras or scripted camera sequences
• Third-person follow camera

Vehicle interior camera:

In standard GTA V, the vehicle first-person camera FOV is governed by cameras.ymt and vehicle meta files. FiveM servers that want to expose this to players run a dedicated camera resource, typically with its own configuration commands or keybinds. The commands vary by script — ask your server admin whether a custom first-person vehicle camera resource is installed, and check its documentation for the config option.

If you want vehicle FOV control on your own server, resources like custom camera mods can expose additional settings. This is a server-side change, not a client-side profile flag.

Aim-down-sights (ADS) FOV:

ADS zoom is handled by weapon meta files and any server-installed weapon scripts. There is no universal client-side console command that adjusts ADS zoom independent of the base FOV. If your server uses a custom weapon resource, check whether it exposes an ADS multiplier setting.

Cutscene cameras:

Cutscene cameras use scripted perspectives that override all player camera settings for the duration of the scene. Your profile_fpsFieldOfView value has no effect during cutscenes by design — the game engine hands camera control to the script entirely.

For vehicle-specific configuration and handling tweaks, see our guide on how to change vehicle handling in FiveM.

Making the Change Permanent

If your FOV resets every session, you need to write the value to your client config file. Here is how:

1. Press Win + R on your keyboard.
2. Type %appdata%\CitizenFX and press Enter. If this folder does not exist, try %localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app.
3. Open fivem.cfg or citizenfx.ini using Notepad or any text editor.
4. Add this line at the bottom:

seta profile_fpsFieldOfView "90"

5. Save the file and close it. Restart FiveM completely.

If you have multiple FiveM installs or have switched between update channels, verify that you are editing the config file read by your active install. The safest check is to edit the file, restart FiveM, and immediately open the F8 console to confirm the value loaded correctly.

Troubleshooting: FOV Not Working or Not Saving

The following issues come up repeatedly. Work through them in order.

1. FOV resets after every FiveM update

Some FiveM updates write new defaults to the client profile, which can overwrite your saved FOV. After any major update, open F8 and verify your value is still active. If it reset, re-add the seta line to your config file and confirm the file was not replaced during the update.

2. The FOV command does nothing on Release branch

profile_fpsFieldOfView is most reliable on the Canary channel. If you are on Release and the command appears to do nothing, switch to the Latest (Canary) channel in FiveM settings and restart. The command will be accepted and applied on the next launch.

3. FOV not applying inside vehicles

This is expected behavior. The profile_fpsFieldOfView flag only affects the on-foot first-person camera. If you want different vehicle interior FOV, your server needs a camera resource that exposes this. Check with your server admin or look at the resource list in your server's server.cfg.

4. Config edits not persisting — wrong folder

Two different paths can contain FiveM config files depending on how and when you installed the client:

• %appdata%\CitizenFX (older installs)
• %localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app (newer installs)

If your edits appear to do nothing, you are probably editing the wrong file. Check both locations and edit the one that contains a fivem.cfg or citizenfx.ini with content.

5. Duplicate entries in config file

If you have added the line manually multiple times across sessions, your config may contain several profile_fpsFieldOfView or seta profile_fpsFieldOfView lines. The last value wins, but the conflict can cause unpredictable behavior. Open the file, search for fpsFieldOfView, and delete all but one entry.

6. FOV works on one server but not another

Some servers run server-side camera resources that lock or override the player's first-person camera perspective. If your profile value applies correctly on most servers but not one specific server, that server is intentionally overriding it. This is common on immersive RP servers that ship a custom first-person system for consistency. Contact the server admin to ask whether there is a supported way to adjust it.

7. Higher FOV is causing motion sickness

Counterintuitively, this can happen when you raise FOV above 100 on a standard 16:9 monitor. At very high FOV values, the peripheral edge-warping creates a subtle fisheye effect that some players experience as vertigo or nausea — despite the expectation that wider FOV should help. Drop back to 90–95 and also check whether head bob is enabled in GTA V settings. Disabling or reducing head bob significantly reduces simulation sickness in first-person for many players.

Adding FOV Changes to Your FiveM Config (Permanent Fix)

This section is a quick reference if you skipped the walkthrough above:

1. Press Win + R, type %appdata%\CitizenFX, hit Enter.
2. If the folder is empty or missing, try %localappdata%\FiveM\FiveM.app.
3. Open fivem.cfg or citizenfx.ini.
4. Add to the bottom: seta profile_fpsFieldOfView "90"
5. Save and restart FiveM.

To test two values without editing the file each time: keep your preferred value in config, and override temporarily in F8 during a session. Once you confirm a different value feels better, update the config file.

Why FOV Matters for Competitive and Roleplay Servers

Beyond personal comfort, FOV has tangible effects on gameplay performance:

Close-quarters combat: A wider FOV makes it harder for opponents to run just outside your frame. At 70° FOV, an enemy directly to your left at 30 feet is invisible. At 90°, that same player is visible at the screen edge, giving you time to react before they reach melee range.

Driving and situational awareness: First-person driving at default FOV hides the front corners of most vehicles, making parking, tight turns, and traffic avoidance significantly harder. At 90°+, the bonnet edge is visible, side traffic appears earlier, and lane-change decisions become more accurate. For racing or drift servers, this is a meaningful competitive advantage.

Motion sickness prevention: The default GTA V first-person FOV of approximately 65–70° is narrower than nearly every competitive FPS shipped in the past decade. The resulting mismatch between visual motion and expected field of view is a direct contributor to simulator sickness. Most players who experience nausea in FiveM first-person find immediate relief by raising to 85–90.

For more server performance topics, see the FiveM server complete guide and our resource monitor optimization walkthrough.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Three patterns cause the most wasted time:

Jumping straight to 100+. A 30-second demo always feels spectacular. An hour into a roleplay session at 110° FOV, the edge distortion and warped vehicle interiors compound into a genuinely unpleasant experience. Start at 88–92 and increment slowly.

Testing only on foot. Vehicle interiors, weapon ADS, and running all feel different at the same FOV value. Test all three before committing to a number.

Ignoring your server context. A 24/7 police RP server where you spend 80% of time in a cruiser rewards different FOV settings than a combat-focused deathmatch server where you rarely enter a vehicle. Match your FOV to what you actually spend the most time doing.

Treat FOV like mouse sensitivity: the best setting is the one you stop noticing because everything feels instinctively natural. Run the test routine, pick a number, play for a week, and only revisit if something specific feels wrong.

If you are optimizing your overall FiveM setup, the FiveM multicharacter setup guide and vehicle troubleshooting FAQ cover the next most common configuration pain points.