Yesterday I got my Thrustmaster TX racing wheel that I’ve been saving up for. I did the updates, hooked it up, hopped into a favorite car, and immediately ran a 6 minute lap on a 1 minute track.
I spent about 4 hours last night using the wheel, trying different settings and so far the only thing I can use are my cars that have fantastic grip. If the car has ANY understeer, I can’t use it. The settings I’ve currently worked with are the DOR and Force Feedback/Rumble. I’ve even resorted to turning on ABS and STM but I still have issues.
I have the following issues that I’m hoping to get advice on:
- Once a car’s back end gets loose, I cannot recover and I can’t figure out what I should be doing to keep from spinning out.
- I can’t tell when I’m turning the wheel too hard (Causing the tires to completely lose grip while turning)
- Often the force feedback turns the car for me causing me to lose control
An example of it causing me to lose control:
- I’m driving down a straight stretch of road
- I go over a bump in the road (or rumble strip/go airborne/other event that causes force feedback)
- The steering wheel does the force feedback which moves it about 5-10 degrees
- The car reacts to the steering wheel change and starts to turn abruptly, the car’s weight shifts with it
- I correct it by steering in the opposite direction, causing the weight to shift in the opposite direction
- The force feedback reacts to the weight shift, applying force in the opposite direction causing the wheel to go about 5-10 degrees beyond where I wanted
- The car over corrects.
- Eventually I fishtail out of control. A small bump that was never an issue has now put me nose first into a wall.
I’m really hoping for some advice because right now this is not fun to use. I saw another post where someone said that I could expect 1-2 second slower lap times at least after you are used to using the wheel. I was really hoping for comparable lap times at worst (and really I was hoping for better…).
I’m giving this wheel a good solid try for the entire week hoping that its just me not being used to it, but if it doesn’t get significantly better I’m going to have to return it. Right now playing is a chore and a half.
Help?
Sounds like you have Sim Steering enabled. If that is so try going back to regular steering. Also, try using 540 or even 360 DoR to start with
Thanks for the suggestion. I’ve tried both settings, but have simulation currently off.
I’ve tried different DOR settings and currently the 3 light flash setting is my preferred due to decreased sensitivity (I think it’s 540?)
I’ve found that you have to use more grip tunes with the wheel especially rear wheel drive cars.
That alone has made the cars more controllable thus more playable with the wheel. So try increasing
Tire compound or width…
Hang in there, it can take a while to get used to the wheel.
I found it harder to begin with than I would have expected after using different wheels with previous Forzas and GTs. Now though, I’m totally enjoying the TX wheel with FM5.
My settings are deadzones at 0-100, Vibrations 80 and FFB 60.
DOR usually 720 for most of the cars, 540 with supercars (S and up), GT and other R-class or racing cars (old formulas and such). 360 with the Lotus F1, indy cars and Coyote.
With some cars FFB at 60 feels over powering mid-turn, but I don’t want to go through the settings menu every time I switch cars . For most I’ve found FFB at 60 to be a good balance between feelings the FFB effects but not having to fight the car when turning.
I haven’t found the sensitivity setting on the wheel to have much difference, usually I just leave it at default or one step less sensitive.
You need much larger corrective movements than you think and you need to be much quicker reacting and turning the wheel. Definitely start with normal steering first, before you start to feel how the FFB works. I find the vibration at 80 pretty good at telling how much grip I got or when nearing the limits of traction.
Don’t let the FFB turn the wheel too much for you. You need to turn against it so maybe hold the wheel rim more firmly and start to turn when you feel the wheel starting to push to either direction. Start with slower speeds to get a feel for how the FFB reacts to different situations and you’ll start to notice how you should be trying to counter-steer.
In FH2 I’m just using the default settings. Those seem to work great. Even DOR at 900, the cars feel properly different.
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Sounds like you’re just not used to using the wheel. It takes some time to get the hang of it, especially correcting after the car loses grip. That’s the biggest difference from using the controller to the wheel. On a controller, all you have to do to correct for oversteer/ understeer is flick the stick. With a wheel, it’s harder to judge how much correction you need without over correcting. Just keep practicing and you’ll get the hang of it. Also, besides the DOR and deadzone settings in the game, there is also a sensitivity setting for the wheel. There are four settings that range from normal to minimum based on what DOR you are running. I’ll post a link to the Thrustmaster page that tells you how to change the sensitivity. Other than that, just keep practicing and you’ll get it. It’s a lot of fun once you get the hang of it.
It took me some time to get a feel for it, but I wouldn’t go back to a gamepad now. Maybe try turning the force feedback down a little at first? I set mine at around 50% until I got used to it, and now have it set at 65% in FH2 and 85% in Forza 5. 540 D.O.R. is a good baseline, but I use lower with some race cars. (If the in-game steering wheel doesn’t closely match the TX wheel movement, it’s probably a good indication that the D.O.R. needs to be adjusted)
Thanks for all the replies!
I found that setting dead zones, getting the DOR that fits my style, and figuring out how to correct for oversteer was important. Also, it was a change in understanding what the rumble was telling you: with a controller the trigger rumbling tells you exactly what the tires are doing in response to gas/brake. With a wheel you lose that, BUT now you get rumble feedback that tells you exactly what the tires are doing in response to your steering.
In the end, I decided that for me the value-add of the wheel combined with the learning curve, physical exertion (over my sometimes 4+ hour play times) and cumbersome setup/tear down to keep the wife from yelling at me the next day just wasn’t worth the price. I’ve returned it for a refund.
There is a lot of great advice in these replies, so I’m hoping that others who need help setting up their wheels find your information useful!
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