SimHQ.com - Motorsports Zone - Feature: Sim Racing Tips - Getting the Most Out of Your Virtual Racing Hobby

A discussion of controller setup wouldn't be complete without a few brief words on Force Feedback settings in-game. As we've discussed, force feedback has matured and been embraced by game developers as not only an immersion feature but also as a tool to help compensate for and convey to sim racers the physics in play during a driving session. Most folks would therefore assume that maximum force feedback strength would be desirable in every racing title or mod. But they'd be wrong.

Some titles strike a very good balance between force feedback effects strength and ease of driving. But with the wide variety of wheels, games and mods in the marketplace, there is some variance in how each hardware/software cocktail will register force feedback effects out into your hands. In the case of GT Legends, I found that 100% FF strength gave me the proper level of wheel resistance. But in some cases, it may be necessary to reduce the force feedback level in a game or mod in order to strike the right balance between physics cueing and steering precision. Such is the case with the Porsche Carrera Challenge mod for rFactor. Here, owners of Logitech MOMO Racing FF wheels may need to dial back the strength of force feedback effects in order to achieve more precise control of steering inputs, and reduce the wheel's resistance to turning. Additionally, with ISI sims, MOMO users will need to use a negative FF strength setting in order to ensure that the amplitude of forces being applied to the wheel are not inverted. Other titles, such as Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, work just fine with full FF strength applied. See the screenshots below to see a graphic depiction of these settings.

Sim Racing Basics - F1C FF	Sim Racing Basics - GTL FF
Sim Racing Basics - PCC FF	Sim Racing Basics - rF F3 FF

In addition, some force feedback wheels have application interfaces that allow you to set general characteristics for the wheel before you launch a game title. Here, the settings are open to your experimentation and personal preference, but there are some features you'll want to enable.

It's very important to have your brake and throttle pedals operate on independent control axes, so that you can fluidly move from braking to acceleration during cornering. Ensure that you do not allow your wheel to report the brake and throttle as a single axis, combined pedal to DirectX. If you test your pedals and you can simultaneously apply full brake and full throttle, then you have your pedals on separate axes.

Centering spring effects are open to personal preference. The centering spring effect attempts to replicate the wheel's natural tendency to return to center when released, and also provides some added resistance to turning. Some sim racers prefer to turn this effect off, creating a more "limp" steering effect that can improve control precision. Indeed, in some racing sims (rFactor), there is an inherent tendency for the wheel to center itself in the physics engine. Other virtual drivers prefer the resistance of the centering spring effect, and in some racing titles (GTL) turning the centering spring effect off will require the driver to manually pull the wheel back to center after a turn, giving the wheel an unnatural feel. Whatever your personal tastes or needs for a particular racing sim, if centering spring effects are enabled try to keep the centering spring effect minimized (I use around 20-25% with the MOMO), so as to maximize your steering precision.

MOMO Settings

Latency is a holdover from the days of slower PCs and still listed as a setting in some titles. This feature is in place to assist in CPU processing of multiple functions. As far as I can tell, modern PCs have no problem handling force feedback, steering, and game calculations. I always set latency at zero.

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