Guide: Optimal FFB settings for rFactor 2 - The key to being in the "Zone" :D

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by DrR1pper, Mar 26, 2014.

  1. GTClub_wajdi

    GTClub_wajdi Registered

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    Great post mate:) Personally I have started to use 0.75 in car specific multi-ffb about 3 months ago and that helped me a lot!
     
  2. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    Oh nice to see that we both came to the same value for the Menage with our own independent testing. :)
     
  3. Murtaya

    Murtaya Registered

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    The Menage? Freudian slip there mate :cool:

    Funny thing about the Menage and the new control settings is it went from my most favourite to my least favourite, I barely drive the Menage at all now, everything else just feels so much better.
     
  4. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    ^lol, Megane*
     
  5. rob1178

    rob1178 Registered

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    never previously touched or understood these settings, but the minimum setting thing (forget the name lol) has transformed my FFB. at low speed and low turn input, the feel is so different.

    thank you for posting this
     
  6. Denstjiro

    Denstjiro Registered

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    Thx allot for this detailed report Ripper, this should really go into the wiki section so it don't get buried away in time like lots of good info has.
     
  7. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    Thanks guys, as much benefit to me as to all (i hope).

    Well, if ISI is willing to sticky this thread Denstjiro (though it's not normal and i would understand if they wouldn't wish to) it would help keep it easy to find for new comers who arrive on the forum as time passes (or else it will likely drift into the old and previous pages with time).
     
  8. Rik

    Rik Registered

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    with F2 now is awesome. 60%overall 0.03000 and 0.75. some little clip but now i have more feeling of the car.
     
  9. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    Same settings as me (only i use 70% overall) and i too still get a tiny bit of clipping in the fastest corners but it's ok....at least the bulk of it is no longer there. :)

    I haven't tested back with 60% yet but i intend on doing so because i want to test the slightly higher 8% extra maximum ffb force from 70% vs 60% is actually noticeable or not. (For perhaps confused logitech user's out there....60% is the default for the t500 which represents the same as 100% overall effects strength in your Logitech profilers with 100% on the t500 = something like 150% on the Logitech's).

    Here's a graph of my tests with various overall levels so you can see what i mean (and for those who don't know why i was using 100% before despite the huge clipping of forces from 60%-100% from ingame....look at the initial deadzone amount for 100% overall vs the deadzone amount for the 60% overall, about 4x smaller with only a 2% deadzone vs 8% deadzone @ 60% overall.....but that's all in the past now that we have "steering torque minimum" at our disposal):

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2014
  10. Guimengo

    Guimengo Guest

    This is a great starting point to build a wheel/car config database. All of us with Fanatec GT3 v2s, CSWs, G25/27s, and T500s should chip in and post the values.
     
  11. Jamie Shorting

    Jamie Shorting Registered

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    Indeed.
     
  12. sn0man

    sn0man Registered

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    Very interesting and important thread guys... Just a noob question though, do I need to change the steering resistance type to friction? Or should I leave it on damping?


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
  13. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    I don't think so, i always leave everything else to do with steering control and ffb on default. In part because i don't know what they actually do (if anything at all) and when it comes to damping and spring i always use 0% in the t500/logitech profiler because these are artificial effects that are unrealistic when added from there. Any and all damping or spring effects that a driver receives from the steering column whether it be natural from the steering arm geometry, tyres, suspension, mechanical, hydraulic and/or electrical steering aids/configurations (etc) are specific to each car and if it's supposed to by there it will be modeled by ISI into each car in the simulation into the real-time physics engine that produces the dynamic ffb in rf2, rather than the static fashion in which it is overlayed by the profiler (for example). I know that isn't exactly the answer to your question but i would leave that on the default value.

    For me it is set to "0" (= use damping) by default.

    The only 2 settings i find myself wanting to tamper with are the "car-specific ffb multiplier" and the "steering torque minimum". The only reason i go into the controller.ini file is because "steering torque minimum" is a new feature to rf2 and is currently not included in the ingame controller settings UI (unlike iracing that did eventually included it into their ingame UI).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2014
  14. Comante

    Comante Registered

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    DrR1pper, you said that minimum torque must be set so that the wheel does not oscillate when the car is halted. BUT as we know that the standing car is prone to this "issue" (there is even a specific controller.ini line to dampen this "issue") and that the halted car does not need any "simulation" going on, it would not be better just to be sure that the wheel is "stable" at 1Km/h ? It could be a negligible difference, but in can matter a lot. For example, while for sure I have to refine things in my settings, following your advice, I would think that is when the car is moving that it matter, not when in box.
    I hope what I mean is more clear than how I wrote it.
     
  15. NaveenB

    NaveenB Registered

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    Thanks for this, it really explains how FFB works and how we can make it work better for us.
     
  16. Murtaya

    Murtaya Registered

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    To Sn0man (mainly)
    Or you can try it both ways and decide if you can feel any difference and which you prefer. It's been a while since I tried the default though so perhaps I will give damping another shot, I always felt friction gave me better feel of traction, like on a start with an F2 I "thought" it helped me not spin out. Your mileage may vary though. I also like to enable the brake, gearbox, and clutch effect the steering axis settings as well. The beauty is you can set it how you want, and experiment. What Dr1pper has done is kindly make a guide, you can and should experiment.
     
  17. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    Hey comante, yeah i understood what you said perfectly i think. :)

    Regarding the "But as we know that the standing car is prone to this "issue"", this has not been the case in my own experience in the last 2 years of using rfactor 2. The wheel has always been statically stable (when standing/stationary) and dynamically (when driving in a straight line) stable and with some amount of ffb deadzone in the resting position of the steering wheel. There are only 2 possible reasons that could explain (in my mind) why you are experiencing any standing oscillations in the first place. Either you have had the ffb multiplier set way too high (i don't know by how much but significantly higher than 1.0) or you have some amount of artificial spring dialed into your steering either via the rfactor 2 controller.ini file (i think there is an option to do this) or via your wheels profiler with the spring option or artificial spring centering option enabled.

    The reason i use the stationary/standing car position as the place to test for oscillation is because this is the situation whether we know for a fact that the wheel should be statically stable because the car is not in motion and net forces are definitely zero on the steering column. If you then start to drive the car, if the wheel starts to oscillate a little at a very slow speed (like the 1km/h example you gave) then yes you are absolutely right and you should reduce the deadzone down a little more but it should be no more than 0.1-0.2% in my own experience. But when the car goes faster, if the oscillations are not present in the wheel at slow speed then any amount induced by gently turning the turn side-to-side at higher speeds are just a natural result of the cars dynamics. Sorry, i was realising what you were saying as i was writing all that, lol. Makes sense....rolling resistence (at very low speed) has less resistence in the steering wheel vs when stationary, meaning if any oscillation/vibration still exists, the lowest speed situation is the last place it will be present.

    Thank you for pointing this out and i'll add it to the list of edits into the op. ;)
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2014
  18. Marc Collins

    Marc Collins Registered

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    It would be nice if several people could test this. I will do some more later, but so far, I can't tell the difference, so assume it isn't actually enabled (yet).
     
  19. Emery

    Emery Registered

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    I'm curious how you measure the torque at the steering wheel rim?
     
  20. DrR1pper

    DrR1pper Registered

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    Well i must confess that i don't take a direct means of measurement the absolute values of force/torque at the wheel rim so I instead use a tool that measures how much the wheel rim rotates by per 300ms of a unit step input of FFB. The tool i used was called "iracing force feedback test 1.71" which was made by someone for iracing users but it is applicable to any wheel independent of the sim you use.

    It's hidden on the iracing forums which requires a membership. I managed to download a copy for a small $5 membership just to get into their forums. I've uploaded a copy of it here: http://uploaded.net/file/2e784k4f

    To use it, plug in your wheel and then start up the "WheelCheck.exe" file. Expand the "Spring Force" drop down menu and select "Step Log 2 (linear force test)" and let it run it's course. Don't worry if you find the feel is only turning to the left....it's supposed to. Then go to your Documents folder and find the newly created csv file. "Force" values are the ffb input signals sent to the wheel (with 10,000 = 100% max force) and deltaXDeg represents the amount of rotation the wheel made after that 300ms unit step input of FFB. You can take the amount of rotation to represent some arbritrary unit of force output as well because force output and rotation amount should have a linear relationship. I usually just convert the force values and deltaXDeg values into percentages of the maximum values for each.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 26, 2014

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