I can get a great feeling with properly configured non-realfeel rf1 ffb. I also have to always make sure to include regular RF1 FFB whenever I use realfeel in Game Stock Car, Historx, and pretty much anything built around realfeal. The added regular RF1 FFB, rather than just 100% realfeel, gives me more feel regarding things like, but not limited to, the following: - small different slip percentages of my front wheels as im turning in applying more lock - as im holding the car in a steady state of slip mid corner - under hard threshold braking - under the "releasing the brake as im asking more and more of my total grip to go into turning rather than braking" phase These are all EXTREMELY crucial to not only pure laptime but consistency as well. I can feel what the car needs/wants in terms of technique, and possibly setup as well, and what i'm doing wrong, much more clearly and defined with non-realfeel ffb, but it really depends on the settings of all the different lines of the FFB section. Realfeel does give a more springy, life like, feeling though, it will feel more natural and better to most, it also acts more naturally and fluidly as the wheel loads up and with regards to the rear end sliding around, it's actually bloody beautiful in the rear end sliding, not only with small slides, but big drifts as well. Once I got used to the original non-realfeel FFB and learned how to take advantage of all the extra info from it, especially when configured to my liking, I found I could never get those last few tenths without it. The 100% realfeel/0% regular RF1 FFB just doesnt give me all the tiny dynamics that are so crucial to racing these cars (in reallife or sims) on the limit without going over, let alone doing it lap after lap. The regular style FFB also makes it more obvious what the car needs from me as you can set it up to be less subtle just like you would get from g-forces, inner ear balance and chassis/"seat of the pants" feelings in real life. You have to have the FFB setup properly though and get used to the fact that the wheel's feel of pure naturalism is going to be compromised in order to output much more information about the car, much more details, but again, at the loss of a nice, natural, realistic feeling (this loss can be minimized though depending on your settings). Then when, OR IF, you can get used to the FFB and learn to drive and read/accept the wheel as a tool to transmit information about the car to you, rather than just a replication of a real life steering wheel, then you may understand the power it is capable of. But if you don't try to configure and get used to the language the wheel speaks to you in this FFB, then you may never grasp, and therefore use, the true power of this FFB philosophy.
For me the biggest problem with the default FFB is the lack of self aligning forces. In a real car when the rear is sliding the front wheels try to turn into the slide. This is massively masked by power steering but it is there. RealFeel does this very well. RealFeel exaggerates this self aligning torque vs a real car with power steering but as you said we need to compromise all out realism sometimes. The default FFB sort of just raises and lowers centering forces but doesn't really self align. One thing that is missing from pure RealFeel is canned rumble strips. With pure RealFeel you only feel curbs if they are 3D. Luckily most good tracks have 3D curbs. The canned FFB gives you rumble strip effects any time the car goes over a surface that is tagged as a curb in the TDF even if the curb is totally flat in the 3D model. Like you said it all really comes down to learning how to interpret the forces and train your brain how to relate it to your real life experience. This is why I don't fully take real drivers opinions as the bible. Sim racing will never "feel" like real racing. But the way the car reacts to inputs is really damn accurate. The "feel" part comes with time. Personally the best opinions come from real racers who are also serious simracers. Not just guys you pull off the track and say, hey sit in this thing and tell me what you think. They will always tell you it lacks grip. We need advice from people like Tommy Milner, Sean Edwards (RIP) and Bryan Heitkotter to name a few. I am not talking about paid marketing stunts like Tommy did for SMS for NFS:Sh*t but behind the scenes stuff that is unbiased. Tommy worked with ISI way back in the day on the Panoz and the FBMWs. Sean was known for helping out on Porsches too. Bryan seems to be paid by Sony to pretend he plays GT5 and keep his time in rF a big secret.
Thats was a tool to Leoffb which save settings for each car (some of then loading tires data included on mods - most important to me it was which give me slip angles of each car/tire) and you can made a mix with real feel and leo plugin. (like 50%-50%, 60-40, 90-10...). Which i think Niels and if im not mistake , Techade, was taking some parameters of Leoplugin and mix with real feel in just one plugin.
Renato also played a big role in the vehicle handling of GSC. You know the fantastic CARTfactor mod? He was involved in it. I'd say beyond the realfeel parameters, it's that the game portrays correctly the attributes from real life cars in the virtual world. The v1.1 update improved it even more by coming across that inertia bit discovery.
Link for more info? P.S. Renato Simioni is an RFactor legend, I'm pretty sure he was one of the main guys behind the GP79 mod.
