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

What does FFB minimum torque mean?
This appears in garage in 982.

 

David, if the specific cars "nominal max torque" is still greater than your max torque setting ("steering torque capability" setting) then it won't affect how the ffb will feel. As far as I know, the lowest nominal max torques for some cars are in the 10-15Nm range.

 

It literally sets the minimum torque percentage for FFB output. For lower force wheels or those with a sort of deadzone around centre (like the common G27 and similar) it can help add some feel back in by increasing the minimum force that's produced.

But if you set it too high the wheel will tend to oscillate, and you'll feel the 'switch' down straights and stuff. Try 4% for starters.

 

Oh nice! so we're finally able to set it whilst ingame?

Basically, it's a way to minimise any initial ffb deadzone you may have with you ffb wheel. For example, say up to 5% of max ffb output from the sim cannot be felt through your ffb wheel. The solution is to rescale all the forces to ensure that 0-5% from the sim physics can be felt through your ffb wheel. You do this by setting 0% from the sim physics to equate to 5% ffb output from your ffb wheel. This way, 0-100% ffb from the sim physics equates to 5-100% on your ffb wheel, skipping the otherwise unfeelable 0-5% output from your ffb wheel.

 

Ok, thank you,but I leave on 0% with my T500.

 

Sorry Lazza, didn't realise you posted the answer before me.

For me, think i used 3% or 4% for my t500. Tweaked with +/-0.1% to fine tune it. Those small fine tunings to narrow down on the exact ideal value was noticeable to me.

 

DrR. Would a car with a lower nominal max torque but a lower FFB multi feel absolutely identical to the same car with a higher nominal max torque and a higher FFB multi? So basically the nominal max torque is just a pre-set of how much force the FFB multi at 100% is? Or is there more to the nominal max torque then that?

P.S. Assume that the wheel at use is a "weak" wheel so as to keep STC (steering torque capability) and a very high strength wheel (e.g. servo) out of the equation for simplicity's sake. Thanks

 

To first question, yes. So if you halve the (car-specific) nominal max steering torque and then halve the ffb multi, it will have the same perceived result on ffb.

So if for example, nominal was 20Nm and ffb multi was 1.0, then 20Nm of virtual steering wheel torque = 100% ffb output. Now if you halve the nominal to 10Nm and halve the ffb multi to 0.5, then when the same virtual steering wheel torque of 20Nm occurs it is first multiplied by the ffb multi of 0.5 which gives us 10Nm = the new halved nominal max of 10Nm = 100% ffb output again.

Ofc if your STC value is greater than the car-specific nominal, then the physics/ffb engine will automatically use your STC value instead of the car-specific nominal max torque value when computing the ffb output.

So the rule of thumb with the STC is to use the correct value for your wheel (but if you have a CSWv2 or lesser ffb wheel, you need not bother changing it). But if your wheel is powerful enough that your wheels correct STC is greater than the car-specific nominal for some cars, then great. You can achieve 1:1 torque reproduction by using the correct STC value for your wheel but make sure you also use the default ffb multi of 1.0 or else it won't be 1:1 scaled.

So if you own a 20Nm OSW wheel for example and you don't set the correct STC for your wheel, the game will use the car-specific nominal max steering toque value to correspond with 100% torque output from your ffb wheel (i.e. in this case 20Nm). For cars like indy-car where the max steering torque is (i think) in the 40+Nm range then 40Nm of virtual steering torque will produce 20Nm output on your ffb wheel and that's fine/good. But for something like the skippy where the car-specific nominal is (i think around) 13Nm, when the virtual steering wheel hits 13Nm, you will get 20Nm output from your OSW wheel.

To complicate things further, you could in fact rectify this issue by lowering the ffb multiplier in this hypothetical example to exactly 0.65 (=13/20) which will have the same effect as raising the car-specific nominal max torque to 20Nm and/or raising the STC to the 20Nm value of your wheel. But it's messy....far better to just set the correct STC value for your wheel and be done with it. If you found this last paragraph confusing, just blank it from your memory. Not important. Just an insight into how the different functions/settings can be manipulated to achieve the same result.

For 95+% of users the above is of no consequence/relevancy because they don't have high enough torque ffb wheels.

 

I actually edited my post to be more direct to 'your' G27.. you might want to update your wheel on your system specs

 

Worse... the Skip is 9.5Nm.

 

Ah yes, even worse. Thanks

 

what is the car-specific nominal max steering torque?

 

For what it's worth, on a CSW, I have returned to default "0" for "FFB Minimum Torque" (now conveniently in UI) after updating to firmware 95/driver 219. Anything above 0 results in a fidelity loss. Most noticeable with the karts, but the same for any car. I had been using some minimum torque for quite a while.

I do have to using some smoothing, though, or at otherwise all default settings the FFB is too harsh over sawtooth curbs and the like.

Not trying to start a discussion--just for others who have this wheel to test for their pleasure/comparison if they are not at 0 now.

 

It's a setting found within a file for each car that the modder of that car has set. The games ffb engine uses it to determine what the maximum virtual steering wheel torque should equate to 100%ffb output. So if it's set to 30Nm, then when you hit 30Nm of virtual steering wheel torque you will receive 100% ffb output from your ffb wheel.

However the above is assuming you have the ingame controller menu car-specific ffb multiplier set to the default value of 1.0. Otherwise increasing the ffb multiplier has the same effect as lowering the car-specific nominal max steering torque (i.e. 100% ffb output occurs with less virtual torque) and vice-versa when lowering it.

There is a third setting that can interfer with this arrangement if tampered with that is called the steering torque capability setting in the controller.json file. It's basically a setting that will override the value found in the car-specific nominal max steering torque value if it's bigger than the nominal value. The reason for this setting existing is if you had a high torque wheel like the OSW 20Nm as example and you drive the skip barber which has a nominal torque of just under 10, if you don't set the correct steering torque capability value for your wheel and instead leave it at default (which is 2.5Nm) then the game will use the car-specific nominal of 10Nm virtual steering wheel torque to equate with 100% ffb output which will result in 20Nm from your OSW wheel. Which is twice as strong as it should be for 1:1 torque reproduction. Ofc, if you enjoy and/or do not care that you're over amplifying the ffb, that's fine...your choice.

 

Do you have a CSW V1 or V2 and which settings do you use in the tuning menu and which Rim do you use? Maybe your tuning menu was reset?

With the V2 (and in the past with the V1) I use no FFB smoothing as it kills detail and curb running is not so bad for me. I have used no minimum force, but I guess you can run 2 to 4% on a V1 and around 1 or 2 on a V2.

In the tuning menu FF 100 and FOR 100 everything else on off. On the V2 I use drift mode on 3 which equals drift mode off in the V1.

I heard a few problems in the V2 with the latest driver and firmware so I am still using the previous version. You can downgrade the driver and firmware as well in case you are not happy.

 

Maybe a dumb question...when i checked my Wheel with the WheelCheck and the Result for min Force is 15%, i have to set the minimum torque percentage ("Steering torque minimum"/controller.json) to 0.15, wich would be into the Ingame Settings 15%, too?

 

How do you exactly find out the min. torque. I have wheelcheck, but cant see a result only that csv file where I am not sure how to interpret that.

 

With the new build you can also set it in-game, yes. 15% would indeed be 0.15 but that value seems quite high...

 

Is that with a g25? Sounds like it.

So even though the wheelcheck test reported a 15% deadzone for you, in practice setting that amount in rf2 is usually too high. At least it was in my case with my T500. Wheelcheck reported a 6-8% initial deadzone but using that amount for my min toque in rf2 would cause a lot of vibration/oscillation. I believe the reason is that the wheelcheck test measures deadzone by testing each force amount from a starting stationary position which means the force must overcome static friction which is always larger than rolling friction (i.e. the friction when in motion). But ingame you're almost always in a situation where the the wheel has some non-zero amount of motion, thus rolling friction is at play. Rolling friction is less than static friction and so it's a plausible explanation as to why the amount of deadzone correction you need in game less than the amount measured by the wheelcheck program.

So in summary, I would use the reported value as a starting point and gradually reduce it until you no longer experience vibrations and/or oscillations in your ffb wheel. Then try to fine tune the right amount to however precise you like.

edit: In fact i think there is a min force test function in the wheelcheck.exe program that'll tell you the correct deadzone amount for your wheel when rolling friction is at play. I just remembered it now when i first used the wheelcheck program and was familiarising myself with it and saw a min force test and it produced around 3% result for my wheel which matches with what i found worked best by manually testing different values in rf2. Either way, it's pretty easy to just test and find the right value for your wheel ingame and without the wheelcheck program, now more than ever with the newly included min force function ingame rather than having to quit and reload the game with each change to the value in the json file like we had to in the past.

 

You'd need to make a graph. But as i mentioned in my last post, there should be a min force test function that you can perform to check.