Excessive FFB Wheel vibration in off-road racing

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Edit 2: Hmm still think non-tarmac has too heavy feedback. Even with the deadzone 20 setting… tarmac should be responsive with strong FFB (like it’s possible to get with removing damper, and putting outer deadzone to 20… or just by putting lot of minimum force and removing spring/damper totally) but it shouldn’t mean gravel roads become unpleasant to drive, and very shaky

Please fix.

Using simulation mode, all assists off. Thrustmaster T500, 900 degrees rotation.

I can get FFB feeling very good on asphalt, by removing Damper… Removing Damper is the only way to make the cars responsive on tarmac driving. But then FFB will go crazy in gravel and cross-country races. Way too violent and shaky, because the Damper is off.

There is no point in adding constant DAMPER into a force feedback! Have the developers ever played any real simulator like Assetto Corsa? There absolutely NO damper in the FFB of Assetto Corsa, it would be insane. Or any other proper simulators.

Consumer level wheels have so much internal resistance and slow low-powered motors already, making them sluggish by nature (compared to Direct Drive wheels) that it makes ABSOLUTELY no sense to add Damper on top of it! If you put Damper at 0, and overall FFB volume high enough, you can get FH4 feel great and responsive on tarmac. But then FFB goes too shaky, when you go to gravel or offroad. To the point of being unpleasant and plain annoying to drive. And if you put Damper, yes it cures the gravel/offroad shake issue, but then Tarmac will feel sluggish and dead.

And since the game is a lots about driving outside of main roads, it shouldn’t be like this. Add separate level for offroad/gravel road noise, or just tweak something. Damper should never be required to use, it kills all tarmac responsiveness that these cheap wheels like T500 can offer.

Wheel should NEVER be dampened, when tyres of the car are rolling. Yes it should feel firm/strong, IF front wheels have good grip, but that firmness should come purely from forces in physics! And it should be very nuanced in center, and sensitive to changes, not necessarily constantly hard to turn. Like it is in FH4 on tarmac, if you disable Damper.

But if you disable Damper, wheel goes nuts when exiting tarmac.

These consumer level wheels do damping by their nature (weak motor that can’t turn fast enough, compared to real car wheel when control is lost) enough already.

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There is something other weird stuff going on with the FFB. If you turn the damper to 0, it’s very noticeable.

The wheel goes loose/limp/overly light randomly, and then gets much better/firmer/reponsive, in totally random way. All this while driving same car, in same conditions, same surface (tarmac), similar speeds, similar turns and straights.

It goes loose/light, and few moments later you get very responsive center feel, then it’s gone again and wheel becomes overly light/lacking center feel, then it gets responsive again, then overly light again… rinse and repeat

The FFB is going totally haywire “under the hood”, on it’s own. There is definitely something bugged with FFB, needs fixing. If you use Damper, maybe you don’t notice it because Damper kills all the detail anyway.

With Damper at 0 (and at the moments when the FFB doesn’t randomly go light) this game can feel lot like “real simulators” such as Assetto Corsa. Just more grip, but the handling/weight transfer feel on tarmac is very similar.

But you need to fix this random loosening of the wheel + the offroad spiky feedback. Sand/gravel isn’t spiky, if anything it means less grip and softer uneven feel. Not spiky jolts, the road irregularities should have more rounded and gradual feel, cars have suspension you know. Current FFB spikes on gravel (without Damper, which is the only way to get responsive wheel) feels like driving a Karting car (no suspension) and hitting big rocks

Trust me, I have thousands of hours in most hardcore PC simulators. Assetto Corsa, rFactor, iRacing type stuff. I know how FFB should feel like. At times, FH4 reaches great FFB. But the mentioned problems must be fixed