Setup your force feedback like a pro!

The force feedback is your major sensory cue in the simulator: it is your connection to your car. Since you do not have the feeling of rotation through the vestibular system (i.e. the butt feeling), the only feedback you have is your wheel.

Strength (Wheel Force)

A lot of drivers have different opinions concerning how strong your force feedback should be. What I can tell you from experience is you don't want it too strong, but it still should be on the heavy side. 

Yes, most of the cars in real-life will have power steering. But in the sim, our body doesn't help us understand how is the car moving, it's coming from the steering and our vision. This is why I tend to use a slightly heavier steering to make sure I get all the necessary feedback from the car.

I've made the test with a few drivers that I was coaching. On purpose, I slightly increased the strength of their wheelbase and they were much better at controlling understeer & oversteer. Try it out yourself and let me know!

Wheelbase Software Strength

The answer is pretty easy. Leave it at 100% all the time. No matter how strong is your wheelbase, you want to ouput as much strength as possible from the software and control the ouput directly from the simulator. 

If you own a Simucube, search for Advanced Motorsports, we have created some amazing profiles! 

In-Game Strength

Now all the Direct Drive owners are probably wondering that the FFB will be way too strong with 100% output, but don't worry, I got you! The last step will be to tune down the FFB to our liking in-game. You should see a setting called "Strength" or "Gain".

For high output DD wheels, I would start around 50%. With less powerful wheelbases, I would start at 75%. 

Example of the in-game strength for the Porsche Cup in iRacing 

What about Assetto Corsa Competizione

The only exception to this rule is when driving on Assetto Corsa Competizione. For some reason, the FFB is much better when you set the gain in game at 62% and you control the strength inside your wheelbase software.

Wheelbase Clipping

One thing to keep in mind when choosing the right strength, is to make sure the wheelbase is not clipping. This happens most of the time on entry level systems. 

What happens is that the game is trying to send a signal, but the wheelbase is overloaded and can't add anymore force to the wheel. When this is happening, you loose a lot of details and feedback when cornering.

Almost every sim has an overlay that tells you if the wheelbase is clipping, so if you see that graph getting to 100% all the time, your wheelbase is most likely set too high.

What you need to do is lower the strength slightly until it doesn't clip as much.  

Force FFB meter in iRacing.

Steering Range

In your wheelbase software, this setting should be set to 1080 or 900 degrees if you mostly drive on road courses.

In-game, you will have to calibrate your wheel. Usually they ask you to steer to the left & to the right.

Once this is done, the simulator will automatically change the steering range to match the car you are currently driving.

If everything has been correctly set, your physical wheel should match the in-game wheel rotation.

Filters

I've been testing different settings in the last 5 years, so this is what I would recommand. I love when the wheel feels smooth (just like having power steering) but has a bit more punch to it so I get more feedback from the game. Depending on your wheelbase, the name of the settings might change, but they will most likely achieve the same effects.

Damping 

I would suggest to try and keep this setting to the lowest possible (not 0%). Too much of this will make the steering hard, but you will lose a lot of details. With too little damping, the wheel will probably shake when driving in a straight line.

"Damping is a torque effect which is relatively to the speed of the torque command change rate. It dampens fast torque effects that are the result of the FFB updates from the simulator. The faster torque effect changes, the more torque is generated to resist this motion. This effect is useful, as simulators do not always model tire deformations and car suspensions in a way that includes all dampening features, such as rubber bushings. This is realistic for some simulator&car combinations. Adding Damping and Friction is a good way to give realistic weight to the wheel and reduce oscillatory behavior."

Simucube User Manual

Friction

"Friction is a constant torque that adds resistance to the wheel movement. Wheel will become more difficult to turn with this effect. This is realistic for some simulator&car combinations. This effect can be used combination with Damping to make the wheel more stable if there is a tendency for oscillation."

Simucube User Manual

 

Inertia

"Inertia effect is used to give the wheel more weight. The effect resist any attempts to change the current rotation speed of the wheel, and can get be helpful to make the wheel more realistic especially if very light steering wheel is used."

Simucube User Manual

 

Static Force Reduction

"This effect reduces force in long corners, while at the same time, letting the sharp details from kerbs and the road surface through to the wheel. This is useful when the Driver wants to feel every detail with full strength torque effects but does not want to fight against the wheel constantly."

Simucube User Manual

 

Conclusion

I will say it again, these are the settings I feel are the best to get the most out of the car & also give enough cues to make the correct adjustements when driving. At the end of the day, it's a matter of personnal preference. If you don't like them, feel free to try different filters and see what feels best for you and the car you are driving.

If you own a Simucube wheelbase, which I think are the best wheelbases on the market right now, we have created some profiles for you! Search for "Advanced Motorsports" in the True Drive software.

Written by Phil Bouchard | Founder & Coach