I was looking at the settings for TF2 today, and I came across a setting called "Field of view", with a slider going from 75 - 90. It's in the Multiplayer tab of the options window. What does this setting change?

It changes the degree spread of your vision. 90 means you see in a 90 degree arc in front of you. Higher is better because you can see more.

Not necessarily, Cyn.

I thought that higher was better, too.  But then I went from 90 to about 80 and I could see so much better.  Of course, I couldn't see as much around me, but what I could see was much easier to aim at.  It's a preference, just find what's good for you.

Oh and I also tend to set it higher for Sniper, because I don't like zooming too much.

EDIT:  I've changed it to 90.

Pictoral view on a widescreen:
FOV 90 vs FOV 75

I use 90 so I can see more.

75 is a bit easier to aim... but you see less... i use 90 for neither of those reasons though...  I like it cause it makes the game look faster :-P

I played around with it, but i settled on 90. I find it to be much more useful to see more from farther away, especially since the classes don't have precision weapons with the exception of the sniper, who already has a scope.

I use 90 because you get the advantage of being able to see more on your sides. so if theres an enemy standing next to  you, you might not notice with just 75 degrees as opposed to 90

They say it's a matter of taste, but personally I think anybody who isn't using 90 fov is making a mistake by giving up that extra peripheral awareness.

90 already feels like horse blinders, don't make it worse by playing at 75.  I'd turn it up to 120 if the game would let me.

Yes. I wish that it had a 120 FOV option. I would use that in an instant. Particularly if I had a widescreen monitor.

Lol, I was just thinking about back in the quake 2 days I had FOV set to 120 or 130. I have mine set to 90 in TF2 and it made the soldier seem like he was moving so much faster! Takes a little getting used to but I like it better for the most part.

I think they limit it to 90 max because you can script FOV settings to do sniper like zooming. This was the early start of zooming for specific weapons back in the day ( rail guns in quake).